Fourth and Final Knife Complete

Wow, what a roller coaster of a week.  I had great things happen, tragic things happen, and a bunch of things in between.  You probably have times like that in your lives too.  I suppose that is what life is all about; having experiences, learning from them, and becoming a better person because of them.

The fourth and final knife of my daughter's kitchen set is now complete.  Since it was built just like the other three, I didn't bother taking too many photos of the progress, but here are the few that I did take.

These chunks of steel shown above are the four bolsters for the chef's knife.  They have each been blocked out and the back sides have been ground flat on the disk grinder.

Here's the knife with the front bolsters attached.  The pins blended in very nicely.

The scales have been fitted to the handle, dovetailed, and the black liners have been attached.  I really like the looks of this box elder burl and I enjoyed working with it.  I'm going to have to use this stuff more often.

In this photo the rear bolsters have been attached and the scales have been temporarily pinned in place for a final fitting before epoxy is applied.  The fit is nice and tight. 

Here's a photo of the completed knife.  It's a smaller sized chef's knife, about 10.5 inches total length with a 7 inch blade.  That's about the maximum length that I can fit into my heat treat oven, so I am limited by my equipment.  I think it turned our really nice.  It feels great in the hand, is well balanced, and looks absolutely gorgeous.  I have no doubt that my daughter will enjoy using it.  I'll take some better photos of the set in the near future and post them up here on the Robinson Edge Blog.

Now, with the four knives complete, I just have to come up with a design for a block or stand to keep them in and at the ready on the kitchen counter.  I plan to make some kind of a stand out of wood that will compliment the handles and not detract from their beauty.  It will be fun to get back to my woodworking roots.  Wish me luck.

-  Brandant Robinson