A small vegetable knife

As you may have worked out by now, I love repurposing steel. The idea of taking something that is actually made of a material that is decent for its purpose, but yet will be thrown away or allowed to rust to death in the shallows of someones garage or basement/cellar and breathing new life into it, really makes me happy. The more obscure the item the better to be fair. And so like the kitchen knife, this small paring/vegetable knife took shape.

Main differences, size. its small. like it should be. blade collar. it has a blackened and enamelled habaki,. this was tough. didnt think the nakago would be long enough to support the blade but I was wrong. its not a hack em up knife, its a small razor.

 Tsuka is Channelled but because of its intended use, rather than pegging it together I decided to carve the channel and use a slow setting 24 hour 2 part epoxy. For what its going to be used for alongside its shape and size, I need not worry about it escaping from its handle.

 I was told by my father that it was essentially rubbish. It looks like a piece of scrap metal apparently. I understand what he's saying. I disagree, but I can see what he means. I like the 'brut forge' appearance but he does now. a pity really as its sharp as hell and it actually my now go to knife for veg prep. I think he wants shiny rather than cool. but I mean, thats what makes this sort of thing an art and not the product of a set of rules. everyones a fucking critic. :)

ok. so just to reiterate. This was made from a repurposed hay knife. It is very high carbon steel, but it is originally cast rather than forged out. this is what makes the interesting patterns in the steel as it cools at slightly different rates (not much) which allows the steel to almost make a pancake batter type patterning as its poured. hay knives are large tools used to cut bales of hay. they are typically 2 to 2 and a half foot long with a perpendicular handle. google is your friend ;)

The knife has a thousand flaws... BUT.. its very sharp, its so very useful and its a from scratch project I did in one room with nothing but a 12mm belt sander, all.. and i mean alll the wet and dry sandpaper, a waterstone, some beech, this is my first habaki really. I know it shows, but the knife is solid. I now know what to do to make my next one awesome. :) and it would of sat around rusting. but I gave it new life. rock on! \m/