These are done, too!

Husband-and-wife knife pair done! The small one is a 4" (105mm) paring knife with African mahogany handle and forest green metallic pin fill. The larger one is a 6" (155mm) santoku with Caribbean rosewood handle and cobalt blue pin fill. The santoku’s profile lets you slice, chop, mince, and scoop, even in limited prep space! This one is a “custom-custom” with a 15° upward-angled handle. Since this changes how the user holds the knife, I made small handle modifications to improve its comfort at this angle.

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Those are beautiful. I wish I had enough disposable income to justify buying really nice knives (when the ones I have work just fine). I have a santoku knife, but it’s really too big for my hand.

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So beautiful!

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Thanks small_h! That’s one of the nice things about buying custom – you can request modifications to fit your own dimensions! (This is similar to the custom bicycle I ordered about 10 yrs ago.) I made a santoku last year with a customer request for a slightly larger handle (pics attached). I made it slightly fatter around and about 1/2" longer, while still keeping the knife balance centered at the pinch-grip location.

For your own knife, are you talking about the blade length or the handle size? The blade can be shortened, but the handle’s material might prevent it from being reshaped.

The blade is fine, but the handle isn’t tapered like yours - it’s straight-sided and not that comfortable to get my hand around. Unlike my workhorse Henckels, which has a more cylindrical handle.

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If your handle is wood then it should be modifiable to some extent. Maybe a bit less modifiable if it’s hard plastic. If it soft plastic/rubberized then there may not be much you can do to it.

It’s wood. I could probably get in touch with the (very nice) place I bought it and ask them.

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Beautiful

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I am curious, how long does it take to make one of these knives from the beginning to the end?

They are beautiful.

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Right now it takes about 30 hrs per knife, but it’s spread out over 6 to 8 weeks. The majority of the waiting comes from the various waterproofing steps I apply to the wood handle scales both before and after attachment and shaping. I’m looking at a few ways to cut down the wait time a bit, but I’m always going to take the extra steps that other manufacturers won’t.

The other question. How many knives can you work at a given time?

Good question! I used to HAVE to work the knives in batches, because my local heat treater imposed a minimum quantity on my h/t orders. The shop was recently bought by a new owner and he’s agreed to charge me for single knives instead of batches. This “batch” nature of jobs meant I really couldn’t start new batches easily while working a current batch. Now, however, I can easily start any knife at any point of a previous order’s progress. :slight_smile: