Forgecraft modification.

Hello!
I didn't write since some time but now it will change. I am planning to make few projects in the near future so I will have things to describe.

I recieved package from Sweden with vintage Forgecraft. This knife was previously rehandled by Mike Henry. I must say that this handle is super nice and it should be an example (for me) of  how to make handles.

I've been asked to thin this knife a lot because the grind was to thick.

Also I had to make the choil bigger, round the spine and choil, eventually etch the whole thing and mirror polish bevels.

I started from cutting out new choil. I used files to do that.
Before:

After:

Then I rounded the spine and choil. Later on I thin it a lot. I wanted to use belt grinder but steel was soft and I manage to do that on stones. First Atoma 140 followed by JNS 300, Beston 500 and JNS 1000. In this place I really regret that I don't have muddy JNS 800 which I tried year earlier on JNS gathering in Denmark. I am going there again next month and I plan to get one.
I used Iron Chloride to etch the knife.

Etching:

Etched blade:

I masked top part with few layers of masking tape:

First attempt to make mirror finish:

Originally there are ''bricks'' on the top face of the Forgecraft knives. It could be very hard to make it look as new so I decided to etch the whole knife and then mirror polish the bevels. Top face will look like a kurouchi finish.
After thinning I had to mirror polish it but it was much harder than I thought. If i could do as much as possible on the stones then it could be quite easy but there was a low spot behind the heel, between flat face of the knife and bevels on the roght side. This is the reason why I had to do that with sanding paper. I thought that polishing this thing will be super easy because I've done that previously with much harder knives than this one but I was wrong. I was sanding it every day except weekends for two weeks!! Yes I know it is crazy but I always left some scratches. When I finished for the first time I've noticed that there are some etching marks and I had to do that again. When I finished with sanding paper I used my mops and polishing compounds. When I was doing that for the last time I started with 80 grit and everytime when I finished with one grit I've done scratches in opposite direction. And when I started with next one I was sanding as long as I could see scratches from previous grit and because of that I could be sure that I removed all scratches. Sounds easy. You know what?? Once again I was wrong. I got it to mirror level but it is getting new scratches super fast. Also after all this sanding and polishing I can still see some scratches and I already done 3 new very visible ones. It seems that I can't get it to perfect mirror finish because I can't make it perfect flat. I told Magnus, owner of the knife, that if he won't like it, then I'll do that all over again.

I am very dissappointed that I couldn't do what I exactly  wanted  to achieve but on the other hand I think that putting a lot of work in to 40$ knife is not woth it. Obviously it is looking nice but it will loose it's nice appearance very quickly.

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After:

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My first western rehandle.

Hello knife people:D

I've been asked to make 8 Wusthoff's handles because the whole set is in very bad condition. I have never done western handles before (except my first knife) and I was a little bit afraid about it. Normally western rehandle is not hard to do but Wusthoff have a curve near bolster so one must match scales to that curve.

This is what I was afraid of. I have one Wusthoff classic chef knife so I decided to give it a try. First I removed old scales. It was very easy to do. I just had to drill through old rivets.

Scales went off by itself. Then I cleaned the tang because it was a bit rusty.

After that I prepared my new scales. I couldn't choose between white ebony and some Australian burl.
I have choose Australian burl.

Shaping the curve was very easy. It still can be better but I am happy with results. Then I glued everything together and put new rivets.

Later on shaping was pure pleasure. I finished my new handle with Danish oil and shellac. I think that end result is very satisfying and I am ready for  another 8 Wusthoff's.

New handles.

Before I took a brake in knives projects I had to finish 3 handles for somebody from Poland.
Itinomonn 240mm gyuto, Kato gyuto 240mm and Kato petty 180mm.
Handles are made of stabilised figured Oregon Maple and stabilised Red wood burl.

Takeda project part 2.

Hello.
I haven' been here for a while but it doesn't mean that I haven't do anything. So I have finished Takeda project. Am I happy? No... Actually I am very sad because of that coz I have lost my love to what I am doing and I had to take a brake.
Ok. I will explain everything. I received two Takeda'a from Sweden. I had to make new handle out of ultra nice materials, two sayas and after that I had to thin those knives out.
I was so eager to do that that I decide that it will be my best hand work and also that I will make handle tutorial for knives forum in Poland, my home country. So I started. I took loads of pictures, everything was perfect.  Unfortunately I don't have those pictures now because I've lost data on my memory card.
This is a handle before applying finish.

But then owner of those knives asked me to cover that handle with CA glue to protect it. This was the moment when everything gone wrong. I have never done that before so I started experimenting. I must say that I thought that I will cry because of that handle. Every time when I applied CA glue it creates new layers and it was very visible and I had to regrind it. Every time when I grind off the CA my handle change the shape...

When you look at it you could say that it doesn't look bad but actualy it was bad. It looks like plastic etc. I decided to finish it my way and I used boiled linseed oil to finish it and then I polished it with mops and compounds.

I glued it in, not really super straight but I've done what I could. This was the time when I started feeling pressure. 

Afterwards I had to make sayas for both knives. This is where I get a good life lesson. ''You should never neglect even simplest tasks.''

I thought that it will be very easy to make those sayas and guess what?... Yes...  It gone very bad. I don't want to give you details but I made two big holes in those sayas. You even can't imagine how bad and stressed I felt when I had to tell that to owner of those knives. Those are new sayas:

I can't find pictures now but there is a hole in one saya which I had to epoxy and it looks very bad.

My last task was to thin them down. I will not wrote many words here. I will only say that those knives cost 700$ and the grind is the baddest I have ever seen. Takeda is a very well known maker and he should take care when grinding his knives. I will also say that my first kitchen knife done by me is cutting much better than Takeda. I spent many hours on stones trying to make them thinner and also to rise shinogi line but they are made of Aogami Super Steel which is very hard to work with. I've done what I could but these knives need grinding wheel. I had to send them back to their owner and He sent them back to Japan. 

I heard lately many bad comments about Takeda's and his grinds and many people are sending their knives back to factory.

So.... Now I am finished with that project. I am so unhappy with it that I have lost my love for knives and I had to take a break. I live in the flat and working without workshop partly in kitchen and partly in toilet (as the grinding room) is making things really hard. I should wake up in the morning, go to workshop and do my stuff before I go to my work. It looks different. I am waking up in the morning, setting up my workshop (30 minutes), working for 2 hours and cleaning for another 1h 30m.

This is why I am doing mistakes because of lack of concentration. 

Once I will rest and clean my mind I will come back with new knife projects so wait for my new posts.