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Figured I'd keep these in the one thread rather than start a new one for every single knife that takes shape!

Here are two that I've had lying around for a while but aren't for anyone in particular so they aren't moving along very fast. The suji is clad white #1 that I forged out as the billet wasn't quite as tall as I wanted. The petty is RWL34 that's entirely stock removal.

The profile on the petty is very nice. What is the length?

Beauties !

J david wrote: ↑Wed Jun 28, 2017 6:08 pm The profile on the petty is very nice. What is the length?

Petty is 150mm.

Some pics of a handle install, glueing everything together and then polishing. I've wondered for a while what a Kramer was like to use, so I figured I'd make one. Of course I have no idea what the grind is like, but I was able to copy the profile. Probably a little taller than I'd like to be honest. Incidentally the petty above snapped at the tang when I was trying to straighten it out since it warped a little in HT. This is the main reason I have a HT oven on the way.

Just heat treated this one today. I tried putting some clay on the spine for a hamon and I'll be honest, I'm quite relieved that it made it through the quench at all. I've made about half a dozen knives now while attempting differential hardening and half of them have cracked. Unfortunately a good hamon seems to need a water quench and from what I've heard, a high failure rate is not unexpected.

It's taken a slight upwards curve, which is natural for any differential hardening. It isn't really visible in the pic so I set a ruler on the spine, you can see it's probably less than 1mm but I'll take that out as you can see it in person. I'll get to grinding it and hopefully I'll get a nice hamon from it!

Looks like good potential for a really nice hamon!

Outta curiosity, which steel is this? Couldn't you get a hamon with a fast enough oil quench if it's an oil hardening steel? I think aogami is mizu honyaki tho Japanese kitchen knife makers seem to go for much more subdued hamon than most western makers...

Steel is 1080, so it can go either way on quenchant. Kevin Cashen recommends a fast oil on anything less than 1/4" thick. I'm still playing around with quenching oils, we don't have Parks 50 available to us here in the UK which is obviously a favourite of many bladesmiths. There are a couple of alternatives but water seems to be the standard for a nice active hamon. I did try and minimise the possibility of cracking on this one by doing an interrupted quench, 3 seconds in water that had been warmed to 120°F, then out and into some canola oil (not the best, but all I had on hand).

We'll see how things look when I get a bit more grinding done!

Here's some grinding on the last one. Been hard at work on other stuff so knives have suffered a little bit.

Nice looking blade!

Here it is again, taken to 120 grit, few more grits to go.

Here's some progress pics of the above knife, lots of hand sanding and polishing to this point.

Hand sanding up to 2500 grit
Polished
And finally etched

Couple more of the same knife. Hamon came out pretty nicely, I'm going to leave it here. Not sure on handle, I'm thinking something fancy to go with the relatively plain blade. Thoughts?

Looking nice...

How fancy are you going for? I vote for fossilized mammoth tooth with meteorite bolsters!

That thing looks like a workhorse, I'd keep it simple and utilitarian. Something like g-10 or other bulletproof material. A fancy handle would be like wearing vintage Jordan's and a nirvana t shirt.

Working on some outdoor knives today as they’re quicker than kitchen knives! First is a hunter ready for HT, second is a smallish Bowie that I’ve forged out from a bar

Back to work this week after some time away from anvil and forge. Been finishing this up, as well as finishing another skinning knife for someone.
Finished skinner

Keep up the good work! Hope you can make some kitchen knives soon! Love what you have done!

Been a long time away! I've been away from knifemaking for a little bit but am now getting back to it. These aren't really WIP pics so much as fully finished beauty shots, but why not come back with a bang? Both available, I'll post up details soon with extra pics.

Carbon feather, 240mm Stainless raindrop, 225mm

Three new ones, all stainless RWL34. I really like this steel, it's pretty easy to grind even once hardened and it gets crazy sharp pretty easily. There's a 225mm gyuto, 150mm nakiri, and a 120mm petty. The nakiri is a little shorter than average but I didn't have as much of the bar left as I thought after cutting out the gyuto. The square nose of a nakiri seemed a little easier to work with that trying to make anything else, plus I've never made a nakiri before so it should be a fun learning experience.