Modified little Carter

I recently sold this knife before it was able to reach the BST, but wanted to share it anyway.

I ordered this kurouchi funayuki some years ago and it was actually a bit of a disappointment. The edge was OK but not especially thin, the tip was a bit thick, the choil and spine were pretty crude and sharp and the handle was the cheapest type of handle you could get at the time. Compared to a larger second Carter I'd bought, the little one just wasn't in the same class geometrically.


with Zakuri funayuki (top)

Instead of immediately trying to pass the knife on to someone else, I figured I'd turn it into a bit of a project knife and see if I can bring out some of its potential.

The knife has been through two rehandles by @Anton in some nice figured woods, and the blade has been thinned quite a bit. I was not supremely diligent in preserving the kurouchi, which was not perfect to begin with, but it has not been ruined.




A big worry is the knife's finish...though the geometry has, in my opinion, been improved, the finish is neither an original finish from the maker, nor a perfect kasumi thing. In the pics above, there are different "working" finishes on each side, since I tried to have some fun experimenting with different methods. Neither was very refined, though they are much finer than the original grinder & buffer finish on the original.

With the buyer's permission, I went ahead and tried to refinish a bit...not to get a perfect finish, but to get what I felt was a "justifiably flawed" finish that suited the blade and handle.


You can still see some lower grit vestigial scratches. I thought they were acceptable.


this side has fewer visible scratches, but is a slightly less uniform natural stone finish

I'll be cleaning it up and shipping it out soonish, and I actually worry about the buyer not being satisfied with the end result, though the price was only modestly more than the price I originally paid (without the custom handle).

Anyway, thanks for looking...just wanted to share this little project.

 

That was a pretty interesting project! I wonder how many hours of additional work were invested into that knife.

I searched my archives for old pictures and found one that's showing original finish:


…and a picture of that knife after first rehandling and basic polishing:

The spacer was made from stabilized Banksia, but apparently quality of stabilization wasn't good enough and spacer started to fall apart after some time. That's why the knife received new handle.

 

Thanks for digging up those pics, Anton! I think they do an even better job than my photos of showing the evolution of the knife.

As for hours...

 

I'm no expert bit the work looks great to my eyes @XooMG

 

Thanks @Alex Armstrong ! I sometimes like to share teaser pics of knife purchases, but I am usually pretty nervous about sticking my neck out and showing modifications. Am 90% sure I didn't ruin this knife.

 

I have a Carter that looks very much like your "before" pictures. I might have to try and clean it up a little--that looks great!

 

Thanks! I have a somewhat bigger Carter that I haven't modified because it may get resold someday and I don't want my refinishing to spoil its value.

In other news...anyone know when Murray started using blue steel again?

 

I am the buyer of this knife. I do not have the knife yet, so I cannot comment on it yet.Nevertheless, I would like to comment a bit on the process.

During an electronic conversation about another knife, @XooMG wrote me he wanted to sell his Carter. Since I was looking for a knife in between a gyuto and the petty and that I was interested in Murray Carter work (but found it expensive) that was a good opportunity.
@XooMG directly told me about about the history he had with the knife: significant thinning and rehandeling. I found it interesting. We speak of a knife that had three persons working on it Carter (or some of his apprentices), @XooMG and @Anton. I see this as a something very cool. I am not just buying a second hand object, but a blade that went through several hands to be improved. Each one left his mark, his contribution on it. For me this blade certainly has more soul thanks to that.
So when XooMG told me he wanted to to try different techniques to further improve the finish, which may delay the transaction, I was very open to it. He shared with me the different steps he had taken for the thinning and he shared with me the procedures he was conducting to improve the finish. We also exchanged about a lot of thing: heat treatment, sharpening, etc.

What I wanted to share here is how enjoyable this is! I really like that, in this community, selling a second hand knife to someone is just much more than that! It see it as a passing on a knife to someone else. It could have just been a couple of messages about price and shipping arrangement. But no: @XooMG clearly wanted to pass on this knife in the best condition so he further improved the finish, we had (and we are still having) a great discussion about it. All that is just priceless to me. Now, thanks to this thread, it is even shared with the rest of the community and I find it great!

I will certainly add some comment on the knife itself when I receive it.

But already: thank you @XooMG for the discussion and do not worry to much about me being satisty with your finish: I am already over-satisfied with our exchanges. The original Murray Carter's finish was clearly not perfect and even if yours might not be perfect neither, to my eyes it has something greater: a soul. I am looking forward to play with this blade and to continue our exchanges.

 

Now I bet the post office will lose it. Pressure's on.

 

I really appreciate your viewpoint on people other than the maker improving a knife. In kitchen knives, form and function seem to agree more than with any other discipline with which I'm familiar. You can just look at some knives, and know they'll work right.

 

I will give my first impression on this knife after a weekend of exclusive usage for al my family cooking.
I received the knife safely and very fast, nicely warped and oiled. @XooMG put a nice sharp edge on it before sending it to me that was easily shaving

This 15cm Funayuki has a very pleasing profile: small but high. Small enough to be used for whatever in a home kitchen. Big enough for knuckles clearance, and do some real cutting. For instance I prepared a quick small salad for my family (tomatoes, concombres, shallots, herbs, feta cheese, avocado), this was just perfect for the task. It is a gently curved blade with no clear flat spots, but still flat enough to chop a small ingredient; good for my pushcut basic technique. I also tried it on proteins to prepare a 1.5kg Picanha; surely a too big piece for this knife, but I wanted to test it. Once again it was good to trim some fat/nerves here and there and it went smoothly. The blade was definitively too small when it came to cut out steaks out of the piece. My masakage Yuki Suji 300mm (my wife calls it a “sword”) came on rescue. In short it is very versatile.

Because of what @XooMG wrote me before about his thinning I was not sure about the geometry of the blade. I was very pleased. It is very thin behind the edge, with a high grind. The tip is nice and goes effortless through most ingredients. I was scared about the geometry being too flat, but actually food release is more than decent, even on potatoes. That clearly reflects that the thinning of the blade has been done well to preserve/establish some convexity. Still, maybe the convexity could be a bit enhanced in the heel area, which I might do in time throughout sharpening; we speak of detail here.

I find that the finish of the blade that @XooMG discussed in this thread is very nice. Sure one can see the pattern of the scratches if one looks carefully. But the lines are very regular and very smoothed. I find it much better than the original finish based on pictures. Definitively @XooMG is too humble: very good work here!

Edge retention is decent but not excellent; that might be the minus. I used it over the weekend for testing on a bit everything. At the end of the weekend the edge was significantly less sharp than when I began with. Do not read me wrong: the edge is still good, but it has lost. It is a white#1 steel, so edge retention is not supposed to be at its best. Still it seems not as good as my Teruyasu Fujiwara.

Reactivity is overall not too strong. When I begin with a knife, I usually try to cut protein ASAP to establish a light patina. Reactivity of the core steel is very low. The cladding (where the KU is gone) is more reactive, but still not that much. It was good against all ingredients (including onions), but the cladding took instantly a grey-blueish patina when I cut potatoes.

The handle from @Anton is fantastic. As disclaimer, it is the first time that I put my hand on an handle made by a custom handle maker. Not only it is beautiful, its size, diameter and weight perfectly fit this small knife. I really insist on this. I often find that handles are way too big on small knife. Here is perfect both for the eye and the hand.

About F&F: the rounding of the spine/choil is absolutely perfect; among the best I have seen: great great work here from either @XooMG or @Anton.

Performance-wise, it is a bit hard to evaluate right now, because of the limited usage I have. Still it was good on everything. The minus might be hard ingredient (carrots). But it is really too soon to say anything accurate.

In short, I think it is a good small cutter, pleasing to use, very pleasing to the eye, with a great handle. So far the only small minus may be edge retention, but I have to see with time. For a second hand knife that really saw some action, this blade is far above what could be expected in term of finish.
Those are my impressions after a weekend and they may change with time. But I can already tell you that you are not going to see this piece on BST, I keep it. Thanks @XooMG for selling it to me!

 

Glad it did not disappoint, @zetieum. I think that knife has gotten more time on stones than any other in my collection save for Zakuri projects.

On the edge retention: try to put your own edge on it. My final sharpening might have been a bit overpolished and broke down prematurely. Do a touchup on your finer normal stones and see if it holds up a bit better.

Also thanks for crediting @Anton for his important contributions. His kindness and willingness to help actually made me reluctant to sell the knife.