Jay Fisher - Fine Custom Knives

"Opere" Fine Handmade Knife

• Size: Length overall: 10.7" (27.2 cm), Blade Length: 6.0" (15.2 cm), Thickness: .083" (2.1 mm)
• Weight: Knife: 7.9 oz. (224 grams) Sheath: 4.9 oz. (139 grams)
• Blade: 440C high chromium martensitic stainless steel blade, T3 deep cryogenically treated with triple tempering to 60 HRC
• Bolsters, Fittings: 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel, Mirror polished
• Handle: Bay of Fundy Agate Fossil (Canada)
• Sheath: Hand-carved, hand-dyed Leather Shoulder inlaid with Frog skin
• Knife: Opere is the Italian word for works, as this knife is initially designed as a working and utility knife for the kitchen. However, this is—like many of my knife designs—a crossover pattern, suitable for a wide range of uses as well as investment. This is a magnificent Opere, with a premium treatment and accurate geometry, a very thin, hard knife in premium materials, for the chef or professional, as well as collection.
  • The steel I chose for this knife is Food Contact Safe 440C high chromium martensitic stainless steel, my most requested steel for a reason. When properly treated, it's a dependable, reliable workhorse of extremely high corrosion resistance, good toughness and high wear resistance. The high chromium of 440C along with the high carbon and moderate molybdenum results in profuse chromium carbides, increasing corrosion resistance as well as wear resistance. To bring this steel to its zenith, I used my proprietary T3 deep cryogenic process in heat treating this blade; it's a highly detailed, extremely sophisticated process that takes 33 individual steps and takes over a week long. The result of this is an incredibly wear-resistant blade that has extremely high carbide development, fine grain, and extremely high corrosion resistance. Asperity is reduced; the microstructure development is superior to any other typical handmade knife, and far above any factory or manufactured knife. This is, simply put, 440C at its very finest advanced condition. The grind is of this blade is not what you usually see in my knives; I wanted a very thin, flat grind for this knife blade. Look at the specs; at the thickest the blade is only .080" thick, that's eighty thousandths of an inch thick, at its thickest! The thickness is about .020" behind the cutting edge at the relief, so the blade is flat and thin and wide. A flat grind is useful for very thin cuts through material (foodstuffs) that won't yield or resist a blade because of a thicker spine. This is, simply put, a very thin flatly ground, very hard blade.
  • I bolstered the knife with zero-care 304 high chromium, high nickel stainless steel bolsters, which are contoured, rounded and finished for a comfortable feel. The bolsters are secured with zero-clearance peened pins and dovetailed to bed the handle scales. The front bolsters are sealed and rounded at the faces, the rear bolsters are wide and support the rear quillon that locks the handle into the hand.
  • The handle scales of this knife are very, very special. This is Bay of Fundy Agate, coming from the area between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick provinces in Canada. The bay boasts of the highest tides in the world, with striking and fantastic intensely old fossil and geological deposits, and this gemstone does not disappoint. On first glance, you might notice that the gem is an agate, with clear areas and a purplish-lavender tint with hints of reddish carmine. Study closer and the fascinating fossilized nature of this gem becomes clear. Please scrutinize the photo magnifications below; this is some of the most striking fossil I've ever encountered. I don't know the nature of the once-living remains in this rock, it's many millions of years, perhaps billions of years old, and these might be some of the earliest creatures on the planet. The tubular and segmented structures float throughout the agate; it's like no other material. Usually, in fossils, the rock is not agate but jasper or other opaque material, because fossils are formed by sedimentation. Clearly put, agates cannot be formed by sedimentation, yet, here is a fossil in agate! Also, in agates, the translucency is typically formed in fortifications, layers like a moat around a castle, with "flames" of intrusive colors brought into the stone by water deposition and self-forming crystallization. This is none of these; this is a floating, transparent agate of once living things. I truly wonder at how this fossil was formed; I've seen nothing else like it. The agate is hard and solid, incredibly tough and dense and takes a high vitreous polish that is smooth and glassy. This is a handle that is more fascinating the closer and more intensely it's scrutinized.
  • The knife feels cool and solid in the hand, with a very lightweight thin blade, suited to a professional interested in surgical cuts, as it is thin and razor-keen. This knife is Food Contact Safe.
• Sheath: Because of all the living reminders in the stone, I wanted a sheath that would reflect many small creatures. I chose a complicated inlay of 29 individual inlays of Frog skin, a special skin that has hints of metallic luster. This was a tremendous piece of work, taking many hours to bring the living, busy design to life. The inlays are carved in 9 - 10 oz. leather shoulder, hand-dyed in a graduated intensity in medium brown, with chestnut nylon stitching. The sheath is sealed in a triple thick coating of lacquer for durability.
• A thin, hard, accurate knife with fascinating gemstone fossil handle and intricate, detailed sheath.

Thanks, J. R.!