Emberborn Santoku

Intro

This years birthday gift was a bit special. An opportunity to create knife of my own choosing under the supervision of a master blacksmith Lenart Perko (Emberborn). And what a gift it was / still is! We got to spend the whole day in a real blacksmith and learn about the magic of blacksmithing. The best thing, we did not go home empty handed, but with the most valuable knife of all, self-made!

Facts

Handle - Torminalis (Brek) Blade - 16cm santoku, kuro-uchi, high carbon steel

Roadmap

Shape

Together we drafted 1:1 size of selected knife shape. I have picked cca 16cm long santoku variant with flatter belly (focused more on chopping vegetables).

Material

Selecting the right steel, cutting it to the rough shape that can be manipulated later.

Blacksmithing part

• With use of different hammers, forming the steel to the desired rough shape.
• Normalization - Heating the steel to 500C about five times.
• Grinding basic shape.
• Quenching - Heating the steel to 750-950C and cooling it quickly in oil.
• Heating the steel at 210C for 1h.
• Grinding the cutting edge.
• Polishing.

Handle

Selecting the wood for the handle, forming it and attaching it to the blade itself.

Sharpening

Final sharpening. It really slices!

Book

https://emberborn.si/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/KOVASKO-NOZARSKI-PRIROCNIK.pdf