My African Knives

[Von Gruff]

Kiwi fruit no doubt

No need for me to do that as Lynette sorts all that for a fruit salad after our evening meal. The fruit knife is primarily for an apple when I want one outside of meal times.

 

[Von Gruff]

A bit of leatherwork today. Laying them out with the least waste and with them all ready for the stitching. Hot waxing and an edge on the blades tomorrow so they are all set to be shipped off.

 

[Von Gruff]

All done and ready to go.

 

[Von Gruff]

These two were particularly satisfying with the spalted buckeye being one of my favourite woods on the Light Hunter with bronze and an AH EDC

 

[Mort Hill]

My new @Von Gruff kitchen butcher knife made short work of our 20lb Thanksgiving Turkey. I felt like a surgeon as my knife deftly removed nearly every piece of edible meat on the carcass. A true pleasure to use. Thank you!

 

[Von Gruff]

My new @Von Gruff kitchen butcher knife made short work of our 20lb Thanksgiving Turkey. I felt like a surgeon as my knife deftly removed nearly every piece of edible meat on the carcass. A true pleasure to use. Thank you!

My pleasure Mort. Always happy to hear of their use to either prepare or serve food for the table.

 

[Von Gruff]

After the hunt is done and the meat processed and bought to the table a good knife is needed to help enjoy the fruits of your endevours.
I have been working on a table knife/steak knife design over the last couple of years and now have it where I convinced that it is worthy of presenting to my customer base. There is a His'n'Hers in the pair with the Hers being a fraction shorter in both handle and blade. Blades is NitroV SS with the first pair being spalted buckeye and the second pair with maple burl.

These are some of the trial knives I have done and rejected over that time. Make one and use it for long enough to find fault and the make another to try.

The top one with linen micarta was the first one of the new design that I was able to use for over 6 months without feeling the need to alter any aspect of it. There are many instances where the main table kn ife may also be needed for the secondary use as a side polate knife for the spreading of a bit of butter on a bread roll etc etc so the forward third of the blade came in for a lot of trialing to get to this point (pun not intended) where it will comfortably accomplish this task as well as it will perform on a steak or clean up round a chop bone. The lower one with the stone washed blade and impala jigged buffalo horn in my traveling knife and stays in the truck for when we eat away from home. Hotel staff have been intrigued to see someone bring their own knife to the table but a comfortable knife is always preferabvle to some random knife offered at another table.

 

[matt tonioli]

Those are beautiful works of art. Very impressed. i may actually be afraid to use them

 

[Von Gruff]

Those are beautiful works of art. Very impressed. i may actually be afraid to use them

Thanks Matt but they are for serious use. Have listed them in the classifieds / for sale section

 

[Von Gruff]

 

[Von Gruff]

Getting the scabard done for the Templar Dagger.

 

[Von Gruff]

A few cut out and ready to keep me occupied over the next few weeks untill I can ship off shore again.

 

[Von Gruff]

Got everything prepped with all the stainless blades foil wrapped and ready for HT when I pick up some more liquid nitrogen at the end of the week.. Did a pre grind on these ones, hardened them and have them in the tempering for first cycle to have the second one in the morning. Had to think through how to do the grind on the ulu but with a bit of an adjustment to one of the jigs I can repeat the angles for the finish grind and now have the tooling if there are more orders for these handy little kitchen knives. I leave enough spine on them all so that after the oil quench (12 seconds) I can bang them in between the alloy plates in the vise (to ensure straightness) for a minute or two as I am setting the next blade in the heat. Still have a couple of minutes to dunk the plates in the water bucket to cool before the next blade is ready to come from the forge to quench.

 

[Shootist43]

Garry, are you making the Ulu for one of our Alaskan members? I've seen them before, but they are not in common use in the lower 48 States.

 

[Von Gruff]

Garry, are you making the Ulu for one of our Alaskan members? I've seen them before, but they are not in common use in the lower 48 States.

Not Alaska. That one is going to Oregon. The Ulu is a very under rated kitchen knife. I made one for myself a number of years back and no other knife is as effective in a one handed use for cutting / dicing rhubarb, celery etc into cubes for cooking but where it really shines is with two handed use for chopping fresh herbs for those of you who make your own sausage or any cooking that needs a lot of fresh herb chopped finely

 

[Ray B]

Note to all- The post office delivered the spalted buckey steak knives this morning. Fortunately the day broke clear and bright and my wife and my first viewing of the knives was in bright sunlight. Believe me, they are more beautiful than even in the photographs. the slightly smaller ladies knife fit my wife's hand perfectly and as usual, the workmanship elevates them to works of art. they are being wrapped for official opening on Christmas morning. thanks so much Garry!!!

 

[Von Gruff]

I have got another three sets I am heat treating today so will put them in the classified at some stage with buyers choice of handle material.

 

[Von Gruff]

 

[Randy F]

Fascinating to watch your process. Thanks!

 

[Von Gruff]

Those are NitroV stainless knives that have been hardened at 1955F/1070c for 7 minutes and plate quenched. I put them in the shed freezer for a 1/2 hour to bring them down in temp to below zero before they go in the liquid notrogen @- 320f / -195C for an hour to do the cryo quench then after they come back up to room temp are into the tempering oven for 2 time 2 hour cycles at 339f / 165C