My First Chef's Knife

[Jeff the Millwright]

I was going to make a hidden tang Bowie as my next knife but work picked up so I haven’t had a lot of time so instead I went back to this chef’s knife that I started over a year ago but gave up on because my grinding skills weren’t quite up to putting a full flat on such a thin stock.




It is made out of O1 .062” thickness. I hardened at 1500°F soaked for 10 min and quenched in Parks 50 which I know is a little fast for O1 but that’s what I had set up. I got a Rockwell hardness of 63.5 and after two, 2 hour temperings at 400°F I ended up with a hardness of 61.




The handle material is Ironwood which I milled on a milling machine to take a curly maple insert which the photos don’t do justice to because the maple has a translucence that really doesn’t show up that well. I put on 4 coats of Tung Oil sanding after each coat. After tempering the blade had such a nice patina I just left it that way. I did grind down to fresh metal where I attached the handle. My holes on my pins aren't as clean as I would like so I may get a reamer bit instead of just using a drill bit.



I ground down to about .015” to .020” on the edge before heat treat and ground my final edge at 15° to a 3000 grit on belts and then stropped. Tried it out on a tomato and it is a very good slicer. I pretty much stole the design from a Chef's knife I bought just before I started making knifes about 2 years ago with the same geometry made out of VG-10 and I am curious to see how the plain carbon holds up against a modern stainless.



I know I need to pay more attention to finishing but this knife is for me so I didn't go for perfection. I am slowly getting there and appreciate any comments positive or negative. Thanks.

 

[Kessik221]

Looks really nice. I was a chef for a bit and one thing i came to find out the hard way is that 01 is really tough for cooking. All the food acids just wear on the blade. I've seen some production knives use high carbon steel with an anti rust/ corrosion paint on them to help though. Overall looks like a nice knife designed for a lot of use.

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Thank you Kessik, I appreciate the compliment that you think my knife looks really nice. In hindsight I don’t know why I put six 3/16” pins so in future I think for chef’s knives I will put 3-1/8” for a more elegant look. I really did this knife on-the-fly and wanted to get it done quick before I got back to work and didn’t give it the attention it deserved.


As far as O1 goes I have never heard about the problem with acids eating the blade but I will keep a lookout for that. I find this knife a great slicer and amazingly easy to sharpen to a fine great cutting edge but I am surprised how quickly the blade dulls. I don’t know if that’s just how tools steels are in comparison to stainlesses or if I didn’t quite get the heat treat right. Like I said this was a bit of a rush job so before I make any more out of this steel I’m going to have to run some heat treating tests to make sure I’m getting the most out of the steel. I didn’t do any thermal cycling which may be my problem. But it is a handy little knife and I’m really enjoying testing it out. Thanks again for the comment.

 

[Jhansenak47]

That handle looks shiny. Did you use pure tung oil or the other stuff?

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

That handle looks shiny. Did you use pure tung oil or the other stuff?

I used Minwax Tung Oil which apparently is not a true Tung Oil because I believe it has polymers in it which makes it harden quicker than pure Tung Oil. But apparently pure Tung Oil is hard to find and takes forever to dry so applying multiple coats was not something I was looking to do. I am going by memory here so if I’m wrong please someone feel free to correct me.


And yes it is shiny like a gloss finish because I did not follow the directions on the can for how Minwax Tung Oil is supposed to be applied. The directions say to apply a thin coat wait a few minutes and then wipe off the excess but doing this in the past didn’t really work out too well so I use the same method I have used with Varathane in the past on doors and such.


I simply applied four coats using a Q-tip and as each coat dried I lightly sanded to make it smooth with about 800 grit sandpaper and the last coat I did not sand. I was planning on trying the wiping method again but this method did work pretty well and I like the results. In the past I used Tru Oil on a paring knife I made and it did not stick well to the Ironwood I applied it to so I am hoping the Tung Oil performs better over time.


As I mentioned in my first post I modeled this knife after a Japanese stainless steel chef’s knife I bought before I started making knives and I was wondering how the O1 blade would compare to the VG-10 stainless and actually I prefer the O1. I was actually surprised how quickly the O1 blade dulled compared to the stainless but what more than compensated was the ease of sharpening of the O1.


When I was using the stainless chef’s knife as my daily knife it was such a production to get out the wet stones and sharpen it I found I would put it off until I had time so I would often be using a semi-sharp knife. But with the O1 it takes just a couple of strokes on a I believe about 500 grit stone that I can do in about five seconds which gives a great toothy edge which slices right through tomato skins so I always have a sharp knife using the O1 so for me yes I do actually prefer the plain carbon steel or I guess tool steel over the stainless.

 

[Dennis Towns]

I like everything about it. My first real knives will be for me and my kitchen or hunting also. I think you did an outstanding job. But I am not an expert just a common wanna be builder. Congrats on a great job.

 

[Jeff the Millwright]

Thank you for your comments Cooter; glad you like it!