Heavy Chef's Knife - A New Project

[Marko Tsourkan]

Been getting some input on heavy chef's from several Japanese makers. Really cool stuff. Need to give it a little bit of a thought and try other grinds.

I am curios now about Heiji (or with a similar "sword" grind) geometry for sujis. If you use one regularly, please shoot me a PM. I would like to pick your brain a little bit.

[jgraeff]

Marko, if you need anymore testers let me know i would be interested as well. Seems like a cool project.

[Squilliam]

By 'sword' geometry are you meaning near-flat bevels with a shinogi line?

[Marko Tsourkan]

By 'sword' geometry are you meaning near-flat bevels with a shinogi line?

Near shinogi line bevels are flatter, but overall the whole bevel is convex.

M

[Marko Tsourkan]

OK, I reground this one a little bit, converting tip area to full convex, leaving the rest is sword grind. Just waiting for the handle to glue, then shape, install and out it goes for testing.

I think 3.4mm at the spine will make a superb heavy chef's.

M

[Von blewitt]

Sounds great, how do you like the appearance of the transition between grinds?

Looking forward to putting it through its paces

[Mucho Bocho]

So Marko, Is now a good time to start a Pass Around Testers for Heavy Chef Knife List? Guess that would make me #1. Ya'll get back

[pleue]

I'd love to be a tester in a restaurant environment too.

[Dardeau]

I think that is a genius idea to blend the bevels into the table at the tip. One of the Heijis drawbacks is that the tip is easily chipped, this may remedy that, as well as making it more usable for detail work. How does it look?

[Marko Tsourkan]

Sounds great, how do you like the appearance of the transition between grinds?

Looking forward to putting it through its paces

The tip is fully convexed. At about 8cm mark from the tip, the convex becomes "sword grind" and stays like that for the rest of the edge. I didn't bother to keep the shinogi line crisp, as it doesn't seem to have much effect on food separation, and a knife is a little easy to finish. It can be done on the stones if one wants it.

It's a prototype, so the final version will have a few changes (some I already determined), but testing it would allow me to check on changes I made departing from a typical "sword grind" geometry.

I like the weight and stiffness of the blade. I compared it with my regular S grind, and it feels like a heavy chef's.

I would love to do many pass-arounds, but reality is that every project of this type takes away from my orders and it's a hard balance. On one hand I need to deliver work I took payments for, on the other, I need to keep growing as a maker and keep implementing changes as needed, and there are moments where I need to take another look and re-evalue my work.

So, the pass-arounds will be limited to 1-2 pros and I truly look for a constructive criticism, so I can keep improving.

My HT is pretty good for this type of knife (or all types, for that matter). It is 62-63RC, but it won't chip.

M