Mike Ward

Got the board from last weekend done. Really pleased how it turned out. ~12x18x7/8”

I put two coats of wipeon poly on the outside and dribbled mineral oil on the inside to protect it and the blade. Cutting boards are really fun to design and make and each one is unique which is very appealing. Plus they’re quicker to make with less hand sanding

@Charles du Preez, on the top piece from left to right: walnut, maple, Padauk, walnut, canary wood, and walnut again.

Well, I think this is a bust. Told the customer what I would do for how much she was willing to spend and was told that she would consider it. Haven’t heard from her since so... Thank you for all of the advice! It’s muchly appreciated.

Spent the weekend making these. A holding block for a knife out of curly maple and walnut. And a big 12x18 cutting board that’s glueing right now.

Made some sketches Low Medium High Blades are a little chunky, probably could go with less width. What do you think?

I did do that and she said she’s willing to spend about $300. If she’s a little flexible with the price, I’m thinking of offering to do 3 of the knives like the chef, utility, and paring at medium/higher level of fit and finish. If she wants the full set, I’ll give her sketches of simpler versions like suggested. Thank you for the help, I really appreciate it!

What about these rough estimates? I feel like I’m almost cutting myself short but I don’t want to scare the customer off. Paring~75 Utility~175 Carving~200 Bread knife~250 Veggie knife~300 6” Chefs knife~325

Ok I was definitely going to undersell my work based off your example.

Ok, so I just got my first potential commission. Some relatives posted some of my work I did for them on social media and got very good reactions. And a person messaged and asked if I sold my work! Booyah! Of course I said yes and asked what she wanted, by when and how many. In response, she told me that she wants a kitchen knife set of a 6” chef, bread knife, paring, nakiri, carving, and a petty/utility knife. As for a timeline, her wedding is in September and would like to have the knifes by July at the earliest but would be understanding if the knifes came a little later. But before the wedding of course. I believe this timeline is doable with my responsibilities of school and interning in the summer. I’m planning right now to use 80CrV2 for the steel since I know to work with it. Now my big question is pricing. I have no idea what I’m going to do besides material costs plus whatever I think they’re worth. I know some people use a price per length deal or a hourly wage. I don’t know what I should do for my first one. If someone had an estimate that I could maybe work with to tell the customer so she has an idea what this could cost, that would be amazing. Also, if the price for the full set is too much, I’m pretty sure she’s willing to get individual knives. So I need to figure out separate prices also. While I wouldn’t call myself a beginner, I’m not close to being as good as a lot you guys on here. But I do think that I’m at the spot where my work is good enough to start selling. That said I don’t want to undersell my work. Figuring that out seems to be my problem right now. Any and all advice is welcome. I’m kinda freaking out right now that this is happening. Thank you!

Yeah same here, “just dab it”. I’ve read about people using cotton swabs for it but I haven’t tried it yet. I like what I get when I use my finger to dap, but I really admire what you’ve got going on.

Ok I guess the only thing I was missing was using the pads and doing it twice. Everything else is same. Thank you!

Thanks guys! I really appreciate it. Joel, I have a question on how you do your mustard patina’s. How do you spread it on the knife and how many times do you apply it? I squirt some on, spread it around and then dab it randomly and leave to dry for .5-1 hr and wash it off. I really like how you’re able to get them to look almost stonewashed and I can’t figure out how you do it.

And this 6” chef knife for my sister. 80crv2 with maple, copper and cocobolo for the handle. It’s light in the hand and the balance is right at the heel.

That’s the Padauk

After being a hermit in the shop for almost a week, this is part of I got done. Two cutting boards and a knife for my mom. The end grain board is Peruvian walnut, Palauk, and cherry. The other is black walnut, padauk and maple. Both are 9”x11.75”. Learned an enormous amount of things and am extremely thankful for an incredibly knowledgeable and resourceful grandfather. The knife is 80crv2 with Bubinga scales and copper pins. It’s 6.5” long with a 4.5” handle and is modeled after a santoku. Thanks for looking! (Sorry for the bad photography)

Sorry Pieter-Paul!

I'm in 1. Conner Michaux 2. Bruno 3. Brian Dougherty 4. Alex Middleton 5. MichaelP 6. Will Drake 7. Zeb Camper  8. Joël Mercier 9. Jeremy Blohm 10. Geoff Keyes 11. Jason Volkert 12. Michael Ward

Yes, I made the 6” with a pinch grip in mind, but it might be illusion that it looks short because it’s about 4.5”. That’s what I usually shoot for because it fits right into my hand comfortably and the balance point is right at the ricasso area. Heres a better picture for dimensions. Glad I got your approval on the mustard Joel

I got a lot of practice making knives over break. Seems like being able to sleep in till 10 and with nothing else to do is a good thing for bladesmithing. Plus, everyone wanting kitchen knives for Christmas which gave me a lot of opportunity to experiment. Learned a lot and no two knives are the same. With the first picture, I made a 8” chef knife out of 80crv2, a ~5” utility kitchen out of San mai wrought and 80crv2, 6” chef out of 80crv2, another ~4.5” utility, and a 3” paring. I learned that wrought is like literal butter when it’s nice and hot. I had to fight the urge to just grab and mold it like playdoh. I finished the paring and 6” chef in later photos. But the 8” one was a PITA to heat treat because it is bigger than my fire pot. I later ruined it grinding by putting pressure on the spine and getting it too thin. The second pic is just a little wip pic after I had drawn back the spines and tangs. That’s when I also set the shoulders for the hidden tang. The next few pics are of the 6” chef knife. The woods are zebra wood and wenge. I initially tried to chisel out the tang in the zebra wood, but didn’t like it very much so I just did a three piece construction which IMO looks better. Finished with a coat of Tung oil and then a coat of beeswax. The hard part was the grinding, I went to close to a finished edge thickness and didn’t take in account that hand sanding removes a bit of material. Therefore, the middle of the blade kept going past zero and would bring the width down in the middle. Plus, having an uneven graphite platen on my grizzly sucks, so I ordered a ceramic one. Mustard finish on the blade. Honestly, I think this is my best blade yet. This is the paring knife that is out of 80crv2 and zebra wood. Made it as a pair for the 6” one and gave both to my cousin. These last ones are how far I was able to get before I had to get back to school. All out of 80crv2, the first is another 8” chef, the next is a ~6.5” santoku style, next a ~6” chef and a 4.5” utilityish blade for the kitchen. Heat treat went fantastic, no warps or bends. One hour at 355 and one hour at 375 temper. Overall, I’m quite pleased on how much I got done. The santoku I forged and ground in about hour and a half, probably less, which is record time for me. Any and all criticisms/opinions are welcome. I want to get better!

Start of Christmas gifts, 8ish” chef knife with 80crv2, 5ish” utility kitchen knife with 1084, and a paring knife in 80crv2. These are my first kitchen knives, I like the chef and paring knives but the middle one is just off. Any suggestions to improve it?

Ok thanks josh, I think I’m just going to turn this into a template and make another

This would be my first indended kitchen/chef knife. It's about 5.5" long by 1.75" wide. Tryed to a full bevel grind and got it down to a zero edge, but as a result the spine got very thin. It flexes nice and every thing, but I'm just concerned about the over all thickness. What thickness to you guys usually shoot for for chef knives? And what about paring/petty knives?

Thanks guys, I like that backing idea GEzell, I'll try it. I also do most for the grinding before heat treatment and clamp it between two pieces of wood for the same reason. I'll keep fresh belts in mind too.

I have a question for the people who make kitchen knives or thin ones that flex alot. How do you grind the tips with them flexing so much? I have a grizzly 2x72 and grind free hand because that's most comfortable for me. However, I can't apply enough pressure to effectively take off material because it heats up to fast, maybe in a second, and burns my thumbs. Do you have a jig that backs the blade and prevents flexing or slower speed or just do it even slower by hand?