Once the tung oil fully hardened, I could proceed to the final step in surface finishing – polishing the handle. First, with a polishing paste made from beeswax and amorphous silica, then with pure beeswax.
Traditionally, Japanese knife handles consist of wood for the handle and buffalo horn for the bolster. I like to add a piece of bone between those two. Purely for aesthetic reasons. So, the making of the handle begins by shortening the tang to an appropriate length so it is hidden inside the handle, and by cutting down to the approximate...
I described the polishing process in some detail here: -click- so there is no need to write at length again. I just have to say that it took this time a lot longer than I expected, and I only have myself to blame. I made two mistakes:
A minor household accident slowed work, but progress continued, and this week I managed to finish the most sensitive and important step of the manufacture – hardening.
The break was longer than I would like it to be, and the cutting boards are currently in limbo, but I got a commission for a santoku knife, so I am returning to the workshop for a bit.
I decided to leave Twitter and switch to Bluesky, @kb-noze.bsky.social.
It is really freezing outside and it is not worth it to heat the workshop every day so I concentrated on other work this week. But I managed to do one board-related issue – rough gluing up of four two-colored boards.
Like I wrote last week, pure jatoba boards were getting on my nerves a bit so I decided to add some color. Literally – I am making boards with two colors.
I did make some small improvements to my drum sander.
Flattening the glued-up boards is unfortunately still a huge pain in the ass and decisively the most time-consuming step in the manufacturing process. And so far I came up with only one small improvement for the jig to span the boards when flattening the surface with a router.
