One more knife - this time for me. .08" AEB-L stainless, probably about 61 hardness. rosewood handles. I made another one of this pattern for someone else, pictured earlier, and thought I would like to have it. but I now have five or six chef's knives of my own to figure out later.
this one still could use a little bit more finish in the front handle notch, and then I'll trim the last bit of filth that remains above the heel (it's just glue or something) and trim the glue at the front of the handle off so that it's crisp. That is just done with a fresh burr on a card scraper. it'll cut through finish easily, but the blade hardness will prevent it from marking the knife at all, even if the burr isn't very neat.
Aesthetics of making are getting better, but could still improve. As i've gotten older, I find it more interesting to figure out how to do things more neatly with repetition, and actually decreasing time to make each one vs. getting absurd with overly careful process and increasing time.
I did learn a lesson on this one. the handle finish is CA, so adding more in the front divot won't be any issue. It's not hard to add CA, but it's kind of miserable, so after filling the pores, I tried to switch to brushing lacquer. but even with a mechanical sanding (220 grit), the lacquer didn't adhere enough and as I was leveling it, some of a patch about the size of a BB broke loose. that was enough to kind of ruin the whole thing and I went all the way back to wood and just did CA. I don't know that a transition of shellac would improve things, but i'm trying to get to a decent moderate gloss handle faster and not slower with more steps.
so, it's either lacquer or CA, but not both.
The virtue of CA is that you can put it on and fill pores at the same time and it won't shrink back like lacquer and shellac wil.
This knife is blinding sharp, and I leave the heel on. I got nicked by it on two different fingers and it was almost a "nerve" less cut not felt at all.