Knives (handmade) 101 #13 & My Knives - #12
The importance of stepping out of your comfort zone
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S-grind Bunka
The Comfort Zone
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S-grind Bunka
The Comfort Zone
I don't know about you guys, but I am a lazy bastard.
I kinda have this thing where I automatically find the easiest way to do something, then I do it that way and just lay back with my cig/coffee/book and enjoy watching others struggle.
This has always been my philosophy - why not spend few minutes extra to make things easier and save hours later.
This approach has served me quite well for some time now.
I am now at a stage of my life where I can do all my job-related tasks in half a day, and then I have the remaining 6 and a half days for my self.
I'm not bragging or anything, OK I am a bit, but the point of this intro is not to say that my life is good but that I have to make an effort not to fall into the same routine in all the other aspects of my life.
Namely, my knifemaking.
If you have been following my posts, you may have noticed that most of my knives are full-flat ground. I've explained what a full-flat grind is in one of my earliest posts, and the term is quite transparent so I won't go too deeply into it.
A flat grind is when the bevel is ground - you've guessed it - flat, and a full-flat one is when it goes all the way to the spine and it' flat. See, transparent.
Lately, I did a couple of convex grinds - that's where the bevel is (drum roll) convex.
So without any false honesty, I can say I've gotten quite good at grinding flats, and I'm getting there with my convex.
What I haven't been doing is hollow (concave) and compound grinds.
And, if I keep doing what I do best and make things easy for myself I will never progress to the next level.
Therefore, I've decided to do one of the hardest grinds there is - just to challenge myself.
S-grind
So what is an S-grind?
It is a term which refers to a compound grind that consists of two fullers or concave plains that are ground into the flat grinds, one on each side of the blade, on a slight bias - so that the profile of the blade from the heel looks like the letter S.
Aside from being a pain in the ass to do, and therefore a good chalenge, doing an S-grind does a few things to the knife which are, let's say, desirable.
Firstly, it reduces the overall weight of the blade - something that in a chef knife is a good thing seeing how it is plausible that someone will be using the knife for few hours. And, less weight equals less energy needed to move the object - you remember physics for high school, right?
Secondly, if you've ever tried to cut potatoes you may have noticed that they tend to stick to the knife and you kinda have to flick them off or move them with your finger. Now, this is not a big deal if you're cutting 10 of them a week, but imagine if you're cutting them for 5-6 hours a day. You could lose your mind over this.
Seeing how the two fullers act as a vacuum realise vents, the food shouldn't stick to the knife.
Back to the comfort zone! So in order to make things hard for my self, I try to make one of the knives in each batch a challenge. For this one, it was an
S-grind Bunka
Here it is before the HT
First "few" passes with the grinding wheel - as you can see it's all wobbly and croocked
First dip into the acid to see how the hamon turned out and to get a reference for further grinding
Hand sanding - a lot of it!
Final dip into acid and off to the handle
Since this was a prototype, and was not going to the market, I've decided to play around with a lot of things. One of them was the handle. I wanted to practice doing a slanted transition to the handle and I had an off-cut of a walnut with a live edge so I gave it a go.
Doing prototypes is always fun because I get to try things out that I am not sure if they will work, while not having a pressure of meeting the high standards I try to keep for my customers. I had a piece of bog oak that I knew had a hole in it, so I've used it and practised my cracks filling. And so on...
For some reason I haven't taken any pic of the handle before this one. Dry fit before the profiling
Handsanding and buffing
The final product
Sorry for the bad pics - my DSLR is still out of commision
And that's it! Thank you for stopping by and feel free to say something in the comment section.
I can't really say anything only that I am quite flabbergusted by your handcraftmanship. Not that you make perfect knifes, your handles also are remarkable beautifully done! Keep steeming!
Thank you I really appreciate it.
And no worries, as long as I'll be able to make knives, I'll be posting them here:)
Okay, so it sounds like you decided to take on quite a few challenges at once, rather than just the knife itself, which sounds like it would have been enough to cause severe hulk like smashing. How did it go? I mean, it looks good to me, but I'm not the expert. What about the rest of challenges? Would you be ready now to do all of that or parts of it for a customer? My guess is you've got a few more prototypes to make using each challenge before you're completely comfortable, but I'd also say you made some decent strides in the process.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with coming up with the best and most efficient way to do your work. Time is the most precious commodity we have, and if we can do our work in less time and still get paid properly, all the better. We can then spend our time doing the things we want to do as opposed to just sustaining life. :)
Well, yes, as I've mentioned once I decide that the knife in question won't be for sale but for an experiment - I throw everything I can think on at it :)
As far as how it went. I didn't have too many Hulk smash moments but it did try my patience a few times. It was a hard build because I had no idea what I was doing seeing how it was my first time.
All in all, I am quite pleased with most of the stuff - I know how some things need to be done a bit differently.
I wouldn't sell it because the fit and finish are not up to my standards but it's a fully functional knife that cuts amazingly.
So no regrets.
The best and efficient way: sure, but that only makes sense for the things I actually have to do - like my job. If I'm doing something I'm enjoying I don't want to be done as soon as possible.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I've worked hard to get to where I am now - being able to do whatever the hell I want and when I want. But it is tainted by the fact that it's a job. :)
Knifemaking is a whole other kind of beast - I wanna test my limits and be the best knifemaker I can be. And you can only get better by playing with better opponents, and since I'm the only one playing in my workshop I have to be that opponent. So I push myself into things I have no idea if I actually can make it or if it will work. And most of the time do a good job.
To be honest, and I'm kinda joining the first and the second topic here, I will be implementing my usual tactic to the future S-grinds. I am confident that I could make the next one for the market, but I won't be doing that - I'll probably make the next one as a gift for a friend or something like that and then the third one will be for real. That way I'll sacrifice some time to get everything right and then it's smooth sailing further on.
Okay, so take longer on the things you like doing, because you like doing it and it's not a job, versus streamline the job, even though you do like it.
I do get what you're saying. With the knifemaking, you really have the choice to be the best you can be because it's only you determining how long that will take and even what it might mean. At a job, there's generally others determining what best is, and it's hard to achieve because that's not really what most jobs are about.
NIce job. I think it will be beneficial for the users. Thanks for sharing your experience with all.
Dope! Yup...I can be a lazy bastard as well....I have to fight that shit off with every ounce of my being....lmao