**The Art of Making a Knife**
We began our journey by cleaning and etching the metal, watching as the acid bath revealed the intricate patterns and textures within. The process was like developing a picture, with each layer revealing its beauty as it emerged from the acid. We marveled at the way the acid ate away at the layers at different rates, due to the varying chemistry of the metals. This was the payoff, the moment we had been working towards.
As we continued, we moved on to shaping out the handle. Vinnie and I worked together, using a coarse grit sandpaper to shape the handle into its symmetrical form. We then stepped up the grit, gradually polishing the handle until it reached our desired finish – a beautiful, glossy sheen that would protect the wood from the elements. The process was meditative, each stroke of the sandpaper feeling like a dance across the surface of the wood.
Next, we turned our attention to putting an edge on the knife. Bob joined us once again, bringing his expertise and specialized tools to guide us through the process. We began by removing material from one plane, then carefully intersecting it with another to create the wire edge. This was a critical step, as the intersection point would determine the sharpness of the blade. With each successive stroke of the sandpaper, the knife began to take shape – its edges growing sharper and more defined.
As we worked, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the process. From melting down metal in a forge to shaping and polishing the final product, it was clear that making a knife required patience, skill, and attention to detail. The power tools were a welcome addition, allowing us to quickly buff out any imperfections and achieve a razor-sharp edge.
But what struck me most about this process was the sense of satisfaction that came from creating something with one's own hands. There's something special about taking raw materials – metal, wood, and stone – and shaping them into a tool that will serve you for years to come. Whether it's a hunting knife or a simple utility blade, each knife is a testament to the artisan's skill and craftsmanship.
As we finished our project, I couldn't help but feel grateful to Bob for his expertise and guidance throughout the process. It was clear that he had spent years mastering the art of making knives, and it showed in every stroke of the sandpaper and every careful cut of the blade. And as we took a step back to admire our handiwork, I knew that this knife would be treasured for years to come – a symbol of our shared passion for craftsmanship and the joy of creation.
**The Experience**
There's something special about making knives. It's an experience that can't be replicated in a factory or by machine. When you create something with your own hands, you bring a sense of personal connection to the process – a feeling that is hard to describe but essential to the artisan's soul. Whether it's the tactile sensation of working with raw materials or the satisfaction of seeing a project come to life, making knives is an experience like no other.
For me, this project was more than just a way to create a new knife – it was an opportunity to explore my own creativity and push myself beyond my comfort zone. As I watched Vinnie work, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at his skill and focus. He moved with a confidence that bordered on magic, each stroke of the sandpaper seeming to dance across the surface of the metal.
As for me, it was a journey of discovery – one that took me from the basics of knife-making to the finer points of edge-sharpening and handle- shaping. I learned about the importance of patience and attention to detail, and the value of taking the time to do things right. And as I looked at the finished product, I knew that it was all worth it – every sweat drop, every scrape of the sandpaper, every careful cut of the blade.
**The Future**
As we wrapped up our project and put away our tools, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement about what the future held. Whether it's taking on new projects or exploring different types of materials, there's always something to look forward to when you're working with your hands. And as I looked at the knife that Vinnie and I had created together, I knew that this was just the beginning – a testament to our shared passion for craftsmanship and the joy of creation.
So if you're looking for a gift for someone special, consider something handmade – like a beautiful piece of jewelry or a handcrafted tool. It's a way to show your love and appreciation in a tangible way, and one that will last for years to come. And who knows? Maybe one day we'll take on the challenge of creating our own steel – folding and forging it into a work of art that will be treasured for generations to come.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right Vinnie holiday season is amongst us everyone scramble to find the best gift one of the best gifts you can give I think is a well-made knife it's probably the most important tool in the kitchen today we're up here a little bit north of Seattle joined by Bob Kramer legendary knife maker and we're going to be making the night from start to finish whether you're going to a wedding a funeral Christmas whatever let's start again no funeral all right Vinny so I got Bob Kramer with me here Bob thanks yeah my pleasure and uh tell us a little bit we're gonna be making what kind of knife we're gonna make that so there's a like a 5-inch utility blade what are we doing for steel for another knife for me okay so we're gonna make some steel from scratch and scratch this is pure iron okay in the powder form right can't get nothin past me Vince this is carbon so we got to add carbon to the iron to make steel this is manganese these two things are necessary to get the iron to be pardonable kind of reminds me of measuring out your dry ingredients to make some cake or something exactly yeah it's just like making cake or branch tree yep science science pity so in this right into the crucible into the crucible we're gonna melt that down and then if all things go well something like this will come out we're gonna make a cupcake this is very high-tech on switch perfect amount of weightt go go but oh it's going we're going and this thing is going to heat up from the inside so it's making all the molecules go crazy hey why all right and that friction is causing massive e-exactly for that to get read how hot do you think that is roughly 1,400 degrees oh wow one minute one minute to get to 1,400 degrees 49 or Fahrenheit we're going to need one of these back in the kitchen Vince up now we're starting to melt oh yeah Wow just looks like bubbling center of the Sun I think it's done it's about now that our speedo is melted and it's starting to set back up right what are we doing next this is solidifying let it cool a little bit more then we're going to grab it take it to the forge let it heat back up and then we're going to squish it down and stretch it out so we're gonna go from there to something like that we're gonna try let go any way Vince here we go coming they're not hot biscuit right into the forge so we heated up our steel cupcakes that we made now we're getting them like I said back to that pliable heat plastic state you got to get it hot enough so you can move it it's like whoa yeah put me in coach ready yeah get it back in the fire and it's getting full so we're gonna take this and straighten it out then take it to the rolling mill and stretch it Wow that's crazy and one more time to the air to the press to the precedence that's it we're done so that's cool you can make your flat stock like that and then cut out whatever pieces you want to make whatever night hi but we're gonna Forge it to shape so we're going to take two different kinds of steel stack them and weld them together and what that's what there's a Damascus yes right yep so here is a pre-made billet with two different kinds of steel this is steel a steel be still a steel be okay well you're going to fuse them together and then draw it out beautiful all right so now we're gonna cut little chunks out of it and then Forge it shape it Forge and shape each individual chunk yeah you're gonna get one I'm gonna get one so there's about five knives in there all right we just cut our little billet here we're gonna heat it up and start building the little heel and the puts them some life and some shape into the knife so we're going to bring it from this and try to get it to this essentially we're pretty straight I'll do a couple of tweaking hits it's gonna be a little lumpy not perfect and we can grind all that away it's definitely thicker than it needs to be so the core face of it you want to be able to get a perfect straight exactly right Bob set me up with his master template for the style of knife the petit knife that we are making and we're just going to use this this grinder here and we're just going to clean up the profiles ready to go hey Bobby I turn this on maybe the power button that means well clenched egg their Vinny but smoking nicely it wasn't me all right so we finished grinding up the profile of the blade and then now that we have that shape we're going to go and cut the make this work this way yeah it may cut the edge and there what are we calling that the bevel the bevel oh yeah all right so we left the grinding room and what are we doing here bub we are hardening this blades this is a molten salt so it's an oxygen-free atmosphere it's a sous vide for knives by hardening so what we're just making this deal harder essentially correct I mean we're dissolving the carbon into the iron and then we're gonna capture it trap it by the quench all right so we've got tempering baths and that will bring the knife to a working hardness so it's not too hard it's not too brittle when it's hardened it's under a lot of stress we go into there to just add some heat to kind of massage it so you're making the knife happy making the steel this is a martini for the knife all right yeah make it too so this is hardening quench temper correct I get an A Vinny first time in my life what's my baby come from well stow away he was in my check-in bag I checked them okay so yeah we finished grinding up and then now we're cleaning up the blade so you lose that rough kinda off the belt sander cut marks in it and I guess essentially we're kind of polishing if someone who knows what you're talking about could fact-check that but boy it sounded right huh coming out of the factory right the scratches would all be going now right but if you're doing like custom professions the direction of the scratches getting that cream your knives custom baby nice job beautiful all right I think we should clean it and etch it see the magic like putting the oil on your wood that grain just pops there's what we live for then and here we have an acid bath not an acid to the point where it's going to burn your hands but on the pH scale it's an acid this we did all the super hard work it feels like and this is kind of like the payoff the beauty like putting you know developing a picture just like that yeah so we've got the Polaroid now we're shaking it and we're just seeing it come out science magic yeah oh see those lines popping it's beautiful see it's gray silver and then black we got some jazz going on there gorgeous the acid eats these layers at a different rate because it's different metals yeah because there's different chemistry like we mixed in different things in the steel Wow not the coolest thing I did in a while so at this point we're gonna take the face piece which is kind of like the bolster which he's just filed so that it fits it's gonna slide onto the knife we're gonna fill the wooden handle with glue and we're gonna slide that in and then we're gonna compress the whole thing in this clamp over here and let it set up and dry so yeah we'll come back tomorrow we'll take this off clean it up shape the handle put an edge on it call it a night all right so we left off yesterday it was a glued up knife now we're gonna shape out the handle let's get a shaping Vinnie oh I said it so size down I always up size down whatever we're gonna knives to make I'm same English class you're gonna start running you know a pretty coarse grit we're gonna grind it down shape it get it symmetrical get it to the shape that I want and then then we'll start to step up the grit on the sandpaper all right Vinnie so we got it to the shape that you know I'm happy with but we got these two different wheels that Bob set us up with and we're gonna go ahead and polish these out give it a nice shiny glossy finished finish all right so we wrapped up on the handle and now we're gonna get into putting an edge on that I'm gonna have Bob cook to the original edge for me there since it is Bob we have two planes coming together and so we got a remove material remove material and we want those two planes to intersect and when they do this little fuzzy part my fingertips is the wire ends and it is crucial in nature absolutely you have to have that first yep that's the wire edge now we cut like the foundation right right now we can start to step that just like what we were doing with the rest of the sanding essentially we're sanding yep we can buff this out really quickly yeah let's hit the power tools Oh Oh it's feeling rather sharp too now we go for the push cut sure oh oh that's satisfy that's no good Vinnie we're gonna make it rain paper here uh Vincenzo you gotta clean it up after death Bob that's fantastic if I wanted to drop that onto a stone what grit did you bring that up - oh it's it's always yeah it's probably like 15,000 15,000 okay all right yeah so we're gonna go ahead and call that done well hey Bob this has been a help thanks for coming it's been my pleasure thanks for teaching all right guys there it is we started from melting down some some powder and some chunks and metal and making our own steel fold and foraging made this beautiful knife bob was kind enough to lend his time and his knowledge to us and show me the way so super grateful for that and yeah excited holiday season is right around the corner you saw what it takes to make this knife so if you love someone get him a knife Bon Appetit oh gotta be lookin for trouble Vinny this ain't necessary alive but it's got energy watchin that start to finish if that don't make you feel alive I can't help you I wanted to say something I forgot about like I know this isn't alive but making knives you know if that don't make you feel alive I mean I know it's not alive this isn't exactly alive but if make it a high performance a night like this if that don't make you feel alive then we can't help you maybe we'll save that for the end man I've been thinking about that for days though he's very satisfying to me I like to take a little hair off the arm to just show sharp as a razor if you go cutting yourself doing it I don't want to hear it's not my fault but look at that Vinny ooh who's better than us huh maybe Bob yeah buddy smoothies rest all right get out of here yeahall right Vinnie holiday season is amongst us everyone scramble to find the best gift one of the best gifts you can give I think is a well-made knife it's probably the most important tool in the kitchen today we're up here a little bit north of Seattle joined by Bob Kramer legendary knife maker and we're going to be making the night from start to finish whether you're going to a wedding a funeral Christmas whatever let's start again no funeral all right Vinny so I got Bob Kramer with me here Bob thanks yeah my pleasure and uh tell us a little bit we're gonna be making what kind of knife we're gonna make that so there's a like a 5-inch utility blade what are we doing for steel for another knife for me okay so we're gonna make some steel from scratch and scratch this is pure iron okay in the powder form right can't get nothin past me Vince this is carbon so we got to add carbon to the iron to make steel this is manganese these two things are necessary to get the iron to be pardonable kind of reminds me of measuring out your dry ingredients to make some cake or something exactly yeah it's just like making cake or branch tree yep science science pity so in this right into the crucible into the crucible we're gonna melt that down and then if all things go well something like this will come out we're gonna make a cupcake this is very high-tech on switch perfect amount of weightt go go but oh it's going we're going and this thing is going to heat up from the inside so it's making all the molecules go crazy hey why all right and that friction is causing massive e-exactly for that to get read how hot do you think that is roughly 1,400 degrees oh wow one minute one minute to get to 1,400 degrees 49 or Fahrenheit we're going to need one of these back in the kitchen Vince up now we're starting to melt oh yeah Wow just looks like bubbling center of the Sun I think it's done it's about now that our speedo is melted and it's starting to set back up right what are we doing next this is solidifying let it cool a little bit more then we're going to grab it take it to the forge let it heat back up and then we're going to squish it down and stretch it out so we're gonna go from there to something like that we're gonna try let go any way Vince here we go coming they're not hot biscuit right into the forge so we heated up our steel cupcakes that we made now we're getting them like I said back to that pliable heat plastic state you got to get it hot enough so you can move it it's like whoa yeah put me in coach ready yeah get it back in the fire and it's getting full so we're gonna take this and straighten it out then take it to the rolling mill and stretch it Wow that's crazy and one more time to the air to the press to the precedence that's it we're done so that's cool you can make your flat stock like that and then cut out whatever pieces you want to make whatever night hi but we're gonna Forge it to shape so we're going to take two different kinds of steel stack them and weld them together and what that's what there's a Damascus yes right yep so here is a pre-made billet with two different kinds of steel this is steel a steel be still a steel be okay well you're going to fuse them together and then draw it out beautiful all right so now we're gonna cut little chunks out of it and then Forge it shape it Forge and shape each individual chunk yeah you're gonna get one I'm gonna get one so there's about five knives in there all right we just cut our little billet here we're gonna heat it up and start building the little heel and the puts them some life and some shape into the knife so we're going to bring it from this and try to get it to this essentially we're pretty straight I'll do a couple of tweaking hits it's gonna be a little lumpy not perfect and we can grind all that away it's definitely thicker than it needs to be so the core face of it you want to be able to get a perfect straight exactly right Bob set me up with his master template for the style of knife the petit knife that we are making and we're just going to use this this grinder here and we're just going to clean up the profiles ready to go hey Bobby I turn this on maybe the power button that means well clenched egg their Vinny but smoking nicely it wasn't me all right so we finished grinding up the profile of the blade and then now that we have that shape we're going to go and cut the make this work this way yeah it may cut the edge and there what are we calling that the bevel the bevel oh yeah all right so we left the grinding room and what are we doing here bub we are hardening this blades this is a molten salt so it's an oxygen-free atmosphere it's a sous vide for knives by hardening so what we're just making this deal harder essentially correct I mean we're dissolving the carbon into the iron and then we're gonna capture it trap it by the quench all right so we've got tempering baths and that will bring the knife to a working hardness so it's not too hard it's not too brittle when it's hardened it's under a lot of stress we go into there to just add some heat to kind of massage it so you're making the knife happy making the steel this is a martini for the knife all right yeah make it too so this is hardening quench temper correct I get an A Vinny first time in my life what's my baby come from well stow away he was in my check-in bag I checked them okay so yeah we finished grinding up and then now we're cleaning up the blade so you lose that rough kinda off the belt sander cut marks in it and I guess essentially we're kind of polishing if someone who knows what you're talking about could fact-check that but boy it sounded right huh coming out of the factory right the scratches would all be going now right but if you're doing like custom professions the direction of the scratches getting that cream your knives custom baby nice job beautiful all right I think we should clean it and etch it see the magic like putting the oil on your wood that grain just pops there's what we live for then and here we have an acid bath not an acid to the point where it's going to burn your hands but on the pH scale it's an acid this we did all the super hard work it feels like and this is kind of like the payoff the beauty like putting you know developing a picture just like that yeah so we've got the Polaroid now we're shaking it and we're just seeing it come out science magic yeah oh see those lines popping it's beautiful see it's gray silver and then black we got some jazz going on there gorgeous the acid eats these layers at a different rate because it's different metals yeah because there's different chemistry like we mixed in different things in the steel Wow not the coolest thing I did in a while so at this point we're gonna take the face piece which is kind of like the bolster which he's just filed so that it fits it's gonna slide onto the knife we're gonna fill the wooden handle with glue and we're gonna slide that in and then we're gonna compress the whole thing in this clamp over here and let it set up and dry so yeah we'll come back tomorrow we'll take this off clean it up shape the handle put an edge on it call it a night all right so we left off yesterday it was a glued up knife now we're gonna shape out the handle let's get a shaping Vinnie oh I said it so size down I always up size down whatever we're gonna knives to make I'm same English class you're gonna start running you know a pretty coarse grit we're gonna grind it down shape it get it symmetrical get it to the shape that I want and then then we'll start to step up the grit on the sandpaper all right Vinnie so we got it to the shape that you know I'm happy with but we got these two different wheels that Bob set us up with and we're gonna go ahead and polish these out give it a nice shiny glossy finished finish all right so we wrapped up on the handle and now we're gonna get into putting an edge on that I'm gonna have Bob cook to the original edge for me there since it is Bob we have two planes coming together and so we got a remove material remove material and we want those two planes to intersect and when they do this little fuzzy part my fingertips is the wire ends and it is crucial in nature absolutely you have to have that first yep that's the wire edge now we cut like the foundation right right now we can start to step that just like what we were doing with the rest of the sanding essentially we're sanding yep we can buff this out really quickly yeah let's hit the power tools Oh Oh it's feeling rather sharp too now we go for the push cut sure oh oh that's satisfy that's no good Vinnie we're gonna make it rain paper here uh Vincenzo you gotta clean it up after death Bob that's fantastic if I wanted to drop that onto a stone what grit did you bring that up - oh it's it's always yeah it's probably like 15,000 15,000 okay all right yeah so we're gonna go ahead and call that done well hey Bob this has been a help thanks for coming it's been my pleasure thanks for teaching all right guys there it is we started from melting down some some powder and some chunks and metal and making our own steel fold and foraging made this beautiful knife bob was kind enough to lend his time and his knowledge to us and show me the way so super grateful for that and yeah excited holiday season is right around the corner you saw what it takes to make this knife so if you love someone get him a knife Bon Appetit oh gotta be lookin for trouble Vinny this ain't necessary alive but it's got energy watchin that start to finish if that don't make you feel alive I can't help you I wanted to say something I forgot about like I know this isn't alive but making knives you know if that don't make you feel alive I mean I know it's not alive this isn't exactly alive but if make it a high performance a night like this if that don't make you feel alive then we can't help you maybe we'll save that for the end man I've been thinking about that for days though he's very satisfying to me I like to take a little hair off the arm to just show sharp as a razor if you go cutting yourself doing it I don't want to hear it's not my fault but look at that Vinny ooh who's better than us huh maybe Bob yeah buddy smoothies rest all right get out of here yeah\n"
