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~ Michael Moses Lishinsky ~
Wildfire Cutlery
Master Blade Smith
Hand made carbon steel kitchen knives
(If you cannot access the links below,
see bottom of this page
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Kitchen Knives - 4" to 6" length
Wait time as of 2/19 is 3 weeks.
Great book → "Bought, Borrowed, Stolen" , written By Allegra McEvedy, with a full page about Wildfire Cutlery.
See pdf HERE, page 2 (click title to go to Amazon).
and Guardian Article from UK - 10/12/2011
Above: 1" x 5" with standard Western style Rose Wood handle.
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Above: 1.5 x 7" with standard Western style Rose Wood handle.
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Above: Close up of my custom 1/4" rivet that is placed in
the butt of my handles. Square brass inside round brass, filled with
brass and steel rods and red-dyed epoxy. It goes through the handle.
click to enlarge
Above: 6" x 2.5" with standard western style handle with stabilized 'smoky' dyed
maple burl wood. Click for prices
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click to enlarge
Above: Fancy western style handle, with an 8" x 2.5".
This kitchen knife has stabilized Box Elder Burl wood.
The progression has two 1/8" black and white spacers and lastly the handle wood of Box Elder.
This is called a fancy handle, and costs $20 above cost of knife for spacers.
I make standard handles, as well as fancy and extra fancy.
E-mail me of your interests when ordering.
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click to enlarge
Above: Extra fancy handle on a 7" x 2.5" high carbon tool steel kitchen knife. The blonde handle wood
is called Myrtle. Above the Myrtle is brass sheet/1/2" stabilized Redwood burl insert/white/black
spacers and then the brass bolster. Handle has brass 1/8" rivets as well as a company chop in the butt. The chop is a 1/4" tube filled with red dyed epoxy and brass rods and tubes. While the wood insert will vary from piece to piece, one can order this style of handle.
E-mail or call me and we can discuss particulars. Other wood inserts
I use are Ebony and various dyed stabilized woods.
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Above : Western style Double Brass Bolsters with Rose Wood , on a 8 x 2.5 inch Chef's Knife
that I did a high French polish . If you want your knives to have double brass, order them as a normal
order and e-mail me of your wish . Cost for double brass is $35 extra per knife.
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 ←click to enlarge
Above: Asian inspired standard handle with Rose Wood on the left and Myrtle on the right.
I use this handle in Asian knives, or if you ask me for it.
Bottom: Examples of Madrone handle wood. Madrone is hard with pink highlights. I am slowly running out of Myrtle and will over time be switching to Madrone.
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Wood
I use various woods for the handles, depending on your preferences. The first choice is called Myrtle Wood or Bay Laurel. It is generally light colored (lighter than the Rose Wood ) although some pieces can be tawny. Many pieces have tremendous chatoyance. It was locally harvested over 25 years ago along with the Madrone wood I am now using.
Madrone is very hard and grows wild all over the west coast. It exhibits swirls and waves at it's best. I call it the Northwest's answer to Pink Ivory, because of it's pink overtones. It is much like Eucalyptus in that the skin of the tree sheds it's bark and some leaves in summer. It is ideal for kitchen knives.
I also use Santos Rosewood, which is heavier and more oily than Myrtle, because of climatic conditions. It is harvested from a finca in southern Mexico one tree at a time, and is an abundant excellent substitute for Cocobolo ( which is rare and super expensive ) . It still has the brown base and can exhibit swirls and dark longitudinal lines. It is perfect for a kitchen knife handle.
Madrone, Myrtle and Rosewood are the same price and are included in the cost of knives.
If I have Myrtle and you want it, great. if I am out, I may need to replace with Madrone. Any questions about this, write me.
Stabilized Wood
The last choice of wood I offer, is stabilized burl wood. All species and handles can usually be highly figured with swirls and eyes. If you go to my F.A.Q. page ( scroll down ) , there you will find two links to my suppliers. Simply cruise around their sites seeing if you can find the wood you want on your handle, then e-mail me. If your busy and you want me to look, let me know. Each wood choice is unique, with no two exactly alike. I charge $20 over the cost+ shipping to work with this wood.
The stabilized wood, absorbs very little moisture and the color will not fade. The finish on my blades is finished to 600 grit . Over time the surface of carbon steel kitchen knives, will take on a patina. All handles come finished to 400 grit, with a coat of vegetable oil. Presently I use Orange/Olive Oil.
Below are two sources of stabilized wood. Cruise around their sites, and see if something hits your fancy. If it does,, simply e-mail me along with size of knife you want, and I will invoice you.
Any problems with size match and I will get back to you promptly. Each side of the knife has a SCALE and each knife has a set of scales.
Minimum size of each scale of wood should be : 4 3/4" long, 1.5" wide and 5/16th" to 3/8th" thick.
Any questions about this process, please let me know. They carry many different woods (both local and exotic) and most are quite nice. Just noodle around and let me know, or tell me and I can send a few choices if you like. e-mail here
1- Burl Source - they are two valleys over from me.
2- Alpha Knife Supply - numerous choices. I prefer not to work with spalted wood.
Steel
The carbon steel I use is 1/16th or .062 inch thick ( except for knives longer than 12”) . The steel is 1075 cold rolled high carbon tool steel, which is heat treated one knife at a time, by me in my shop. I machine my knives, thereby saving the expense of forging a thick piece of steel out to the thickness of the steel I use. Properly heat treated carbon steel, allows for a knife that will keep a keen edge, yet is noticeably easy to re-hone for a new keen edge. All the sweeps of the edges of my knives have the classic French curve, for that nice rocking motion. For ease of use and re-sharpening.
The brass bolster is riveted and glued onto the full tang, and is in between the handle and the blade. It serves to protect the end grain of the handle wood and adds the perfect weight to the handle. Handles generally measure out to about 5 ¼ inches – ¼” leeway from the back of the blade to the
bolster, 3/4" of brass and then 4 1/4" of wood. All blade lengths are close but not exact. The handle is secured with 4 rivets, which are glued and pressed into place. There are three 1/8” brass pins, and a company chop in the handle ‘butt’.
My chop goes through the handle and is functional. It is made in 12” lengths and is comprised of 4 - 1/16 ” brass pins, with a steel center, inside a 5/32nd square brass tube, which is inside a round brass tube. Red dyed epoxy is injected into the 12” tube, to hold all a-tanto. I then cut them down to about an inch and install.
If you do not see exactly what your looking for on this page, e-mail me. (Back to the top)
Prices for 4" to 6" Kitchen knives
Shipping is always through USPS Priority. Each box, packing and one knife weighs 2 #.
My zip code is 97520→Here is a word .doc that has USPS zones and cost to ship priority←
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