Vegetable cleaver

eric brinkerhoff

eric brinkerhoff

Joined
Mar 10, 2013
Messages
1,074
I would like to make a vegetable cleaver out of carbon steel with a ridiculous hamon. I'm thinking of going with 3/32 1095 and I'm wondering if I should have it heat treated first and grind it after hardening. I normally don't do much post heat treat grinding so I'm kind of scared. The dimensions will be approximately 4 in tall by 7 in Long blade with a full Tang and stabilized wood handles. Also I would like to hear any design input at all thank you
 
The thickness and steel choice sound good.
I have heard that it is easier to get a good hamon if you do much of the grind first (not just a rectangular bar).
You could leave the edge at 0.04-0.05" before HT and then finish (probably ending with convex) after.
 
Richard has pretty much the same grinding advice I would give. Pre-bevel only to a fairly thick edge, as he suggested. Make all edges rounded and finish to 400 grit.

W-2 might do better for the hamon, and Hitachi white would be best. 26C3 also does very well, and would be my choice for you to try. The HT is where it will work or fail, so read up on making a hamon in these steels. Use a slightly lower target temp, a fast quenchant (Parks #50) and temper at 375° to 400°F for a very hard and sharp blade. Post-HT grinding should be done carefully, and preferably with a mist coolant system. Develop and bring out the hamon using a hybrid polish method. The custom search engine will find many threads on getting a good hamon and hybrid polishing.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Richard has pretty much the same grinding advice I would give. Pre-bevel only to a fairly thick edge, as he suggested. Make all edges rounded and finish to 400 grit.

W-2 might do better for the hamon, and Hitachi white would be best. 26C3 also does very well, and would be my choice for you to try. The HT is where it will work or fail, so read up on making a hamon in these steels. Use a slightly lower target temp, a fast quenchant (Parks #50) and temper at 375° to 400°F for a very hard and sharp blade. Post-HT grinding should be done carefully, and preferably with a mist coolant system. Develop and bring out the hamon using a hybrid polish method. The custom search engine will find many threads on getting a good hamon and hybrid polishing.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for the replies thus far. I will most likely be having Peter's do the heat treat . I am glad to hear that I can do some grinding before heat treat. In that case I will probably bring the blade to a near mirror polish before sending away for heat treat. On some of my thicker knives I grind to a very thin edge and have never had any problems with warpage or a bacon edge from Peters. My main fear is a bacon edge. I will look into 26 c3 and see if I can find pieces suitable for this cleaver. As far as the hamon, wish me luck!
 
Whoa, you won't get a hamon sending it to Peters.
I send most of my stuff there, but it will just be done uniformly.
When I did a couple tanto with hamon, I begged a maker here to do it for me with the clay and oil quench.
 
Excellent, yes I send him most of my stuff and he has done some special requests for some of my damascus pieces, but I had never heard about him doing hamon/clay.
This fits nicely with my plans for a couple new projects.
 
Maybe I haven't seen the right images, but I haven't seen a "ridiculous hamon" from Peters. The ones I have seen are basic suguha.

I almost hate to post this because it will open up the can of worms again, but, what I did not like seeing on my blades was the torch mark from straightening. I used to send blades to them 50 to 100 at a a time, but not anymore. There are many threads on this issue.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Maybe I haven't seen the right images, but I haven't seen a "ridiculous hamon" from Peters. The ones I have seen are basic suguha.

I almost hate to post this because it will open up the can of worms again, but, what I did not like seeing on my blades was the torch mark from straightening. I used to send blades to them 50 to 100 at a a time, but not anymore. There are many threads on this issue.
Click to expand...
I haven't seen the dreaded torch marks in quite some time. If I'm worried about the piece I will specify a cycle of stress relief.
 
I'd rather see torch marks and have a perfectly straight blade.. anyway, how about some design input... I'm happy to hear some of that.
 
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