silly noob question

E

exitium

Well-Known Member
I have yet to make my first knife but my home made 2x72" grinder is coming along and hopefully in the next 2 months I will have it up and running along with some supplies needed to start making some knives. Ive read forward and backward a multitude of knife making wips and tutorials as well as watched countless videos etc. The whole process seems pretty straight forward and I just need to practice practice practice.

That being said nothing I have seen was specifically about kitchen cutlery and I was wondering where the main differences lie in making say a drop point or bushcraft VS a nice chef knife? The cutlery blades are obviously a lot thinner steel, is there any additional concern with warping during HT? Do you leave more steel before the HT? Any other tips or tricks to kitchen cutlery?
 
Exitium,
I make mostly culinary and It's always better"In my book" to leave things a little thicker before HTing the steel. You can remove more after HT and I like the crisp grind you get by working steel after HT.

I really only profile,Drill & relieve the edge before HT and then do the other 90% after HT.

Heat is the enemy, I use a fresh belt and dunk often, I leave the visible side with water droplets as I grind and as soon as they start to steam/evaporate about 200 degrees its back in the dunk bucket.

Your last tempering cycle with most steels is in the range of 400 degrees so if you stay at half or less you will be fine.

Does that help?

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
Thanks Laurence! Thats exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

How is the market for culinary compared to "other" knives? Im no pro chef or anything but I gotta say it sure is nice having a few nice knives in the kitchen. How would you go about pricing culinary knives as a new knife maker, assuming they are even worthy of being sold of course.

Im in my mid 40's and and looking for something I can get into now and hopefully get enough skill under my belt so I have a nice side job and perhaps something to do in my retirement when the time comes.
 
When I started making knives about 16 years ago I asked that same pricing question of the Late Mr. Bob Loveless.

His response was sell each knife for enough to cover the materials to make three more knives. I started with that formula and went from there until I had enough to get a real 2 x 72" belt grinder. I started with hand files and then bought a Cr@psman 2 x 42".

Build the kind of knives that you like and enjoy making and you will find a market for them. I started with camp & hunters and then moved to culinary and now I am starting to make both.

I live in S. Cal, but I am sure there is another knife maker near you? Most of us are happy to have a new maker stop by for a few and talk knife making.

Google Knife maker in your zip code and see what comes up?

Have fun.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com

Have fun.

Laurence
 
Like Laurence, the thinner the stock, the less I do to it.

1/8" is kind of my turning point... sometimes I'll bevel about 50 to 75 percent of the blade before heat treat, and some times I'll just knock the corners off of the edge and heat treat.

Less than 1/8" thick, and I'll usually do 99% of my grinding AFTER heat treat.

Any file work, holes, notching, etc... (or anything I CAN'T do with my grinder) get's done before.
 
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