Wednesday, August 29, 2012

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....
















Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Carter to Martell Conversion

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







Friday, May 25, 2012

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.comThe 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.  













Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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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