Re Profiled Gransfors Bruk.

Last summer, my good friend and associate Chris Grant came to stay with Sarah and I in our little home on Dartmoor.

As you may know, Chris is a Bladesmith, an old hand, who produces my MaChris line of carving and bushcraft knives.

As I have probably mentioned before, Chris has a super web site showcasing his knife making skills.

You can find it here at 

Makemethischris

Chris Grant near Start point, Devon.

As ever, we spent a lot of time chatting about knives, steel and Axes.

Chris has a knowledge of steel that will make ones mind boggle.

I mentioned to Chris that my Gransfors Bruk carving axe had a few design issues.

He had a look at the axe and decided to take it home to Scotland for a visit to his workshop.

L:standard-R:re profiled

The main issue for me lies beneath the beard of the axe.
A cunningly designed pinch point for my, ok, rather big fingers.

L:standard R:re profiled

Above, on the left is a standard G.B carver and on the right is the re-profiled carver.

You can just make out the easing of the tight pinch point in the beard.

Polished underside of the re ground beard.

 As well as easing the pinch point, Chris re-profiled the cutting edge, drawing the bevel out further toward the eye.

This re-profiling has given the axe a much better bite.
When sharpened one can feel an improvement in it's cutting ability.

It's now faster and more accurate, it slices further through the cut and is all together a much improved axe.

I have used the G.B extensively now for cutting spoon blanks and roughing out a wooden model of a cooking knife Chris and I are working on.
This is pretty well how all our knives start.

We will have a chat over the phone and when the time is right a model is made.
I then send it up to Chris and he performs his majik.
Tweaking a bit here and there until we are both satisfied we are heading in the right direction.
Once a top quality steel has been chosen that is suitable for the job in hand Chris will make a working prototype which is sent back to me for evaluation.
Now the flu I mentioned in my last post has gone, I can get back to working on our designs.
I'm having some folks stay here for a spot of camping and carving over the easter break, I'll put some of our knives in their hands for some useful feedback.



In the meantime I have been playing with kolrossing designs for my spoons.
You'll find a tutorial in my previous post.

I like how this one turned out, it's a bit shabby here and there, but I learned a lot for the next one.

Enjoy.... J