I made some good progress on the kitchen knife set over the last weekend. I decided to focus on the paring knife and finish it out instead of bringing all the knives along together. I really don't like to do multiple projects at the same time. I prefer to focus on one knife until it's done before moving on to the next. Here are a few pics of this weeks work.
Here's the paring knife with the grind line marked and the file guild attached to help me keep the plunge lines consistent on both sides.
Grinder work done. Time to move on to hand finishing.
This blade, as well as the other three, will get a 600 grit hand-rubbed finish. Lots of sanding to get a blade looking good. This is probably my least favorite part of the build process. I'm not looking forward to the larger blades of this set. That's probably why I make mostly small folding knives, not so much hand sanding.
Hand sanding finished. My wrists ache a little, but it looks darn good now that it's done. Well worth the time and effort.
With the blade done, it's time to move on to the handle. Here are the bolsters after they have been drilled for mounting pins. The front faces of the bolsters have been finished up to 600 grit and the rear dovetails have also been ground in. They're all ready to be attached.
The bolsters have been attached by smashing the three pins into the tapered holes which will lock them to the tang for the life of the knife.
After a quick grind, all three pins disappear, blending into the bolsters to look like one solid piece.
In this photo, the bubinga wood scales have been attached temporarily to the tang, ready for shaping.
And this is what the knife looks like at this point in time. The blade is done, the bolsters and scales have been profiled, and the pin holes have been drilled. It's really comfortable in the hand, even before the handle gets shaped, and it's going to look really nice.
Here's a spine view where you can see the effect that the dovetail bolsters have on the looks of the knife. You can also see the distal taper in the blade.
Well, that's it for this weeks progress. Next week I hope to get this one finished up and the next knife well underway. I'm quickly running out of time to get these finished up before the wedding. I have to stay on track. Thanks for following along with me on this build. More to come next week.
- Brandant Robinson