Stone Washed Bubinga 6" Chef Blade

Eric Ochs

Well-Known Member
I have really wanted to do stone wash finish for some time now and about a month or so ago I got a tumbler and started messing with it. As I had this kitchen knife heat treated and lying around for some time now I figured it was a good candidate for testing. Well stonewashing is no picnic but after a couple weeks of trying different media and mixes and running back to my computer to read up more I finally dialed into something I was happy with. This one is not quite finished, still needs an edge and mark but thought I would share anyway.

Blade: CPM S30V flat ground stone wash finish with Paul Bos Heat Treat; 0.097" thick at spine; 6" blade edge.

Handles: Stabilized Bubinga with Permalyn finish coats and with palm swell and hidden stainless bolts.

Thanks for looking and of course comments are welcome.

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Eric, are you any relation to Charley Ochs in Florida?
 
Thanks Jeff!!


Tracy,
No not directly at least. Our relatives both came over about the same time period from Prussia probably what is now Germany somewhere. He and I have talked several times. He makes some mean bowies and auto folders.

Eric
 
Dan,
I actually started doing the tumbling for the folders I have started making. But I thought it would look and work good for kitchen knives too. Happy to give you the Cliff Notes on the Stone Wash.

First don't even waste your time with a little tumbler. The one I have is a 40lbs one and it is almost to small and needs to fill 80-90% to get a good finish. Here is the one I have:

[url]http://stores.ebay.com/Bleakco-Lapidary-Supply[/URL]

However, the big vibrator that Harbor Feight has also works well according to some other posts I have read on this topic and it is only $200. There are no short cuts with tumbling, knife blades need to be to at least a VERY clean 400, I am finishing to a clean 600grit and tumbling for 2-4 hours. Many guys bead blast before tumbling and get good results and do not have to tumble as long. If you don't do this your grind lines show even after many more hours in the tumbler.

I use a mix of media which includes about 8-12 onces of 70grit Aluminum Oxide, 2-3 boxes of each of both sizes of Ceramic Media that Harbor Frieght sells (trapizoidal triangle) and some random white granite(which does not work very well so you can skip that) along with a splash of orange general purpose cleaner (Simple Green would work too) and mayby a gallon of water. It is quite a froth when you open it up so have a couple 5 gallon buckets ready!!:biggrin:

Also check out this post as Les George knows better than I about this stuff. http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?3547-Stonewash-textured-Ti&highlight=tumble I have some of the media he uses on the way.

Hope that helps,
Eric
 
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