Here is a report on the grind-in week-end by
robin Dalman. To make a long story short: it was an exceptional experience and I am extremely grateful to Robin for this opportunity. We were four (plus Robin): two local Sweedish guys, Anton (yes the the Russian handle maker), and I. We spoke about lives, but more importantly we learned (or tried) to make knives following Dalman’s style. (Opa Dalman style, wop wop wop).
Robin’s workshop is located somewhere near Stockholm in the fields. Not far from that you can see scottish hairy cows (they got lost?). The place is quite improbable: there are cars and boats around.
The workshop itself is packed but organised, not so dusty considering the amont of dust that is produced. It is full of tools, with some precious treasures lying around at every corner. Here are some of these treasures.
So to begin we were each give to blank pieces of carbon steel. One 210mm gyuto, and the other is 175mm mini-gyuto. Mine looked like that:
Following Robin’s shape and/or following our imagination, we shaped the knife by cutting at the band saw and adjusting details on the grinder.
Then, we gave a bit of geometry using the grinder with some low grit bands (60)
We added our maker’s maker
Then it was time to put clay on the knife and to put then in the oven for heat treatment (HT)
We then went for water and oil quenching. With some mixed success. In this video Anton is making his blade that you can here cracking in the oil.
Naturally mine did not cracked because I am the best because I am lucky. But it bent a lot. (this viedeo is from Anton)
While annealing we prepared the handles.
After anealing my blades looked like that:
The water quench one required some fixing because it was badly bent. The pro took care of that.
Then grinding, grinding and grinding. It is not easy. The steel is hard, so it is tedious; but yet, since I was looking for as thin as possible behind the edge: a mistake is easy to make and it is then the overgrind. One must then go on the stones, reshape the edge and start agin: in short loosing a LOT of time. It happened to mo more than once.
www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=HX9L2u8b5xkThe next day: grinding again! Then sanding the blade with EDM stones. Quite efficient but still: I may have spent more than 3 hours non stop sanding. I even skipped lunch because I was pretty late compare to the others and I wanted to be sure to finish my knife. Moreover, I knew from previous thinning sessions that you better start with a perfect coarse stone: the game was to remove the 60 grit belt scratches with a 180 grit stone.
www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=xFgeQPr2v44Then it was time to make a hole in the handle for the blade…
… and to shape the handles. Anton gave me many advices. I tired to do a strong taper on it.
Then fitting the handles, giving a final polish, sharpening the knife, putting the oil… and Testing!
http://instagr.am/p/BUFgwhkFVqV
And Finally, here is my knife with a nice hamon. I still will be improving the handle in the coming week, and I may improve the finish.
yep. One sided left-handed S grind (or at least, I tried)...
and the handle
taper
If you want even more photos:
www.dropbox.com/sc/apz0mtr70qf1efg/AADDiqKDzd_fq902BIi4zKBXaConclusions:
For the first knife I made in my life: I got to make a water quenched carbon blade with differential hardening (honyaki). On the top a super nice handle thanks to the nice pieces Into selected. It actually cuts OKish. Food release is far from optimal. The finish if quite OK, although there are some belt stracches that I missed. There is a hamon! not extremely contrasted, but clearly there and with a nice shape. It is bent quite a lot, but still functional. In short, I am super pleased
.
More seriously: this experience was a game changer for me. I clearly opened new avenues in my knife journey. It was a first knife, but I promised myself that it will not be the last one.
Thank you Robin !