Devin Thomas, Stefan Keller, a friend name Jim, + Dave Martell = A KitchenKnifeForums.com Collaboration

This project started off about 2 yrs ago (?) with Jim, KKF's esteemed admin, ordering a gyuto from me (this was the 8th knife order I received). Jim had a vision for his Martell gyuto....he wanted me to make a larger size than I had done before (a 270mm), he wanted a Stefan Keller custom handle (that would match his other 2 Martell knives with Stefan handles on them), and he wanted the steel to be damascus from Devin Thomas. A KKF collaboration was born!

I am very happy with the results and I don't feel this way often. The grind of the blade came out about as perfect as I can hope to do, the steel was a treat to work with, and Stefan's handle is a work of art that is like putting icing on the cake.

If there's one thing that I'm upset with it's the quality of the pictures I'm showing here, I just couldn't capture the beauty of the depth of the damascus pattern. It's so frustrating to see in person how the pattern moves and looks 3D and then looks so flat on the screen. I took about 80 pictures and these are the best.

The steel used is a combination of 52100 & 15n20....yes you read that correctly. Can you say double high carbon?

And to make sure that the steel gives up it's maximum performance we had the Boss Hoss (that's Devin Thomas in case you're not in the know) do the heat treat on it so we know it's going to kick ass. 

Well I hope that I did my part in this project, I know that Stefan, Devin, and Jim did theirs, I'm thankful for having been given the chance to work with these guys.

The Magic of a New Knife Handle

I've been telling people for years how magical Stefan's handles are....just slip one onto your knife and it can make the rest of the knife shine....not to mention get sharper too! 

Aritsugu Kiritsuke Repair

I got in this Aritsugu Kiritsuke with a broken tip, chips in the edge, with about a 45deg micro bevel. This maker's knives are among the hardest to sharpen let alone do repairs to and this one challenged me as usual. I wasn't to do a full refurb here, just a tip repair and sharpening so it's far from perfect, what do you think?

These are some of the brands/make knives that we specialize in sharpening....

Ashi Hamono, Akifusa, Ajikataya, Al Mar, Aritsugu, Artisan, Asai, Blazen, Brieto, Bu-Rei-Zen, Carbonext, Carter, CCK, Doi, Dojo, Echizen, Fujijiro, Fujitora, Fujiwara, Gekko, Gengetsu, Gesshin, Glestain, Global, Goko, Gonbei, Haruyuki, Hattori, Heiji, Hideo Kitaika, Hideo Kitaoka, Hiromoto, Hirotomo, Hokiyama Sakon, Hon Kasumi, Houwa, Ichimonji, Ikeda, Inazuma, Ino, Inotada, Ishido, Itou, Itto-ryu, Ittosai, JCK, Jin, Kai, Kamata, Kanehiro, Kanetsugu, Kaneshige, Kansui, Kasumi, Kato, Katsushige, Katsuhiro, Keijiro Doi, Kenma, Kikuichi, Kiya, Kiyotsuna Josaku, Kiyoshi Kato, Kiyotsuna Josaku, Kobayashi, Kochi, Kogetsu, Konosuke, Korin, Kumagoro, Kumidori, Kurosaki, MAC, Magotsugu, Mamiya, Martell, Maruyoshi, Masakage, Masamoto, Masazumi, Masanobu, Minamoto, Misono, Miyabi (Henckels Japan), Mizuno, Monzaburo, Moritaka, Nenohi, Nenox, Oishi, Richmond, Ryusen, Sakai, Takamura, Takayuki, Takeo Murata, Tsukasa, Tsutomu Kajihara, Saji, Sakai Kikumori, Sakai Yusuke, Sakon, Sasaoka, Seikon Dojo, Seki Magoroku, Sekizo, Shigefusa, Shigeki, Shiki, Shimatani, Shiraki, Shun (Kershaw), Sugimoto, Suien, Suisin, Tadafusa, Tadatsuna, Takeo Murata, Takefu, Takagi, Takahashi, Takahisa, Takamura, Takeda, Tamahagane, Tamashii,Tanaka, Tanegashima, Teruyasu Fujiwara, Tetsuhiro, Togiharu, Tojiro, Tokifusa, Tosa, Tsukasa Hinoura, Tsutomu Kajihara, Watanabe, Yamashin, Yusuke, Yokayama, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Yoshihiro, Yoshikane, & Zakuri

http://www.japaneseknifesharpening.com/

https://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/

Watanabe Blade/Martell Handle - Nessmuck Knife

So every once in awhile we get in a special project, something completely different from the norm. Here's a unique knife that came in for a handle. The knife came to me without a handle installed, just a tang to work with a rough idea as to what was required. The customer had commissioned Watanabe to make him a Nessmuck knife. (In case you don't know who Nessmuck is - check him out).

I was to make a handle to match the blade. Watanabe being Japanese added a marked design influence to this style of knife but I was completely lost as to what to do for my part. The customer pretty much left it in my hands with some gentle nudges for ideas but still nothing clicked. Over 8 months passed and I just couldn't figure this one out, then it hit me, that I should do a Japanese inspired handle -duh! My thought was that since the blade was obviously Japanese knife tradition inspired, and since I do my knifemaking inspired by Japanese blades, that I should use this as the connection. So what you see here is my blend on my USA handle making work and what I get from Japanese hunting knife inspirations.

The wood is Hawaiian Signature (sourced from Stefan Keller) and African Blackwood ferrule (sourced from Burl Source)

So here's some pictures, the Watanabe/Martell Nessmuck knife....

Carter to Martell Conversion

This is a Carter wa-bocho converted to a western handle by Dave Martell of JapaneseKnifeSharpening.com

 

Martell Damascus Gyuto (Chef's Knife)

Here's a 240mm Martell 1084fg/15n20 damascus gyuto that I just finished up working on.

This steel was made special for us by a talented young forger from upstate NY; Dan Seaver of PureDamascus.com. The steel was wonderful to work with and provided just the look I was after. I'm sure that I'll be ordering more of this fine steel from from Dan in the near future.

The handle is comprised of African Blackwood bolsters (supplied by BurlSource), dyed Redwood Burl (supplied by the customer - acquired through Arizona Ironwood), copper pins, and double G10 liners.

The tang on this knife is all damascus although it will not give up the looks right now. I'm sure this hidden feature will reveal itself to the user over time.

Things that don't come through in the pictures is the metallic flash and movement of the burl character in the redwood (it's simply fantastic!) and the 3D movements of the patterning in blade (needs a video to see this!).

 

To date this is the most expensive, complex, and well detailed knife that I've done and I'm actually (for once) quite pleased with the results. I hope that the owner will like it as much (or more hopefully) and that he gets a lot of enjoyment from using it over the years. I'd like to thank him for the opportunity to push my limits.  

Vintage Sabatier Refurb

Here's a vintage carbon Bresduck Sabatier that's been completely refurbed. 

I started by re-setting the profile where the heel/tang section had been neglected during sharpening, then I removed rust from the blade through grinding and thinned it a bit at the same time, then a new buckeye burl handle was installed (not an easy one at all - the tang and bolster were so whacked!!!), then finished up with an overall polish/clean & sharpen. 

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