knife part II

So I picked up the knife blanks.  

Here is what I learned:

• I used 1/8" 301 304 stainless which may be a little too thick
• 301 304 stainless is not hardened tool steel so I need to experiment with cutting to determine how long the edge will keep. 301 is the same stainless industrial kitchen table tops are made from. 
• My design is not perfect.  I think the handle needs to be longer in order for it to be better balanced and usable.  
• I made two sizes, the larger blade is about eight inches long.   Unfortunately the handle on the larger knife is WAY too small.
• I need to figure out how to stamp or mark the blade.  
• I am also rough grinding the blade as much as I can and then I am actually having the edge ground by a cutlery expert near the CIA (Culinary Institute of America).  I would love to do it myself, but until I can get a hold of some proper tools (Belt grinder etc) I am going to leave it to the experts.  
• I have to alter the design a bit but I would like to make more soon for the holiday season.  
• I should really put a hole in it, either for rivets or for it to hang on something.  

knife research Part ONE

Sooooooo coming off making two cutting boards for friends I have decided to do a limited run of knives.  

On with the research.  

Sometime last year I thought it would be great to make a couple of knives.  I ordered some knife steel and quickly realized..... that I didn't have the right tools to make what I wanted.  I burned up bits,  I snapped sanding belts and melted few things.  Plan B, fast forward to today.  I thought I would laser cut the metal and then all I would have to do it put on an edge and maybe make a handle?

So a little research.  First, I found this website that was incredibly informative.  This website made me realize that I was missing some of the vocabulary and design elements that would be necessary to even attempt making a a knife.  

I have a lot of experience with knives.  Ever since I was a teenager I have always had a knife on me or near me.  It all started with the swiss army knife then later a folding spyderco, then a gerber, saber on and on and on.  When I was older, working on two houses and having a full time job teaching studio classes  I was actually detained at an airport because I forgot to leave my knife at home.  I also love cooking and using knives in the kitchen.  De-boning turkeys, chickens and roasts.  Cutting Soba noodles.  

I have started designing a few things in Rhino and have based the design on a basic vegetable chopping knife/chefs knife hybrid.  I made two sizes thinking that one might make a great bench knife or prep knife.   

Getting it done

So I had recently been invited to do a craft holiday sale. I thought that I would make some cutting boards and knives. I have been doing some research and found a local company to cut the stainless for the knives after which I will grind and finish them myself.  I think this will work a lot better than cutting them from blanks. They gave us a tour of the facility which was kind of eye opening.  I have to admit it is very nice to have this in your back yard. I actually had to kind of shut my brain off for a while so I can focus on knives. There are so many things I would like to make with all of this equipment.

 

 Not only do they have a super laser! They also have a CNC turret punch which is used to cut holes, straight lines, knockouts, louvers etc. For some things it is cheaper to mechanically stamp/shear/form than to laser.  Also aluminum is far safer to stamp than laser because of fumes etc. 

Zoom symposium

Last week I was invited to speak at my alma mater, Indiana University Bloomington.  I was honored to be invited and absolutely thrilled at the chance to come back to IU to visit some of my old haunts (Runcible spoon and Rockits pizza).  

The symposium itself was a blast.  Liz and I met a lot of great young artists from different schools across the midwest.  We also had a great time taking part in the workshops and enjoyed a lot of the other lectures.  I regret not taking part in the round table discussion but I couldn't help getting swept away in the nostalgia. By the end Liz was sick of me being the tour guide. "Thats where I taught 3D foundations!" "We just drove by my old apartment!" "I used to come here for pancakes." 

My conference experience was very intimate  I had a chance to talk to a lot of students and actually have real conversations with them. Liz also had an opportunity to ask a lot of them of what they thought of grad school and how things were going. Being able to tour the Kinsey Institute and visit the Lily Library to see an actual Gutenberg bible was a treat. Honestly, there was a lot to do and really not enough time to do it all.   

It was also nice to visit my old bench back in the grad studio and to visit McCalla school where I spent a lot of my time. 

I would also like to thank the IU metals students, Randy and Nicole for such a wonderful experience.  They worked so hard to make all of this happen and it showed. 

I will be participating/attending/demoing at this years ECU symposium. It will be interesting to see how the two compare.  

The exhibitions where incredible.  Shift, was a great opportunity to see so many great artist's work in person.  The layout was well planned.  Not too crowded and not too spaced out. Often having that much jewelry in one room would mean total chaos but this worked on multiple levels.  I also enjoyed seeing new work from Don Friedlich (3D printed glass!!), Iris Eichenberg and Kristen Haydon. I also appreciated that they decided to use the ipad to display video throughout the exhibition   Two in particular were Melanie Bilenker placing her bits of hair and Gabriel Craig raising awareness. The show itself was intimidating being that there was so much work, but not unapproachable.  I was also interesting to see a range of work in the show.  There were a number of sculptural pieces that were more about jewelry and its relationship to the body.  Caroline Gore's piece Mercurial Silence dominated this category, taking up the entire back wall of the gallery (detail shot above). I am often impressed with the level of craftsmanship that metalsmiths put into crafting other objects. The large "findings" on her wood pieces and the attention to the larger black "pearls" were impressive. 

I was also impressed with Crush II, an exhibition curated by two IU alum, Sara Brown and Galatea Kontos.  Filled with a number of great pieces from jewelers like Iris Bobemer, Julia Turner, Tara Locklear, Bob Ebendorf and Heejim Hwang just to name a few.  I was pleased to be able to actually purchase a piece (fingers crossed). Collect was a collection from a local collector. There were some Alma Eikerman pieces there, which were nice to see in person. 

When I first arrived on campus it was so strange to think that eight years ago I was smoking cigarettes with other grad students and working all hours into the night trying to find my way through school.  I have so many great memories of IU where I really felt I was given an opportunity to be creative and all of the support to be able to do anything I wanted.   Ahhhhh the memories.    

I also had some opportunities to create some new memories having long talks with Michael Dale Bernard, Tara Locklear, Sim Luttin, Linda Hughes and Yevegenia Kaganovich. 

Enough cheese!  Here are some photos from the trip.  Also if you are in the area go see these shows! 

keri and colin's cutting board

My first real cut on my laser was a cutting board I made for two of the best people ever! Kerianne Kwik and Conin Storer. I may start selling these on my Etsy site for the holiday. I will keep you posted.

ipad apps

I love using the ipad as a sketching tool. I often take it on trips and try to do CAD work on it. There are a few apps here and there that are useful but not great.  I have been using touchdraw  and sometimes inkpad 

 If anyone knows of a good vector editing app please let me know. 

 I also use a few sketching apps.  For everything I use the Idonit jot pro 

 Also, I just saw this video for printing out your sketches. Not too bad


 




Also I love their Sketching app.  

Color / Mix it Up from FiftyThree on Vimeo.