Greetings and Huge Chopper Knife (Cliff/Dan K Inspiration and Tribute)

Hello to all, I'm finally happy to be here after lurking for quite some time, and learning many things from so many great people on here.

*First I would like to begin by saying that Cliff is always in our thoughts and hearts. May God rest his soul forever.*

A little introduction about myself:
-I've been a hobbyist Bladesmith for about a a year-and-a-half. I've been on bladeforums for awhile now, I regret not being apart of this community while Cliff was still here...
-Japanese sword enthusiast
-Forging FTW

Secondly:

I've made my share of large knives, both outdoor and kitchen (cleaver and chefs), I even had two Japanese swords that are forged out and only needing cleanup and heat treating.

However, about a year back, I started looking further into larger chopping knifes/Comp Choppers/Bladesports etc. found Dan Keffeler and really enjoyed his material. Then not long after I come to find that Cliff has a huge custom knife that was made by Keffeler. Well, needless to say, I started wanting a monstrous knife like that. I was in the middle of other knives so I didn't really want to drop those and have multiple incomplete blades.

Recently, I was able to start this project and I'm in the finishing stages now. I will firstly point out that even though I truly loved Cliff's blade, I didn't want a carbon copy in terms of appearance. I always like to have a little bit of my own influence on every blade I make. I did want certain parameters from his blade though; specifically mass and POB, having the ability to deliver heavy chops similar to an axe, yet still work like a knife as well.

My Blade (and it's differences from Cliffs/Dan's design philosophy):
-I wanted my blade to have curvature (this was easy since I forging the bevels in which caused it to naturally bow)
-No guard. To be honest for me, this knife is so huge and wide that the blade acts as it's own guard and I don't really see the functionality of it for me. Although it looks great and is pretty much a staple for Dan Keffeler's design language.
-Wooden handle (I'm just partial to this and love wood over any other material for my handles).

Steel being used is W2.

Things needing to be done:
-Finish handle, apply contours etc.
-Heat Treat (Will be Deferentially hardened/Hamon)

Some Specs (as of now):
-14" blade x 2.5 inches wide, 0.265" thick
-Handle is just under 8" (multiple grips)
-Rough weight = 2.67lbs! ~1212grams

Some pics of this behemoth should be attached. Thoughts and comments are more than welcome! Once again thanks for welcoming me to the forums, and I can only hope Cliff is proud of this one.







Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2022 07:00AM by Future Samurai.

Welcome to the forum!

Looks good. I look forward to seeing how the handle turns out.

Welcome! I have always wanted a knife like Cliff's custom Dan Keffler. The handle design is amazing, as it seems very practical and ergonomic. I think Dan Keffler lives here in Oregon.

Thank you! As do I, for the handle, comfort is going to be #1 with something this heavy.

I like the wood. I wonder about the longevity of the thin wooden projections at the blade heel, especially given the way the grain appears to run.

Dan Keffeler got away with something similar in Cliff Stamp's blade (images here: T0.1M), but the material was different and the projections had some protection from the metal below them.

(In either blade) I certainly see the ergonomic advantage of having handle material there, though, rather than just metal, however it is accomplished.

Any thoughts?

Quote
jasonstone20
Welcome! I have always wanted a knife like Cliff's custom Dan Keffler. The handle design is amazing, as it seems very practical and ergonomic. I think Dan Keffler lives here in Oregon.

Yes. I too wanted something insane like that when I saw it lol. There's just something about it that I find kind of hilarious, it feels like I'm holding an axe and then I look at it and it's this giant knife! The handle is also inspired by Dan's designs since the guy knows his stuff, but again I tried to not copy it 100%.

Also, one important thing. I remember Cliff talking about his and saying it was blade-heavy but not that unwieldy in the forward grip. With the weight of this tool, I honestly didn't believe him. But now that I'm actually holding something almost identical, it's very true! It does feel heavy and substantial, but swinging it around is nowhere near to how I imagined it, feels great to be honest.

(BTW, I removed the image attachments and reposted them as URLs so they are visible inside the text box)

I've done this with a few other handles with the grain running this way. I've yet to experience any issues, after epoxying the handle and applying several coats of oil polyurethane to seal it. I've also yet to round everything off which will take off the stressed sharp corners from sawing and filing the handle.

In the end, only time and usage will tell, but from my experience I don't see why I'll have any big problems. Additionally because the knife is partial tang there is a 3rd little inserted piece of wood (not sure if you can it in the first picture) which conforms to the shape of the end of the tang which glued together to both handle slabs.

That's a monster. look forward to seeing some video or otherwise if you are inclined when it is complete.

Hey Kyley, great to see you here!

Yes, it's quite ridiculous. As for cutting and chopping footage, absolutely, there will be tests seeing how it performs in different types of work (light, medium, heavy) with different cutting mediums.

Quote
Future Samurai
I've yet to experience any issues

Good to hear.

Quote
Future Samurai
Additionally because the knife is partial tang there is a 3rd little inserted piece of wood (not sure if you can it in the first picture) which conforms to the shape of the end of the tang which glued together to both handle slabs.

Yep. The built-up handle-end is nice.

---

I like a number of things about this knife so far, including:

- general absence of superfluous features
- choice of an inexpensive tool steel
- multi-position handle.

---

How thin is the edge currently (prior to heat treatment)?

How much (if any) do you expect the edge to retreat (measured in the vertical/blade-height direction) as a result of heat treatment and subsequent grinding?

---

Quote
cKc (Kyley Harris)
look forward to seeing some video or otherwise if you are inclined when it is complete.

Agreed.

Quote
alkali

Yep. The built-up handle-end is nice.

Thanks!

Quote
alkali

I like a number of things about this knife so far, including:

- general absence of superfluous features
- choice of an inexpensive tool steel
- multi-position handle.

Yeah, As monstrous as this knife is, at the end of the day it's a working tool that I will be using for a very long time, and thus I wanted it's design to be practical and ergonomic without unneeded flare (Partly, the reason I went with wood for the handle, I've always like it, and it gives that breath of old-school, rustic feel IMO)

---

Steel... yes. I love shallow hardening steel, I love brine/Superquench, and I love hamons. Reason enough right

On a more serious note, it was what was available for the size I needed for this project. With the sheer volume and amount of steel in this blade, it has no flexion at all that I can see, hence Differential hardening will not be an issue, as the likelihood of this blade taking a set (with even the heaviest work that I do) is pretty much nil. Plus, regarding absolute failure (not just a slight warp in the spine) on a blade like this.... well, it's pretty much indestructible.

Easy to sharpen/grind (regardless of hardness), very fine-grained, very high stability at very high hardness, and thus takes and keeps wicked fine edge.

---

The multi position grip was another feature that I wanted since I saw it on Cliff's knife. Really feels hefty in the rear grip, akin to an axe. Plus, having a very large handle allows for different techniques when cutting or chopping.

Quote
alkali

How thin is the edge currently (prior to heat treatment)?

How much (if any) do you expect the edge to retreat (measured in the vertical/blade-height direction) as a result of heat treatment and subsequent grinding?

The edge right now is about 0.030". I will be taking it down to 1mm (0.040) for heat treat, as that is always what I leave it at for quenching without issue.

I expect the edge to retreat at most 1/32"/0.030 or less (pretty much nothing in terms of the width of this blade), as only a very shallow portion of the edge will be affected by decarb, so grinding will be minimal, pretty much only to sharpen the edge at that point. I don't do long or hot soaks with W2, so decard will be kept to a minimum.

All in all, The pictures above pretty much illustrate exactly how the blade is going to look when finished. Nothing will change pretty much, which I'm happy about, the way it looks is just awesome to my eyes at least.

P.S. I will get video of it



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2021 08:25AM by Future Samurai.