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Burl Handled Chef's Knife
This mini chef's knife was actually a mistake. It was supposed to be a full sized kitchen knife, but the clamps gave in the water jet and the part slipped under the cutting head. Fortunately, I was able to salvage the blade with some light grinding. As this was a practice knife of sorts, I tried a new finish; matte. It's not quite as striking as the mirror finish, but it's a nice change of pace (especially since it required an hour less work). I bought a hunk of Australian Eucalyptus Burl for the handle and used stainless steel rod for the handle pins. I used this knife to experiment with settings for the Dry Moly Lube laser etching and ended up etching the Blades By Betts logo and the Chunk Belly Baking Company logo on opposing faces of the blade. I finished the blade with some Tung oil on the handle, which made the figure of the burl pop.
Required Resources: 6 hours, $40
Size: 12" x 1.75" x 0.75"
Materials: AEBL Stainless Steel, Eucalyptus Burl, 2 part, Quick Cure Epoxy, Stainless Steel Pins.
Finish: Tung Oil
Tools: Band Saw, Belt Sander, Orbital Sander, Hack Saw, Whetting Stone, Water Jet
New Techniques:
See the Cutlery Set break down for the knife making process.
Lessons Learned:
Holding Down the Work Piece: When I went to water jet the blank for this blade, I apparently forgot to tighten the hold down clamps. Oooops. As the water jet passed over it, the bubble from the jet lifted the billet into the traversing cutting head and dragged the piece out of alignment. Fortunately, the piece was only dragged a half inch and somewhat miraculously a full blade profile was still blanked, although it was a little misshapen. I decided to salvage the blade, and after the a little extra sanding down of a sharp corner, the blade looked somewhat normal. The balance is a little off and the blade face not as wide as I'd like, but all in all, not too bad. .
