Santoku wedding gift I made
Santoku wedding gift I made
Friends of mine have a kid getting hitched next week and asked if I could make a kitchen knife for one of the wedding gifts they're giving the soon-to-be-newlyweds. Just put the finishing touches on it barely in time for them to take it with them to where the wedding's gonna be. Didn't have time to somehow include a coin in the package, but fingers crossed no jinx...
This is a santoku in 15N20 carbon steel about HRc 61-62. Philippine ebony burl and dyed maple burl handle. 181 mm blade, 304 mm overall length. Full convex grind with very slight right hand bias. Balance point right where the blade enters the handle, i.e. at the "finger choil". Rounded spine, eased choil, blah blah blah...
The saya is some sweet quilted maple that I pulled from a box of random assorted figured thins I got from Mike1950 over on Woodbarter, really cool stuff in there and was hard to choose. But I chose wisely, I think?
This Philippine ebony burl is probably the prettiest wood I've ever used on a knife, the pictures don't do it justice at all! I wish that I could find more of it. And the quilted maple makes for the most eye catching saya that I've ever made.
Maybe one day I'll be able to keep a purdy knaf for myself, but to be honest, it's way more rewarding to hear from somebody else how much they like one of my knives. Hope these kids enjoy it together for a long time!
Picture spam commencing now:
This is a santoku in 15N20 carbon steel about HRc 61-62. Philippine ebony burl and dyed maple burl handle. 181 mm blade, 304 mm overall length. Full convex grind with very slight right hand bias. Balance point right where the blade enters the handle, i.e. at the "finger choil". Rounded spine, eased choil, blah blah blah...
The saya is some sweet quilted maple that I pulled from a box of random assorted figured thins I got from Mike1950 over on Woodbarter, really cool stuff in there and was hard to choose. But I chose wisely, I think?
This Philippine ebony burl is probably the prettiest wood I've ever used on a knife, the pictures don't do it justice at all! I wish that I could find more of it. And the quilted maple makes for the most eye catching saya that I've ever made.
Maybe one day I'll be able to keep a purdy knaf for myself, but to be honest, it's way more rewarding to hear from somebody else how much they like one of my knives. Hope these kids enjoy it together for a long time!
Picture spam commencing now:
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Re: Santoku wedding gift I made
That looks whispy thin behind the edge. I bet it is a heck of a cutter. How long does a project like this take you? Home heat treat?
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Re: Santoku wedding gift I made
Nice choice of woods. Looks pretty exotic, especially in the saya. It almost like a quilt/flame mix. Very nice.
Re: Santoku wedding gift I made
Thanks y'all for the kind words! I was very happy to be done and that it came out better than I expected after some issues with the heat treat and delays.
To answer Ben's questions, it takes me quite a while to finish a knife as I usually only have spare time to make knives on the weekends. The only time I kept track of how many hours I worked on a knife, it was over 32 hours and that's without a saya, but I'm probably marginally faster now. Part of the issue is that I only have a Grizzly 1x30 grinder which barely works on hard dense woods and is way slow on steel, whether hardened or annealed.
My heat treat is in a two brick forge heated by propane, and I only HT at night so watching the colors is a little more consistent though I always check with a magnet as well. I've only used simple carbon steels 1084 and 15N20. Both are very easy heat treat: heat to around 1475-1500 F, then quench in canola oil. 1084 doesn't need to be soaked/held at temperature, but I try to soak the 15N20 for 30 to 60 seconds. It fits my preference to do as much as I can myself as well as my preference in knife steel since I prefer easy to sharpen simple carbon steel over more alloyed wear resistant steels. Just about the only thing I don't do myself is dye/stabilize wood or make the steel.
To answer Ben's questions, it takes me quite a while to finish a knife as I usually only have spare time to make knives on the weekends. The only time I kept track of how many hours I worked on a knife, it was over 32 hours and that's without a saya, but I'm probably marginally faster now. Part of the issue is that I only have a Grizzly 1x30 grinder which barely works on hard dense woods and is way slow on steel, whether hardened or annealed.
My heat treat is in a two brick forge heated by propane, and I only HT at night so watching the colors is a little more consistent though I always check with a magnet as well. I've only used simple carbon steels 1084 and 15N20. Both are very easy heat treat: heat to around 1475-1500 F, then quench in canola oil. 1084 doesn't need to be soaked/held at temperature, but I try to soak the 15N20 for 30 to 60 seconds. It fits my preference to do as much as I can myself as well as my preference in knife steel since I prefer easy to sharpen simple carbon steel over more alloyed wear resistant steels. Just about the only thing I don't do myself is dye/stabilize wood or make the steel.
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Re: Santoku wedding gift I made
Very nice. For what it’s worth GeorgeK on the forum does a great job stabilizing wood.
Re: Santoku wedding gift I made
The very best sort of wedding gift, one you put yourself into. Beautiful work.
Re: Santoku wedding gift I made
One of the coolest knife handles I've seen. Love the shape and choice of materials. Very well executed!
Stay sharp.