What's going on in your shop?

Working on custom order. A set of ten kitchen knives in ABE-L. A chef, junior chef, utility, paring, and six steak knives. A long way to go and a lot of work before it turns into something nice.

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Randy, what thickness are you using for the chef's knife? I just gave my brother one (kitchen chopper, first pic) that I made using 0.125" AEBL. Not sure if that was a normal thickness to use or not for a chopper. Did another just for me in 0.093" AEBL. That works really nicely.
 

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Randy, what thickness are you using for the chef's knife? I just gave my brother one (kitchen chopper, first pic) that I made using 0.125" AEBL. Not sure if that was a normal thickness to use or not for a chopper. Did another just for me in 0.093" AEBL. That works really nicely.
Hi Adam! I'm new to making kitchen knives so I'm still experimenting with thicknesses to figure out what I like. I used .074 ABEL on my first chef knife and a set of steak knives. The set of ten that I have profiled are a little thicker at .100. I heat treated three of the steak knives yesterday so we'll see how it goes.

First chef.
k1_e.jpg

k2_e.jpg

Steak knives.
k3_e.jpg
 
Worked on these 2! Need to thin out the chefs knife a touch more behind the edge. Chopper has been a test piece (first 5160 blade). I like the handle shape and it chopped well, but I had originally done a swedge in it and it had more of a saber grind, but the tip was super fat, so I reground it thinner at the tip and it lost most of the swedge. I will probably do a full flat grind on it and may remove the harpoon to remove the remnants of the swedge. I did a flat grind, then convexed it a bit on a felt platen and then did a slack belt edge and polished it with a cloth belt and compound. I was able to cut 5/8" tree branches pretty easily with it yesterday with 1 slice; they were hanging low and hit my head when I mowed the yard, so I did some pruning.chopper and gyuto.jpg
 
No knife today. working on 350 rpm disc grinder for finishing. using 1720 rpm 3/4 hp 110v motor and 5::1 gear reducer. had both left over from other projects. already have disc grinders with VFD and DC power. thought a plug in anywhere might be handy. also my VFD powered one does not like going this slow; it would be about 12Hz. once you get finer than 400 grit, disc life is short at high rpm.
 
Redid the blade grind on the chopper to remove the harpoon and remnants of the swedge and to give it more of a distal taper, bring the main grind up higher on the blade, thinned out behind the edge, acid etched and made the sheath.
chop1.jpg

Got one of a set of 5 steak knives (premade blanks) with Purple/Pink Camo TJ Lam handles done to see how the block came out. It's the same order as the purple/orange/black camo TJ Lam damascus chef knife, so they will have some colorful knives in the kitchen!
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Working on a pair of knives that someone ordered as a wedding gift. The couple that will receive these run a taxidermy shop and love to hunt.

I normally do not do orders...but decided to as I want to develop this knife as more of a mid-tech product. It is a copy of Schrade's iconic Old Timer Sharpfinger. Some of the hunters up here think the Sharpfinger is the holy grail of skinning knives. (the purchaser loaned me his to copy.)

I am currently working on the scales. Will be a bolt together. I had to come up with a method of getting a stainless insert in Corian...not fun. My production models will just have checkering.(engraving tends to be a time sinkhole for me.) I changed the handle shape as the original Sharpfinger is fairly uncomfortable in your palm...

Blades will be A-2 toolsteel...

(sorry for the image quality...when I finish the pair I will take better pics and post them...)

sharpfinger.jpg
 
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