Recent Work

[snipes]

Carter, in looking at your latest batch of blades in the above photo, I'm curious how specific are you in designing towards an exact length and height vs. having a rough target and they end up whatever the final blade shape reveals itself to be?

[Carter]

Carter, in looking at your latest batch of blades in the above photo, I'm curious how specific are you in designing towards an exact length and height vs. having a rough target and they end up whatever the final blade shape reveals itself to be?

There is a little of both.....with this last batch specifically, I had more influence than usual by the way I cut the blade blanks out....think I tried to be uber efficient on my usage of the bar of steel and it did produce some different designs. Often, I do design and end up with a pretty close copy of one of the J-knife templates that I use, sometimes I need to modify it due to a blunder on the grinder. Other times, I start with a basic outline and see where that blade and my mood take me.....having said that, I am not planning on making a lot of different styles, I want to become proficient with 3-4 overall blade designs, and that is going to take a lot more experience. Overall, my grinds and geometry are getting better...I have one knife in my kitchen now that is performing on par with any of the knives that I have purchased from CKTG....it will be going out for some testing and then for sale. I have another knife that I brought to the kitchen about 4 months ago to test....it is still there and has a spare crappy handle that I removed from someone's' knife banged on it. It is fun to be able to grind a knife, take it to the kitchen, make some notes, and then go back and tweak it.

[Carter]

Here is a set of matched Tanaka Damascus blades, a 210mm gyuto and a 165mm santoku. The handles are Australian ringed gidgee with a ferrule and endcap of black buffalo horn and spacers of honey buffalo horn and nickel-silver.





Thanks for looking.

[datster]

Carter, loving the pictures! Beautiful handles, great work. I get nothing but compliments both on the knife you made and the handles.

[Ut_ron]

Here is a set of matched Tanaka Damascus blades, a 210mm gyuto and a 165mm santoku. The handles are Australian ringed gidgee with a ferrule and endcap of black buffalo horn and spacers of honey buffalo horn and nickel-silver.





Thanks for looking.

Just awesome work. Just love it.

[Ut_ron]

Here is a set of matched Tanaka Damascus blades, a 210mm gyuto and a 165mm santoku. The handles are Australian ringed gidgee with a ferrule and endcap of black buffalo horn and spacers of honey buffalo horn and nickel-silver.





Thanks for looking.

Just awesome work. Just love it.

[Carter]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

C

[Carter]

This is a 270mm Shibata Kotetsu suji. The knife had a nice custom handle on it, but it fell off the board at the restaurant and the handle broke. This handle is dyed and stabilized maple burl with a ferrule of afzelia xylay "gator skin", the accents are mother of pearl and nickel-silver. The saya is Amazon rosewood with a nickel-silver pin.









Thanks for looking.

[Carter]

This is a 122mm petty made of 52100 carbon steel hardened to 62HRC. The handle is made of teak with a holly strip and a ferrule of Amazon rosewood and stainless steel. The blade height is 31mm, making this little knife suitable for some tasks that would require a larger blade. This knife works well for general paring knife duties as well as boning out larger pieces of meat. The inspiration for this handle is a nautical theme representing the deck of a boat with teak planking and a light holly strip for contrast.

I am offering it for sale for $140.







Thanks for looking.

[datster]

This is a 270mm Shibata Kotetsu suji. The knife had a nice custom handle on it, but it fell off the board at the restaurant and the handle broke. This handle is dyed and stabilized maple burl with a ferrule of afzelia xylay "gator skin", the accents are mother of pearl and nickel-silver. The saya is Amazon rosewood with a nickel-silver pin.









Thanks for looking.

Carter, that is a beautiful handle, I love the accents and the "bias" cut. Wonder if something like that would look good on the Fowler, maybe Ironwood with the light accents?

[Carter]

The first of seven heat treating segments, 1650F. This batch has 4 gyutos and 3 yanagibas.



Thanks for looking.

[mauichef]

Love that Shibata handle Carter.

[Carter]

The seven knives in the center are the ones heat treated earlier this week. The three on the right have been heat treated and ground....awaiting final sanding and polishing.



Thanks for looking.

[Carter]

Hand sanding blades 120 - 600 grit sandpaper and lots of Windex as a lubricant. No shortcuts here.....time, muscle, and plenty of sandpaper.

[Carter]

Evolution of the knife.

[Carter]

This is a 180mm design I am working on with a customer....he wants a western handle for his knife, I am making a second version with a wa handle. It is 51mm tall at the heel and approx 47-48mm at midpoint and tapers towards the tip from there. This blade will be ground pretty thin.

[Carter]

I figured it is already really hot in the shop today....why not crank up the oven to 1,650F and do some heat treating!

#sweatingmyassoff

[snipes]

Wowzers. It felt almost 1650º outside today.

[Carter]

Four new handles...they will be going on a C II Bladeworks, Doi, Kurosaki, and a Konosuke.



Thanks for looking.

[Carter]

Some of the work going on this week.

Getting close with a couple of western handle funayukis


Mounting a handle on a really cool Konosuke Fujiyama Honyaki W3 Fuguhiki 300mm


Carving a saya for a 240mm Doi gyuto