Turn A 2€ Rusty Knife Into High-End Japanese Chef's Knife
I found this big knife at a local flea market in a bucket of "everything 2€" miscellaneous items. I bought it with the intent of lightly restoring it but after a close inspection I thought I was better off doing something more interesting with it since the construction was pretty bad, with un-even grinds, terrible pins and poor materials. After removing the rust I could also tell it has pretty much no historical value since it has no marking at all.
So here we go! In this video I go through the entire process of turning it into a better looking (and better performing of course) chef's knife.
The design is pretty close to a kiritsuke, but it's much bigger than most measuring 43cm (17inch) overall with 30cm (12inch) blade 6.5cm (2.6inch) wide and 2.5mm (0.1inch) thick.
I tried to develop an hamon on the blade for aesthetic reason but without success, maybe the steel is not prone to show it since the harness is definitely different from spine to edge before and after tempering. Or maybe some other reason, I didn't wanted to spend the time to figure that out anyway. I had also another issue with the heat treatment where the refractory cement expanded and got stuck in the blade holder inside the oven, I had to quench everything... Yeah... That wasn't pretty at all!
The handle is made of iroko and ebony wood, with a mild stainless steel guard and some red felt and white paper liners, the process of making the spacers is better described in this video:
• Felt And Resin Liner /...
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www.amazon.com/shop/blackbear...
It's affiliate marketing, so if you order something from here you'll help the channel for free! Thank you!
Index of operation and materials:
0:27 Remove handle with metal cutting band saw
0:52 Remove rust with angle grinder and steel wire wheel disk
1:25 Clamp with copper under holes to stop welds
1:40 Stick weld the old pin holes to close them
2:20 Grind excess weld with angle grinder and grinding disk
3:00 Straighten tang with heat and vise
3:26 Annealing
3:38 Wire wheeling scale off
3:48 Trace new blade geometry
3:58 Cut most material with metal cutting band saw (steel soft after annealing)
4:25 Refining shape and grinding new bevels on 2x72 belt grinder
5:25 Wrapping with steel wire to help refractory cement sticking
6:00 Refractory cement used to develop hamon (fail)
6:20 Hardening
6:30 Quench in warm vegetable oil
7:00 Removing wire and cleaning blade
7:29 Bad tempering. My oven is too small for this blade and home oven out of reach
8:00 Final bevel grind
8:15 Hand sanding to 400grit sandpaper
8:37 Etching in ferric chloride for a dark matt finish (no hamon unfortunately)
8:50 Making liners with red felt white paper and resin
10:05 Iroko wood
10:37 Glueing the handle stack with 5 min epoxy resin
11:10 Grind square
11:30 Drill tang hole, 10mm in diameter
11:50 Mark and center puch guard holes
12:00 Drilling with 2.5mm bit
12:17 Grinding back side with dremel and thick cut off disk to save some file work
12:36 Filing to size
13:20 Tang dowel, cut to lenght on band saw
13:30 Took to the exact diameter by spinning on a plate with hole drilled with same bit as the tang hole
13:54 Splitting the dowel
14:02 Enlarge the slot to match the tang thickness on slack of 2x72 belt grinder
14:30 Final glue up with epoxy resin
14:53 Grinding handle to shape on 2x72 belt grinder
15:20 Hand sanding up to 600 grit
15:48 Boiled linseed oil as finish
16:08 Sharpening on the slack of the 2x72 with very high grit belt
Thanks a lot for watching, I hope you liked the video!
Suggestions and comments are welcome.
Leave a like and share to anyone who might be interested!
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*checks watch at 3:30am* Goodnight everyone.
Night
Wahhhhh I sleep at 1:40 am and it’s 10
it’s 5:30am rn, i have stayed up all night, i have school- thank god i’m doing online tho
It’s 6 am now In america
7:30 am my dude. Anxiety kept me up and brought me here
me at 2am: alright im going to bed me at 4:30am:
Its exactly 4:30 am when i read this, i feel you brotha
Fax xxxxxxxxx
same
It’s 2 am and I start to worry
That's 3:43 am now where i live, and can't stop watching it ahahaha
I was so confused when he wrapped that thing in wire
Me too. I didn't know what I was supposed to be looking at after he cut the wire off, scraped the 'stuff' off & displayed the blade....erm ok?!?
As I understand it, the purpose is for the goo/clay/cement stuff to shield the spine during the quench so that the edge can get hard without the spine getting brittle. The resulting visual effect of this is called a hamon, I believe. The clay won't stick to the blade as is so that's why you wrap the blade in wire; to give the clay something to hold on to.
@@datruommi Thanks for that......obviously I'm a layman but it was very fascinating.
Leap mačeta
It’s called casting or forging
By the looks of his left forearm, he's sharpened a lot of knives
How can you tell?
@@supaMcnugget09 because there is not a lot of hair, and he shaved his arm-hair with the knive he sharped.
@@rojdakisa7620 oh okay lol ty
The likes are nice
@@schizophil1 69 is trash
That is a long intro for a tutorial on how to prepare melon.
😂 lol
lmfao
😂😂😂
Dudes literally got all this wood, materiel and shit, and cuts his food on a damn Tupperware lid
I was like “alright it makes sense so far” and then he pulls out the fuckin brick layer lmao
Friend: Wow playing a violin seems so cool! How it feels playing on a violin: 16:07
As a fellow violinist, I can attest
I play viola, and trust me, it feels like hell in the beginning but gets better with some practice 😃
@@mallek7567 My fingers do be complaining 😞
i play guitar but same, cus my mexican parents tell me to press the cord s as hard as I possibly can and it hurts my fingers
- You know I've got a big Japanese knife at home. - oh, what are gonna do with it? - shave my hair.
Weapon Name: Rusty Knife Condition: Badly Damaged Element: None Damage: 98-134 Super effective against: Non vaccinated kid (x4 dmg)
Element: diseases
Bruh *Modern problems require modern solutions*
Damn with people of today that means it’s effective against a large portion of American children. lol
@@imreallytired4457 علي من لاك
where the funny at
Watching these I was like " dude calm down" then after a while, oh , the video is fast forwarded. I felt stupid for a while. So your video deserves a like
I love these videos, I have no idea what you're doing half the time so it's just pure smooth brain delight for me 🤩
Me too
Video ASMR
ik right i love these types of videos
Next : I wanna see you take a rusty Honda and turn it into a high end sports car.
Lol
class mate
make it italian also..
Go watch boostedboiz videos lmao
Everybody knows Honda's don't rust. They are just self lightening.
what i love about this channel that isn't like other channels is that this guy doesn't spend 5 minutes showing you every angle possible of the knife. thank you
Holds the blade by the edge while using a bandsaw. You’re a friggin' genius.
I'd say that it's prbably quite dull in that rusty state it was in.
Never mind, he did it again later after sharpening it.... I should have waited with my post.... -_-
625iq
Your work is really great, truly artistic and seeing this makes me happy!! Awesome!!
Today: 2$ rusty knife to high end Japanese knife Tommorow: 1$ pipe to high end Japanese sword
or rusty american car into high end japanese quality?
It fooking euros
lols
Oh cleaver! Trying to degrade the man's work is what women do to men, like to try again?
Okay it’s five months later, shouldn’t it now be “paper clip” into the large hadron collider
How to turn a $2 knife into a more expensive looking $2 knife
Hahahaha
Yeah and why does he specify "japanese" is it because the style or he wants to milk weaboos and the algorithom :just saw description but still think its milking
@@sharkisha-lekondra-mebarbo914 Who cares? You either enjoyed watching the video or you didnt.
The time you spent hand filing the slot, you could have got a cheap file blade, cut the back end of it into a tang that fit into a sawzall and filed the slot out. The whole process would have taken about ten minutes and then you'd still have the file blade for next time.
@@THX-vb8yz😆😆😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈 x
Im just saying if theres a zombie outbreak we need this guy
So he can derust our knives?
Thanks for sharing this fascinating project ... I saw some new things and learned some new tricks and for this old dog, that's quite the task. Also, kudos on your extensive notes and timeline ... it really does help those of us that are new to this type of restoration. Cheers ...
That trick with the slotted dowel back into the handle is brilliant
More like idiotic, but what do you know.
If only everyone had that kind of patience and dedication to making things better rather than throwing them away... Very well done!
Многие люди выкидывают старые вещи ,а Вы молодец превращаете их в шедевр . Благодарю Вас за видео.
Awesome skills, awesome tools, awesome end product, awesome video! Thank you
Looks like "spending 2000$ to turn 2$ knife into 20$ knife" :P
Profit
Stonks
And he still leaves too much pitting :/
he has over 3 million views.. It was worth it
Azziee well he already had the stuff ?
You put in that thing so much love and passion Man that's Amazing! You are a Artist!
Amazing craftsmanship. Just beautiful.
Great Job man. while watching you put it together more than a couple times i was wondering where I was going to be able to source the miscellaneous parts. So I was glad to see you have an online store front. I think a kiln would be my first investment. I could go digital like you, or a propane home made style first to test the "water" its all in what I want out of a finial product from there. thanks for the great vid. liked and shared.
This guy owns every kind of tools ever made by humans on earth but couldn’t find a chopping board!! Nice work though :)
Great comment hahahahhahaha
Lol 👍👍👍
He could've made one in the process
@@justiny.defenceforce189 yeah
Why not z Rocomarziaano
Her dad: What are your intentions with my daughter? Me: 13:35
Robert Ambrose ikr
😂😂😂😂😂
WTF dude?????😂😂
DAMN DUDE 🤣🤣🤣
11:26 , 11:33 , 13:35 🤣🤣🤣
That looks like such a good knife now! such good craftsmenship! thanks for the share!
Admirable know-how and skill. Presentation too.
"There's an issue here. There is no physical connection between the blade and the handle, it's only glued. That is why it would be unsafe to hammer your blade against a 600 lb block of sheer lead. Thus I invite you to shake your opponents hand and then ask you to leave the forge."
Lol
This isn’t forged in fire dude xd
Lmao your knife doesn't cut.
Pretty sure it will keel tho
Lol about to comment the same thing
Time and time again you make some of the most aesthetically pleasing handles I’ve seen. Truly beautiful stuff. Great work!
And you try to say in person what you say behind your back ...
WONDERFUL CRAFTMANSHIP! Couldn't take my eyes off!
That’s beautiful!!! That tang to handle connection is wild!!!
I have watched another one of these in my recommended and now my recommended looks like I am planning a murder😂 Edit: Tysm for the likes 😁 I have never got this many. Thanks!
mine too. Machining gun parts ... knives ... an anvil and other things
I watched gunshot wounds and stab wounds healing timelapses and youtube thinks im a doctor/surgeon
Same🤣😂
Same 😂😂😂
Jack Williams samee
Once again pure craftsmanship. A delight to watch.
you have no idea how much I regret not watching this video when it was first recommended. Back when KZhead suggested this video I was making a lawnmower blade knife and I wanted to try differential hardening on the blade. My improvised plaster of paris method did not give the result I was looking for. Well, it can cut stuff at least... what you did with wire and clay looked so much more elegant. I had trouble getting clay to stay on while heating.
A true master at work. Well done.
how does this guy manage to just stay silent, I'd be talking to myself or singing out loud during the whole thing silent legend
probably headphones
I like the background sounds and the non talking. Its relaxing and makes me wanna sleep heheh. Good video! :)
Amazing work. I test the blade the same way. Good times!
how did you make it japanese
@ThatSalmiacGuy XD
he used google translate
He forced it to watch anime
Devo Blanco he used a Japanese blade tempering technique
Title is missing "style" after "Japanese". But tbh this is YT in 2019, do you think it'd make 3 mln views without hyped up title?
Wow on the handle, love the square peg in a round hole tip.
John Kennedy I thought that was pretty bad ass as well!
pretty cool. love the handle
I always watch these kinds of videos at night
The Algorythms knows
John Lydgate said “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. Personally I think you did a great job. 👍
Personally I think you're an idiot.
Paraphrase of Abe Lincolns - You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Maga man: Says the person with a picture of the biggest idiot the worlds ever seen next to them. 😏
redroyandeb he has a point this guy did a terrible job on the knife, he absolutely ruined it and many a people are led to believe that this knife was done well.
I watched you restore a knife and I learned a way to better slice a cantaloupe!
I really like that you use Lidl bought power tools, it really boosts my confidence :)
I think this is the third time I've watched this video. I just keep coming back to it.
You turned that into an awesome chef knife! I would love to have it!! Keep the good work up and thank you for sharing that!!
Kwiiten :/ I have a chef knife. I would like to buy the one he made. God did not bless me with the talent to do what he does! That's why I would like to buy it I wasn't saying that because I wanted him to give it to me nor do I think I deserve it for no reason. But if he was interested in selling it I would be interested in buying it. I think he should be paid for his talent!
Kwiiten :/ why do you care about my age and how much I cook? How old are you and how much do you cook?
Kwiiten :/ I wasn't asking for nothing lm 54 years old and cook pretty much everyday and I can believe you're 12 because you sure act like it. Now you need to get on with your life and mind your own business and don't worry about mine!! I was just admiring something someone done. I thought he made a beautiful knife out of something that looked like a lost cause.
Kwiiten :/ I did not ask for it I said I would love to have it there is a big difference you dumbass! And yeah you must give a fuck because you sure don't know how to shut the fuck up and mind your own business!!!!!
Kwiiten :/ I congratulating someone for a job well done and stated I would love to have the product he produced! But now I wish I had never wrote a word!! So go ahead with your trolling since you have no life!! I'm done with you!!!!
Love the end result your craft and what you do is truly beautiful
Cutting that tomato..... Ginsu Knife! Now cut an aluminium can!
Absolutely love watching your videos
description would be more accurate with "Japanese style" since the blade is double bevel whereas actual Japanese chef's knives are single bevel . still a nice knife.
Thanks for the tip captain bevel.
not all Japanese chefs knives are single bevel ... in fact thats a feature one only a few very specific knives the majority are a dual bevel convex grind this is mostly due to the habit of using laminated steel due to their poor quality ore so the majority of their traditional blades are san mai or greater so only the core steel is hardened with mild steel jackets thus dual beveled
but hey what do i know im just a career blacksmith with 27 years of experience under my belt 23 of which has been making blades .... go read master bladesmith Murray Carter's book he studied traditional bladesmithing in japan for 18 years ...good read... some of it pertaining to heat treatment is bullshit of course but good read nonetheless
@@filipfranek729 stay tuned for future bevelopments
13:36 My brain: Don’t
Ooo I get it
I was looking for this comment lmaO Thought I was just immature but it seems we all are😔
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
@@freshbread4039 LOL
😳
Damn thats nice!!! Good work mate! 😎🤙💯
A beautiful thing to behold. From useless to useful. A trip to the Masters hands has restored beyond what it once was intended for!
Your videos make me want to get into metalworking
Anyone else watch these kinda videos for the satisfying high speed clanking sounds?
NMECuPcAkE52 me i like the souds
No,just fan of big ass knifes and axes
Me
Nope.
Its ASMR, he just doesn't put it 9n the title
Wow, what a beautiful project - you should make a cutting board next with some of the same trim pieces and woods. Thanks for all the detailed documentation of your steps also.
I love the fact that we’re 7 millions who saw this and just go: iNteReStINg
Well done, it’s really beautiful
“Honey, why is there little hairs in my fruit?”
Looks away grinning*
I love seeing your knife restorations. Always satisfying seeing the final product. Nice work!
beautiful work sir.
Satisfying Vid. It is awesome that in our consumerist society someone refurbishes something instead of disposing of it.
Dude. Right on. You are very talented! Cool little video and project. Thanks for sharing with us.
I must have missed the High-End and Japanese Chef part, but apart from that, nice job
He used a differential heat to make the spine soft and the cutting edge hard. Considering 99% of chefs knives out there don't do that I'd call that high end.
@@kkknotcool It doesnt work like that. Putting clay on an already heat treated knife does nothing.
@@kkknotcool this is far away from High End, the shape is not Japanese chef its manga pirate sword and the heat treatment methods, hundred of years old and done so la la... Still all solid hard passionate hobby work, but the titel doesn't match the product, that's all im saying.
He applied for and got Japanese Citizenship, it said so on the passport.
@@Bennowolf21 Clay on a hot knife keeps the metal from touching the water in the quench. The speed of the cooling is what makes different crystals in the steel. It's not as effective as heating the edge directly but it's a proven method.
This man does some good work!
Netflix: are you still watching? Someone’s daughter right now: 13:35
This guy looks more professional than most of this kind of videos on youtube. I think he is doing a great job. And this videos are so satisfying too
@13:31 that's a really smart way of wood-turning, brilliant. The "Man-Bun Bandit" strikes again.
I found that that part were he's getting off all that dirt and rust really satisfying
No
@@puppified Yes
Where lockdown has brought me 😂🔥
Ikr
Yes me to 😂😂😂
The sad truth lmao
I was flinching a bit at some of your techniques but fair play to you. Then when you did the proper test of 'does it shave your arm' I thought, 'This blokes got it'.
When he welded the tang my heart dropped
1:43 nice gravity blasts 🥁 😂
You did a good job, you made the tang so skinny, and I wouldn't call high end, but a it's nice looking, you worked hard
All of my knifemaker friends always ask me how I can tell instantly which hand they use to test their knives, and all I have to do is look at which arm has no hair.
Lol that's how I know when to finally stop sharpening my knife. My left arm always has bald patches .
I know right.
Beautiful. I would be proud to own it!
I really feel that you messed up the tang making it so thin. Hope it don’t snap at the handle when ya use it.
A fancy handle and reshaping it, doesn't improve crappy steel. It's ok sharpening it to shave a few hairs, but it won't hold an edge.
Hard to say if its crapy steel. O-1 tool steel is cheap and you can harden it very nicely. A good heat treat is all he really needs.
@@Bshwag You can if you know it's O1...problem here: he nor anybody has the slightless idea about what steel is...probably 420 or similar, so no high end anything can come from that. All this is retarded clickbait
TheChzoronzon, i think even worse. 420 has decent amount of chrome, this piece of... steel rusty all the way, so you know where i am going.
@@7501Nitai Good quality high carbon steels will rust like crazy, The problem is cheap ones will too but at least with a high carbon steel you can get a reasonable knife even if it cheap as hell. It just won't have consistent internal structures.
@@Bshwag Cheap cutlery steel rarely is made of plain carbon steel 1065-80 etc...precisely for the rusting issues, I can only think of Opinel still doing that
Tang is crazy skinny for a blade of that size an an odd shape for a chef knife looks more like a Bowie
damn straight tang way to tiny
it looks like that this knife is modified just for trhe video .
Absolutely no structural integrity for this blade. I have no idea WTF he was thinking when he removed 3/4 of the tang's width Somebody will end up with just the handle in his hand in no time..
Dylan Klemm agreed
should of kept the full tang or at laest add some more steel to make the handle into a bolster
Beautifull job, love it!
Ah, the humble tomato. A staple in any knife restoration video. XD
absolutely gorgeous ! i didn't understood all steps but love seeing process .
@@Thomas.Wright thanks now im lost . All those tehnical words in english. Totaly lost 😅
RedKanyon what language do you speak
@@brandonwilliams8003 french
RedKanyon Gardez à l'esprit que certaines des choses qu'il a essayées ont en réalité échoué. il explique cela dans la description de la vidéo.
@@brandonwilliams8003 j'avais compris ça. La ou j'étais perdu cest tout les termes techniques de la description ahahah
Lo dejó mejor que nuevo...el mango padrísimo 🖤🤘
amazing video , amazing knife , amazing man . thank you for this video .
I gets a lots of ideas and learn from your videos thanks…
He: *finishes a knive* His hairs: *no please don't*
This is the comment I came looking for 🤣
@Mikan Tsumiki lol thanks
@@WanhedaPY 😂😂
@@WanhedaPY same X
Great vid. But should put some explain text so we understand the “why” of some of your actions and what elements you used to help get it to new.
So relaxing!
Excelente trabajo amigo, me encantó la técnica del mango. saludos.
I enjoyed watching the show. But what you made was not a Japanese Chef's Knife.......Completely different.......From Japanese
Absolutely, the Japanese know how to make a fine knife!
a k tip wa gyuto with a hamon line? NOOOOO. NO WAY
I really love the result. Well done 👍🏻
Ccccçcc
Complimenti, sia per il risultato finale del prodotto che non faceva sperare un finale buonissimo ma per la capacità di lavorare dell'artista.
beautiful job
16:39 For a second I was thinking this man was gonna chop his hands of
I'm pretty sure a "high-end" Japanese Chef's knife wouldn't struggle even a little bit to get through a cantaloupe skin!
there fake as fuck videos
@@kevinmorrice no, but cheap steel isn’t gonna turn high-end by taking rust off of it. He designed it to look like one.
Yeah, that was embarrassing 17:50
i think he meant high end by the fact he heat treated it? that doesn't matter though, dont post hateful shit please!
@Leopards 2334 What exactly was "hateful shit? Really, you labeling anybody's opinion you don't agree with as "hateful shit", really was the only hateful comment I see.