Kitchen Knife WIP

[Wesley Alberson 151]

Kitchen knives have been something that I have experimented with for a time, then I got really tired of them really quick because I was using 5160 for all of them. It is hard to hammer it out that thin, and with the slow quench time, the steel would get extremely stressed just by touching the anvil face. I hope to change all that this time around. I am going to try a forge welding approach because it is much easier to straighten and forge.

 

I really like the style of knife that Takeda does. Forged thin, and a bevel that is really easy to "find" on a sharpening stone. This knife that I made has been the work horse of my family's kitchen:

 

 

It has been through hell; left out with water on it, dinged up on the sink, etc. I can always bring back the edge with a short amount of time on my 1200 grit diamond stone. I hope to make an even better work horse for someone else!

[Wesley Alberson 151]

I made some progress on the blade. It is my first time laminating steel like this. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be using my charcoal forge. It is a piece of 5160 on one side and mild steel on the other. It is a lamination very similar to chisel ground kitchen knives, but I made this one symmetrically ground. The heel is on the short side, but hopefully I can angle up the handle a bit so it's not a knuckle breaker!

[Timothy Artymko 39]

You said 5160 on one side and mild on the other? So like a 2-layer piece? If so, please please PLEASE prebend it before heat treat because I can guarantee that even if you only quench the edge, it will warp to hell. Even normalizing will warp a 2-layer piece unless its something like 1084 and 15N20. Just a tip... but looks nice! And don't be too worried about the tang, just grind it so that it accomodates a tang going up a bit and keep the tip nice and slicey

[Brian Dougherty 1,376]

That is taking shape Wesley

47 minutes ago, Timothy Artymko said:

... prebend it before heat treat because I can guarantee that even if you only quench the edge, it will warp to hell. Even normalizing will warp a 2-layer piece unless its something like 1084 and 15N20...

Tim,

I've been wondering about this lately.  I was tempted to make a yanagi-ba with wrought iron welded to a thin piece of blade steel.  (I believe that was done traditionally?)  Then I started thinking about heat treating it and decided against it.

How would such a thing be done?  Just guess at a pre-bend based on experience?  Which direction?

[Karim 62]

Had the same, bending like hell, but fixable in the end. My result is posted under laminated skinner.

[Wesley Alberson 151]

What Karim said. The blade warped quite a lot from the quench, but after tempering it I was able to hammer it straight. Monosteel blades resist straightening because they are still springy. The same thing happens with laminated blades, but the mild takes a set and pulls on the carbon steel. The carbon steel isn't truly straight, I think it would snap right back if the mild was taken away somehow. The blade is in a state of stress from this, but it won't break it. I recall watching a video about Japanese smiths "aging" their blades by keeping them in cubbies for a few months (years?) after straightening, probably to allow the slower-moving molecules of the high carbon to acclimate and reduce stress.

Edit: If you do want to do a pre-bend to at least reduce the warp, the high carbon expands more, martensite has an elongated crystal structure. If you do a right-handed knife with the HC on the left side, bend it to the left. The longer the knife, the worse it will look. I would estimate that when I quenched mine, the tip angle versus tang angle was about 20 degrees. So maybe you should try to compensate for 3.3 degrees per inch of knife? It's worth a shot.

Edited June 22, 2017 by Wesley Alberson

[Alan Longmire 3,678]

The traditional way to do this is to let it warp, then hammer (gently!) on the soft side at tempering heat until it's straight.  Scary, but it works.

[Timothy Artymko 39]

5 hours ago, Brian Dougherty said:

 

Tim,

I've been wondering about this lately.  I was tempted to make a yanagi-ba with wrought iron welded to a thin piece of blade steel.  (I believe that was done traditionally?)  Then I started thinking about heat treating it and decided against it.

How would such a thing be done?  Just guess at a pre-bend based on experience?  Which direction?

Just like what the others said, you can hammer it back straight or even just put in a vise and bend it after a few tempers because your high-c steel is so thin that the flexing doesn't really affect it (think of how flexible wood strapping is, or a measuring tape). Pre-bends are useful as well, and the thinner the area, the more likely to bend it is. Wesley mentioned a 20 degree bend, the one i did (mild/1095) took on almost a 30 degree bend, so it depends on materials and relative thicknesses. But it's doable with practice and a bit of a heart-racing time of straightening!

[Wesley Alberson 151]

Done! The handle is bone and redbud. It slices very well, I live on a farm and I used it on a ripe tomato. It's 6.5 inches, but I'm sure this petty knife can handle most of what you throw at it!

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by Wesley Alberson

[Timothy Artymko 39]

I really like that! That bone handle looks awesome! But how did you seal it, if at all?

[Wesley Alberson 151]

I rubbed some renaissance wax on it. Is that enough? I don't use bone too often so I don't know much about sealing and care. I can put a coat of lacquer over the whole handle to make it super water proof. It will look kind of shiny, but in a high moisture environment like a kitchen, it might need it.