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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
WooHoo! My 2020 Summer Kitchen KITH Knife Arrived!
- Thread starter Willie71
- Start date
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
Moderator
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2004
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- 37,989
I un-stickyed the KITH thread and stickyed this one.
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2018
- Messages
- 403
Got my knife last night, wife used it to make pico de gallo this morning. She said it feels good in her hand, very sharp, and cut tomatoes very easily. I used it out back on the BBQ last night. Perfect for cutting pork belly. It's already developing a nice patina. I usually play with my knives for a little while and put them in the safe, and take them out every once in a while and play with them again. This one will definitely get a lot of use with me getting a lot of grill duty. Its really light and feels good in my hand. It has the machine finish which I like too.
So a couple things I would watch. The pins are close to the edge of the handle, which I don't think are a problem, but I've had people tell me be careful with. On the bottom of the handle, on the finger groove, there's a little epoxy on the steel, maybe hand sand that part?
Overall happy with my new knife, and look forward to cutting a lot of smoked meat with it for years to come.
Oh, almost forgot, I like the blade protector. I like it has your info on it, and the blade info too. I do the same sometimes too. I had a lady on etsy make me a stamp with my logo, I'll post a pic of it later.
Thank you very much sir.
Sorry, forgot to mention this carving knife was made by T TheEdge01
Thank you, I’m very glad you like it and are already putting it to work.
Got my knife last night, wife used it to make pico de gallo this morning. She said it feels good in her hand, very sharp, and cut tomatoes very easily. I used it out back on the BBQ last night. Perfect for cutting pork belly. It's already developing a nice patina. I usually play with my knives for a little while and put them in the safe, and take them out every once in a while and play with them again. This one will definitely get a lot of use with me getting a lot of grill duty. Its really light and feels good in my hand. It has the machine finish which I like too.
So a couple things I would watch. The pins are close to the edge of the handle, which I don't think are a problem, but I've had people tell me be careful with. On the bottom of the handle, on the finger groove, there's a little epoxy on the steel, maybe hand sand that part?
Overall happy with my new knife, and look forward to cutting a lot of smoked meat with it for years to come.
Oh, almost forgot, I like the blade protector. I like it has your info on it, and the blade info too. I do the same sometimes too. I had a lady on etsy make me a stamp with my logo, I'll post a pic of it later.
Thank you very much sir.
Sorry, forgot to mention this carving knife was made by T TheEdge01
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2018
- Messages
- 403
The stamp I was talking about
That is nice! As you could probably tell, I currently use an engraver. I’m not entirely pleased with the results, but I figured it would get me by until I can upgrade. I will definitely check those out. Thanks again!
The stamp I was talking about
I’m sorry, I should’ve asked, do you have her contact information?
The stamp I was talking about
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2018
- Messages
- 403
Check out Riley Print on etsy
I’ll do that, I really appreciate it.
This ended up being a considerably longer writeup than I anticipated. Please skip to the bottom if you just want to look at the photos of this gorgeous knife!
My first impressions are that this is a pretty little knife, somewhere between a utility knife and a santoku. The blade is just under 150mm long and 48mm tall. I don’t typically use a knife this short so it’s been interesting getting used to it. The height at the heel is excellent, keeping my large fingers off of the board very successfully. I’ve switched from my normal pinch grip on the blade to what I’ll describe as a pinch grip but with the pinch on the taper of the ferrule. This moves the blade farther forward and makes it easier for me to transition from the 220mm gyuto I use most of the time. The blade is about 0.070” thick at the tang which I think is about right for a knife this size, matching my preference for knives on the thinner side of the spectrum. The thickness behind the edge varies a little along the length of the blade, starting at around 0.011” at the heel, dropping to around 0.006” at the middle, and rising again to about 0.010” at the tip. My one critique just from handling and measuring the knife is that I’d have liked it to be a bit thinner behind the edge. I’m sure that there are many with differing opinions, but I prefer a general use kitchen knife to be extremely thin behind the edge for minimal resistance and wedging when cutting food. (I don’t rock chop so edge durability of the front third of a knife with thin geometry is not an issue for me.) The handle is a beautiful piece of burl with a brass spacer and a very dark wood (ebony of some kind?) ferrule. The balance of the knife is about 2mm behind the start of the handle, a very comfortable location for a knife of this size.
I gave the knife a bit of exercise this afternoon. I made a batch of a lentil dish that required about a pound each of sweet onion, celery, and carrot finely chopped. The edge was quite keen and bit into the onion very cleanly. The knife is a little thicker behind the edge towards the tip so it didn’t cut as well as I’d like when using just the front two inches of the blade to slice the onions perpendicularly. When I went to chop across the onion with the middle portion of the blade it cut wonderfully, very smooth with little force required. The onions stuck to the blade quite tenaciously which isn’t a surprise given the very subtle convexity given by what appears to be a two-facet bevel with the transition being at roughly half height. When I switched over to celery it suited that task much better. I started by push-chopping through a half dozen pieces at a time and soon switched to tap chopping. It was great at that. It took minimal effort and was easy to keep up a good cadence. The carrots were maybe the weakest performance. The blade is just a little too thick behind the edge so it took a bit more force to get through thicker carrots, especially when I was cutting three or four at a time. I switched back to my personal favorite knife for chopping carrots, a very thin nakiri with an s-grind relief on the right side of the blade, to provide a direct comparison and found that it, at a similar level of sharpness, took less effort and produced less wedging in the carrot due to its near zero thickness behind the edge. That being said, this knife will be a lot more durable than my rather delicate nakiri when chopping aggressively or cutting through larger, tougher foods.
The summary of my first impressions are that it’s a great little handy knife, a bit smaller than I normally use for general prep work, and a little thicker behind the edge than I’d prefer, but is very enjoyable to use.
I do have a couple of questions, if you’re willing to share the answers to them:
1. How did you sharpen the blade?
2. What is the finishing procedure you used on the handle?
3. How hard is the steel heat treated to? (If you know)
Here are some photos I took before I started using it:
My first impressions are that this is a pretty little knife, somewhere between a utility knife and a santoku. The blade is just under 150mm long and 48mm tall. I don’t typically use a knife this short so it’s been interesting getting used to it. The height at the heel is excellent, keeping my large fingers off of the board very successfully. I’ve switched from my normal pinch grip on the blade to what I’ll describe as a pinch grip but with the pinch on the taper of the ferrule. This moves the blade farther forward and makes it easier for me to transition from the 220mm gyuto I use most of the time. The blade is about 0.070” thick at the tang which I think is about right for a knife this size, matching my preference for knives on the thinner side of the spectrum. The thickness behind the edge varies a little along the length of the blade, starting at around 0.011” at the heel, dropping to around 0.006” at the middle, and rising again to about 0.010” at the tip. My one critique just from handling and measuring the knife is that I’d have liked it to be a bit thinner behind the edge. I’m sure that there are many with differing opinions, but I prefer a general use kitchen knife to be extremely thin behind the edge for minimal resistance and wedging when cutting food. (I don’t rock chop so edge durability of the front third of a knife with thin geometry is not an issue for me.) The handle is a beautiful piece of burl with a brass spacer and a very dark wood (ebony of some kind?) ferrule. The balance of the knife is about 2mm behind the start of the handle, a very comfortable location for a knife of this size.
I gave the knife a bit of exercise this afternoon. I made a batch of a lentil dish that required about a pound each of sweet onion, celery, and carrot finely chopped. The edge was quite keen and bit into the onion very cleanly. The knife is a little thicker behind the edge towards the tip so it didn’t cut as well as I’d like when using just the front two inches of the blade to slice the onions perpendicularly. When I went to chop across the onion with the middle portion of the blade it cut wonderfully, very smooth with little force required. The onions stuck to the blade quite tenaciously which isn’t a surprise given the very subtle convexity given by what appears to be a two-facet bevel with the transition being at roughly half height. When I switched over to celery it suited that task much better. I started by push-chopping through a half dozen pieces at a time and soon switched to tap chopping. It was great at that. It took minimal effort and was easy to keep up a good cadence. The carrots were maybe the weakest performance. The blade is just a little too thick behind the edge so it took a bit more force to get through thicker carrots, especially when I was cutting three or four at a time. I switched back to my personal favorite knife for chopping carrots, a very thin nakiri with an s-grind relief on the right side of the blade, to provide a direct comparison and found that it, at a similar level of sharpness, took less effort and produced less wedging in the carrot due to its near zero thickness behind the edge. That being said, this knife will be a lot more durable than my rather delicate nakiri when chopping aggressively or cutting through larger, tougher foods.
The summary of my first impressions are that it’s a great little handy knife, a bit smaller than I normally use for general prep work, and a little thicker behind the edge than I’d prefer, but is very enjoyable to use.
I do have a couple of questions, if you’re willing to share the answers to them:
1. How did you sharpen the blade?
2. What is the finishing procedure you used on the handle?
3. How hard is the steel heat treated to? (If you know)
Here are some photos I took before I started using it:
Thanks for the feedback Callum.
The dark wood is Wenge, stabilized by K&G. The box elder is cactus juice stabilized. I shape the handle on a disc grinder, then hand sanded up to 800, using Tried&True Danish Oil.
It’s is 15n20 HT at RC62 by Willie71.
I finished blade with Norax X100 ceramic (150 grit) Then scotchbright blue.
This one of my first belt grinder sharpened blades. Norax X30.
As you noticed I am still having some issues getting a consistent grind. I was scared to even the edge thickness anymore for fear of burning through the thinnest part. The slight convex come in when I am lengthwise grinding, thinning the cutting edge.
Great to hear that you like it!
I appreciate your feedback.
The dark wood is Wenge, stabilized by K&G. The box elder is cactus juice stabilized. I shape the handle on a disc grinder, then hand sanded up to 800, using Tried&True Danish Oil.
It’s is 15n20 HT at RC62 by Willie71.
I finished blade with Norax X100 ceramic (150 grit) Then scotchbright blue.
This one of my first belt grinder sharpened blades. Norax X30.
As you noticed I am still having some issues getting a consistent grind. I was scared to even the edge thickness anymore for fear of burning through the thinnest part. The slight convex come in when I am lengthwise grinding, thinning the cutting edge.
Great to hear that you like it!
I appreciate your feedback.
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2016
- Messages
- 754
UNREAL work, that handle is impeccable.