taylormadeknives
Well-Known Member
I started a paring knife using stock removal. I chose 1095 knowing I wanted to do a clay quench. Profiled the blade on my Bader. I left the blade the full thickness of 1/8" to reduce warping during ht. I normalized 3 times before applying clay.
After the clay dried for a day I went into heat treating. I put it in my oven and went up to 1475 for my austenizing temp. I held it for 5 min and went into my quench tank filled with warm fast quench oil I got from McMaster Carr. Here is what it looks like after the quench.
I went into tempering for 2 hrs. 2 cycles of 1 hr. each at 400. After the tempering I flat ground the blade to .0005 and went into hand sanding. After I was happy with the results I started polishing out my hamon. Here is what it looks like after the polishing.
I picked out some beautiful stabilized maple burl for handle scales. I cut my block, epoxied some burnt orange fiber liners to the scales. Glued everything up and used brass pins and a mosaic pin. This is what it looks like glued up.
After everything dried. I went into shaping the scales. Shaped them on my Bader and went right into hand sanding and finished with a hard European wax.
I am pleased with the way this one tithes out. Here is the finished knife.
I put my calipers on and the final thickness before sharpening is .0003
Very thin. Should perform well in the kitchen! Let me know what you guys think! All opinions welcome. If you see something you would change let me know. I am just getting into kitchen knives and trying to figure all this out. Thanks!
Chris Taylor
Decatur, AR
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

After the clay dried for a day I went into heat treating. I put it in my oven and went up to 1475 for my austenizing temp. I held it for 5 min and went into my quench tank filled with warm fast quench oil I got from McMaster Carr. Here is what it looks like after the quench.

I went into tempering for 2 hrs. 2 cycles of 1 hr. each at 400. After the tempering I flat ground the blade to .0005 and went into hand sanding. After I was happy with the results I started polishing out my hamon. Here is what it looks like after the polishing.

I picked out some beautiful stabilized maple burl for handle scales. I cut my block, epoxied some burnt orange fiber liners to the scales. Glued everything up and used brass pins and a mosaic pin. This is what it looks like glued up.

After everything dried. I went into shaping the scales. Shaped them on my Bader and went right into hand sanding and finished with a hard European wax.

I am pleased with the way this one tithes out. Here is the finished knife.


I put my calipers on and the final thickness before sharpening is .0003
Very thin. Should perform well in the kitchen! Let me know what you guys think! All opinions welcome. If you see something you would change let me know. I am just getting into kitchen knives and trying to figure all this out. Thanks!
Chris Taylor
Decatur, AR
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk