Saturday, January 10, 2015

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Babys First Wood and Metal Project

 
So I got a few new things happening.

I sold my Shun Petty and Paring knives to make way for carbon steel.

I got a Tadafusa Petty knife and 2 blank drop forged Sabatiers.

The knives were cosmetically un finished and the longer of the two had no grind on it at all

I spent hours grinding on all my whetstones. Particulary the 220 and 600 stones for shape.

I even used my lapping stone to help.

I dont know if hand grinding this way is smart at all but removed all the pitting and corrosion as well as establishing tapers and grinds.

I got them to a sufficient level of polish. Next step was to make a handle.

The first I used an inexpensive piece of ebony to practice.

I tapered off one blank and to fitted the bolster.

Then started marking off the wood blank after squaring.

I kind of freestyled until it started feeling comfortable.

In restrospect I wish I had some tools to speed up the process and get contours faster but this way I couldnt make any HUGE mistakes without correction. 

Anyway this is handle one dry fitted with no seal. I maybe make a small spacer to make the handle and the bolster more fush.
It is an interesting shape and I plan on experimenting with designs and such. I need to learn how to be more accurate and measure well and learn preparation steps.

I will try it out at work this week and see how it feels. 

A TON of work for my first project but it was educational.

Chris