Brad Makes A Knife

Alright, Vinny holiday season is among us.

Everyone's scrambling to find the best gift,

one of the best gifts you can give, I think,

is a well made knife.

It's probably the most important tool in the kitchen.

Today we're up here, a little bit North to Seattle,

joined by Bob Kramer,

legendary knife maker,

and we're going to be making a knife from start to finish.

Whether you're going to a wedding, a funeral,

Christmas, whatever, (laughs)

we'll start again, no funeral.

(upbeat bouncy music)

Alright Vinny, so I got Bob Kramer with me here.

Bob, thanks for having us.

My pleasure.

And tell us a little bit we're gonna be making,

what kinda knife are we going to make today?

You're going to make, that,

so this is like a five inch utility blade.

What are we doing for steel for the knife we're making?

Alright, so we're gonna make some steel from scratch.

From scratch, huh?

This is pure iron.

Okay, in the powder form.

Right.

Can't get nothing past me, Vince.

[Bob] This is carbon,

so we gotta add carbon to the iron to make steel.

This is Manganese,

these two thing are necessary

to get the iron to be harden-able.

[Brad] It kinda reminds me of

measuring out your dry ingredients to

make some cake, or something.

Exactly, it's just like making a cake or bread.

Chemistry.

Yep.

Science.

Science Betty.

SO then this-

Right into the crucible.

Into the crucible.

[Brad] We're gonna melt that down,

and then if all things go well

something like this will come out.

We're gonna make a cupcake.

This is very high tech, on switch.

[Brad] Perfect amount of weight.

Go.

Go what?

Oh, it's going.

We're going. It's going.

And this thing is gonna heat up from the inside out.

So it's making all the molecules go crazy haywire,

and that friction is causing massive heat.

Exactly.

[Brad] For that to get red,

how hot do you think that is roughly?

1,400 degrees.

Oh, wow.

One minute and 14 seconds.

One minute to get to 1,400 degrees.

1,400 Fahrenheit.

We're gonna need one of these back in the kitchen, Vince.

[Bob] Oh, now we're starting to melt.

(machinery rumbles)

Oh, yeah, wow.

It just looks like bubbling center of the sun.

I think it's done.

So, Bob, now that our steel is melted,

and it's starting to set back up-

Right.

What are we doing next?

This is solidifying, but let it cool a little bit more,

then we're gonna grab it,

take it to the forge,

let it heat back up,

then we're gonna squish it down and stretch it out.

So we're gonna go from there, to something like that.

We're gonna try like hell anyway, Vince.

Oh yeah, we're gonna do this.

Okay, here we go, coming in hot.

(pounding)

There we go, oh, hot biscuit.

(heat blaring)

Right into the forge.

So we heated up our steel cupcakes that we made,

now we're getting them, like I said,

back to that pliable heat.

Plastic state,

you gotta get it hot enough so you can move it.

Cool, put me in coach.

Ready?

Yeah.

Get it.

[Bob] Good.

(machinery pounding)

Okay, stop.

Back in the fire.

Cuz it's getting-

[Brad] Cold?

(machinery pounding)

Yeah.

Alright, I see.

[Bob] Oops.

(Brad woops)

So, we're gonna take this and straighten it out.

Then take it to the roller mill and stretch it.

(machinery rumbling)

[Brad] Wow,

that's crazy.

[Bob] And, one more time.

(machinery rumbling)

[Brad] To the heater?

[Bob] To the press.

[Brad] To the press, Vince.

(newscaster music)

[Bob] That's it.

We're done.

[Brad] So that's cool,

you can make your flat stock like that,

and then cut out whatever pieces

you want to make whatever knives.

Ah, but we're gonna forge it to shape.

So we're gonna take two different kinds of steel,

stack em', and weld them together.

And what, that's the Damascus-

Yeah.

Is that right?

[Bob] So here is a pre-maid billet,

with two different kinds of steel.

This is steel A, steel B, Steel A, Steel B.

[Brad] Okay.

So you're gonna fuse them together,

and then draw it out.

(machinery pounding)

[Brad] Beautiful.

[Bob] Alright, so now we're gonna cut little

chunks out of it,

and then forge it, shape it.

Forge and shape each individual chunk.

Yeah, you're gonna get one, I'm gonna get one.

So there's about five knives in there.

(machinery sparks)

Alright, we just cut our little billet here,

we're gonna heat it up, and start building the little heel,

and put some life and some shape into the knife.

So we're gonna bring it from this and get it to this.

(machinery pounding)

[Bob] Good.

(hammering at the steel)

[Bob] Essentially we're pretty straight,

I'll do a couple a tweaking hits.

It's gonna be a little lumpy.

Not perfect.

And we can grind all that away,

it's definitely thicker than it needs to be.

So the core, base of it,

you want it to be able to get a perfect straight out of it.

Exactly, right.

[Brad] Bob set me up with this master template

for the style of knife, the petty knife that we are making,

and we're just gonna use this grinder here,

and we're just gonna clean up the profiles.

Ready to go?

Hey, Bob, how do you turn this on?

Maybe the power button, huh, Vince?

(grinding)

Little clench tank, Vinny.

(mysterious music) The smoking knife, it wasn't me.

(laughs)

(grinding)

Alright, so we finished grinding up the

profile of the blade,

and now that we have that shape, we're going to go

and cut the, make this, work this way,

and cut the edge and the what are we calling that?

The bevel.

The bevel.

(machine humming)

[Brad] Oh, yeah.

Alright, so we left the grinding room,

and what are we doing here, Bob?

We are hardening this blade.

This is molten salt,

so it's an oxygen free atmosphere.

It's sous-vide for knives.

By hardening, so what we're just making the steel harder

essentially, correct?

I mean Yep.

[Bob] We're dissolving the carbon into the iron

and then we're going to capture it, trap it, by the quench.

[Brad] Alright.

[Bob] So we've got tempering bath,

and that will bring the knife to a working hardness,

so it's not too hard and it's not too brittle.

When it's hardened, it's under a lot of stress.

We go into there to just add some heat,

to kinda massage it.

So you're making the knife happy.

Yeah.

You're making the steel happy.

This is a martini for the knife.

Alright, make it two.

So this is hardening, quench, temper.

[Bob] Correct.

I get an A, Vinny.

First time in my life.

Oh it's magnetic in there.

Whoa, oh!

Where did he come from?

Little stowaway,

he was in my check in bag,

I checked him.

Okay, so yeah we finished grinding up

and now we're cleaning up the blade so you lose that rough

kinda off the belt sander cut marks in it,

and I guess essentially we're kinda polishing.

If someone who knows what they're talking about

could fact check that. (laughs)

But, boy it sounded right.

[Chris] You're making the scratches go the other way.

Coming out of the factory, right,

the scratches would all be going that way,

but if you're doing like custom, profesh,

you change the direction of the scratches,

that lets people know what you're all about.

That's what you're getting at Kramer knives , custom baby.

Nice job. Beautiful.

Alright, I think we could clean it and etch it.

See the magic.

This is like putting the oil on your wood,

the grain just pops.

This is what we live for baby.

[Bob] And here we have an acid bath,

not an acid to the point where it's gonna burn your hands,

but on the PH scale, it's an acid.

We did all the super hard work,

it feels like and this is kinda like the pay off,

the beauty.

Like putting, you know, (clears throat) I don't know.

Developing a picture.

[Brad] Just like that, yeah,

so we go the Polaroid, now we're shaking it,

and we're just seeing it come out.

Science, magic. (pop)

[Brad] Yeah, oh wow,

you can really see those lines popping.

[Bob] Beautiful, see it's gray, silver, and then black,

and we got some jazz going on there.

Gorgeous. (jazz music)

The acid eats these layers at a different rate.

[Brad] Because it's different metals?

Yeah, cuz there's different chemistry

like we mixed in different things in the steel.

[Brad] Wow, look at that, Vin.

Bout the coolest thing I've done in a while.

So at this point we're going to take the face piece,

which is kinda like the bolster,

which he just filed so it fits,

it's gonna slide onto the knife,

we're gonna fill the wooden handle with glue,

and we're gonna slide that in.

And then we're gonna compress the whole thing

in this clamp over here, and let it set up and dry.

[Brad] So, yeah, we'll come back tomorrow,

we'll take this off, clean it up shape the handle,

put an edge on it (claps)

call it a knife.

(elevator style music)

Alright so we left off yesterday with a glued up knife,

now we're gonna shape up the handle.

Let's get to shaping, Vinny.

Oh it's upsize down.

I said it was upsize down.

(laughs)

What?

[Off Screen Voice] Never change, Brad.

[Other Off Screen Voice] Never change, right.

What's the? I don't get what's the problem,

upsize down, I always (bleep) that up.

Upsize down.

Whatever, we got knives to make,

this aint English class.

We're gonna start running the pretty course grit,

we're gonna grind it down, shape it, get it symmetrical,

get it to the shape I want,

and then we'll start to step up the grit on the sandpaper.

Alright, Vinny,

so we got it to the shape that I'm happy with.

We got these two different wheels that Bob set us up wit.

And we're gonna go ahead and polish these out

and give it that nice shiny, glossy, finished, finish.

(machine humming)

Alright, so we wrapped up on the handle,

and now we're gonna get into putting an edge on it.

But I have Bob cut the original edge for me there

since it is, Bob.

[Bob] We have two planes coming together,

so we gotta remove material, remove material

and we want those two planes to intersect,

and when they do

this little fuzzy part of my fingertips is the wire edge.

And it is crucial in blade sharpening, right?

Absolutely.

You have to do that first.

(machinery hums)

So there, can you see that?

Yep.

That's the wire edge.

Now we cut like the foundation, right?

So now we can start the step that we were doing

with the rest of the sanding.

Essentially we're sanding.

We can buff this out really quickly.

Yeah, let's hit the power tools.

(loud machine buzz)

Oh, wow.

It's feeling rather sharp too.

Now we're going for the push cut?

[Bob] Sure.

Oh that's satisfying.

That felt good.

Vinny, we're gonna make it rain paper here Vincenzo.

You gotta clean it up after too.

(Bob laughs)

Bob, that's fantastic.

If I wanted to drop that on a stone,

what grip did you bring that up to?

Oh, it's polished, yeah, it's probably like 15,000.

15,000, alright, yeah.

So we're gonna go ahead and call that done.

Well hey, Bob, this has been one hell of a journey.

My pleasure, thanks for coming.

It's been my pleasure, thanks for teaching.

Alright guys here it is,

we started from melting down some powder and chunks of metal

and making our own steel.

Fold and forging, made this beautiful knife.

Bob was kind enough to lend his time and knowledge to us

to show me the way.

So super grateful for that, and like I said,

the holiday season is right around the corner.

You saw what it takes to make this knife,

if you love someone, get em a knife.

Bon apetit.

Oh god, a bee!

(whistles and kissing noises)

Looking for trouble, Vinny.

This aint necessarily alive but it's got energy.

Watching that start to finish

if that don't make you feel alive,

I can't help you.

I wanted to say something I forgot,

I know this isn't alive,

but making knives, if that don't make you feel alive.

I mean I know it's not alive.

This isn't exactly alive.

If making a high performance knife like this-

If that don't make you feel alive-

Then, uh, we can't help you.

Maybe we'll save that for the end then,

I've been thinking about that for days.

It's always very satisfying to me,

I like to take a little hair off the arm to just show,

sharp as a razor, if you go cutting yourself doing it,

I don't wanna hear it, it's not my fault.

But, look at that, Vinny.

Ooh, who's better than us, huh?

Maybe, Bob.

Look at that buddy.

Smooth as your ass.

Alright, get outta here.

(laughing)

Don't ever change.

(laughing)