4 knife set (interested in feedback, good or bad)

Been awhile since I posted anything on the forums but wanted to wait until these 4 were complete before final pics and posting.

Where to start, LOL :biggrin:

Set was designed and made for a customer who's an amateur home chef and attends weekly classes with a pro instructor.

General info-
-ALL stock removed from Aldo's 1095
-Clay hardened and tempered at 375. pretty hard but no rockwell test
-All handles 5" with 1/16" ss hammer domed pin in the center of handle
-All black paper Micarta .770 from steel to wood. (1" block from AKS)
-All wood Stabilized Curly Satinwood I picked up from AKS at Bladeshow
-All steel hand finished to 1500x, etched 15 seconds in ferric, polished out with Gogo hand cleaner (pumice), then Noxol, then flitz
-All handle material Oval shaped and hand finished to 800x then buffed with Pink No-scratch compound & champhored front and back
-All edges hand sharpened on diamond stones at 325, 725, 1200, and 8000x then stropped on leather with 1 micron diamond paste.

227 pics here (most are in-process shots but the pic titles tell the story)-
http://s570.photobucket.com/albums/ss147/joshdabney/Daves Kitchen Set/?start=all

The 4-


The parer/utility-
.066 at the spine with full length distal taper
4 1/8" length of edge
3/4" height at plunge
9 1/4" OAL



Fillet/ slicer-
.093 at spine with full distal taper
7 1/2" length of edge
13/16" height at the plunge
13" OAL



Vegetable Chopper-
.100 at the spine with mild distal taper
7" length of edge
2 3/16" tall at heel
12 1/4" OAL




Chef-
.090 at the spine with full distal taper
9" length of edge
2" tall at heel
14 1/4" OAL




Random pics-

Handles-


Blades-


Spines-


Chef and Veggie-


Parer and Fillet-


A final group shot-


All comments and critiques are greatly appreciated !
Take Care
-Josh

Amazing work. I like the handles, I've made a ton of octagon, D-shape and by far, the oval shape is the easiest to grip and control for many. Its my wife's favorite which says alot cause she hates things that don't have a utilitarian purpose.

Josh,
Sweet set of Japanese style culinary Knives.
The one place were I see a potential problem is the placement of the handle on the paring knife in particular, The handle is so close to the cutting edge you would have trouble using it on a cutting board.

I would suggest that if you wish to keep the same size handle on the little guy, that you lower the drill hole in the block and reshape the tang so it's not so tall to give some more clearance for a finger wrap grip and the board in general.

This of course would have no bearing on using the paring knife free hand.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com

Those are fantastic!

They look great Josh!

God bless

They are beautiful Josh , I knew they would be before I opened the thread.

Appreciate the comments fellas !

Laurence, I actually went the other way with the parer's handle on purpose for a couple reasons. Mainly due to me being 6 foot and the customer towering over me at probably 6'4" so I wanted to avoid lack of use due to teeny tiny handle dimensions. The other reason is these knives are destined to live on a magnetic strip arm's reach from the cutting board so he's got access to better options for the cutting board.

I'm no pro chef and have never worked in a kitchen enviornment but in my home use I almost always choose a larger knife but commonly will use a parer in conjunction with that knife to perform a variety of tasks. Unlike my wife of course who'll use a parer for EVERYTHING in which a sufficiently dropped edge is a key feature to her even on a parer.

You are 100% correct of course. This parer's handle is slightly wider than the blade and if sitting on the board the edge wount even touch the board.

Really appreciate the detailed feedback !

Thanks,

-Josh

Josh,
I am 6ft 4" with ape size hands and long fingers & I've been making almost all Culinary of the last 10 years of knife making I also worked as a cook in my teens and twenties. I also have a friend/Customer that is a five Star Chef and and worked at some of the top restaurants here in town. I give him a call when I have a new design and have him give it a trail run here at the shop on some produce to get a feel for it and get feedback on how I might improve it.

You can keep the same size handle, Just move the center down in it so that it's higher up to the spine, giving more clearance and also take some out of the bottom of the Riccassio is one way to do it on the next one.

Pro Chef's want the ability to use any size blade on the cutting board. I have gathered a lot of knowledge over the years from sizing handles to my custom buyers.
Women almost always gravitate towards small and less weaponry looking blades. They almost all love and will pick up a Santoku style knife first, "Your Veggie Chopper" when given the choice of a Chef or Santoku.

One of the reasons for this is that they have smaller hands and even more importantly smaller wrist's.

Besides that little issue with the parer, you have some excellent knives here.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com

those are great! especially like the fillet.

I like all of those Josh, and love the oval shape with the Pyinma and Ebony. Great work. L

those rock!! josh thats some awsome work!!

Josh these look great, Your photos are amazing and really show off the knives well. AWESOME work man!

Appreciate all the kind words fellas !

Randy, I've done a little playing around with a lightbox set-up in the past but these were just snapped with a point and shoot on a tripod on the dining room table. Luckily the light over that table has a frosted glass deal over it. A photo guru I'm not but I do try. Only takes me about 10 pics for each good one

Thanks again,

-Josh

Josh, Thats about the right average. 1 nice picture for every 10. Some days its more like 50 pictures to get 1 good one for me.

I love natural lighting and shoot most of my pictures in the morning light. or later in the day when the sun is setting. seems to give me less shadows and better color and pictures.

All in all I love the set. There very nice!

God Bless
Randy