Glestain and cucumber.

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K-Fed

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There has been a bit of discussion about food release lately and i've posted pictures of what an onion looks like after dicing it with my glestain, so I took a picture of what cucumbers look like after being cut for salads. This knife, for me, truely works as intended and I will stand by it. Still not a fan of the steel that It's made of though.

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What are your problems with the steel? Just how it retains a sharp edge? Using this in a pro-kitchen setting, how often do you feel you have to take it to the stones?
 
I know TK59 loves his too, but having worked in a pro kitchen, the life of this knife is very short (+/- 10 sharpenings)
 
Edge holding isn't that great. It feels "dead" on the stones. Definitely no harder than the steel in my German blades. And from what I've read it's basically glestain's version of 440c stainless. Nothing too impressive.
 
It has to be touched up fairly often. After a day of heavy use it will need a toutch up.
 
What happens when the edge reaches the first row of divots? It becomes a scalloped edge? Time for a new blade? Or can you put a 90/10 edge on it and thin behind the edge so that the high spots between divots are ground flat?
 
Why would you throw the knife away? The ridges between the cullens are hollow, are they? Looks like they're plenty of steel in the cullens to support an edge.
 
Why would you throw the knife away? The ridges between the cullens are hollow, are they? Looks like they're plenty of steel in the cullens to support an edge.

the problem is differential torque: you'll break off bits of the edge that wouldn't break off if the whole thing were the same thickness as the thinnest bits. it is exacerbated by how crap the steel is (boy did i rage when America's Test Kitchen rated these the best, over the summer). not to mention how horrible that would feel sharpening, if the cullens were at the edge.
 
I pretty much relegated my Glestain to benchwarmer status for a long time. It had handle issues, it didn't perform like carbon, wasn't fun to sharpen. Since its overhaul by Dave, it gets a slot in the starting lineup. It still has some deficiencies that can never be rectified, but....it doesn't rust like 90% of the rest of the kit. That alone is enough to make it endearing.
 
I don't understand what the problem with the cullens is, after you reach them you just keep on sharpening and use it like any other knife. I don't think the differential torque would cause trouble though I could be wrong. I sharpened TK's glestain once and according to him a couple of months ago that was the longest lasting edge he has ever seen or something like it (don't want to toot my own whistle) anyway all I am saying is I think people dislike them for other reason's or the same reason's stated. The only thing is I don't think its a bad knife and I think its probably one of the best work horses around, kinda like a joker works well in every hand dealt.
 
+1. In the situations when I have to grab one knife to perform a multitude Of tasks this is usually the one I grab. Even with its deficiencies it can take a fair beating and keep going
 
The Glestain is easily a top flight performer for 90% of cutting jobs. Extreme sharpness and edge retention sans touch-up are grossly overrated and in terms of toughness, it is not easy to beat. Can it Salty-chop tomatoes all day? No. The Glestain hold a decent edge plenty long and can do things that exactly ZERO high-end knives that people on this forum rave about and it does them with ease. Furthermore, it's a $200 knife. Price to performance ratio is excellent on this knife. The handle is nice, comfortable and large, too. Saying this knife has a ten sharpening lifetime is foolish and baseless. I've already sharpened mine at least a couple of dozen times and it has plenty of life left. I would wager that there is plenty of steel in the cullen area to continue sharpening in there as long as you are willing to thin the knife, as you should, anyway. It has a convex front side so I put a 95-5-ish edge on mine and I blend the large bevel into the cullen area.

Drawbacks are handle-heavy balance due to the large steel butt-cap, some steering and it doesn't hold super refined edges very long. It sharpenes fairly easily, as far as your typical stainless goes, not like AEB-L but better than some VG-10, for example.
 
Surely there has to be someone out there who has had one for a long time and has sharpened into the cullen area...anyone heard of this before?
 
Ive been considering this knife for some time. Thanks for the post- looking forward to more discussion about it.
 
Do the cullens overlap? Or are they only on one side of the blade?

If you thin the knife down as TK said, and there is enough meat underneath them, they should never be a problem.
 
This is like myth busters. I had always heard that the Cullen knives wouldn't last long because you would sharpen into them. This is all over the web. Great info.
 
The cullens are only on one side of the knife. I would think that you could either thin it out to where it would be sharpenable/ user friendly or just grind it away and thin to just above the first row of cullens and have a short suji. That being said I've had this knife and been using it quite a bit in a professional enviornment for two years and it's been sharpened often, dropped, knocked off cutting boards and tossed around the line during a busy service and it has held up great. Still plenty of life left in her. This steel is tough.
 
The Glestain is easily a top flight performer for 90% of cutting jobs. Extreme sharpness and edge retention sans touch-up are grossly overrated and in terms of toughness, it is not easy to beat. Can it Salty-chop tomatoes all day? No. The Glestain hold a decent edge plenty long and can do things that exactly ZERO high-end knives that people on this forum rave about and it does them with ease. Furthermore, it's a $200 knife. Price to performance ratio is excellent on this knife. The handle is nice, comfortable and large, too. Saying this knife has a ten sharpening lifetime is foolish and baseless. I've already sharpened mine at least a couple of dozen times and it has plenty of life left. I would wager that there is plenty of steel in the cullen area to continue sharpening in there as long as you are willing to thin the knife, as you should, anyway. It has a convex front side so I put a 95-5-ish edge on mine and I blend the large bevel into the cullen area.

Drawbacks are handle-heavy balance due to the large steel butt-cap, some steering and it doesn't hold super refined edges very long. It sharpenes fairly easily, as far as your typical stainless goes, not like AEB-L but better than some VG-10, for example.

I am not sure where but I read somewhere that the metal butt in the glestains is designed to be sanded off as you sharpen to keep the balance all the time. I truly think glestains are the best Germanish, mightyish knife around and have one on my list... something like a 240 and a suji.
 
I am not sure where but I read somewhere that the metal butt in the glestains is designed to be sanded off as you sharpen to keep the balance all the time. I truly think glestains are the best Germanish, mightyish knife around and have one on my list... something like a 240 and a suji.
You mean like this? I happened to have ground a bunch of that buttcap off last week, lol. Balance is now right at the heel. FYI, it was 272 g when I started grinding it off.

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Btw, Germanish? You mean the steel at 58 hrc? or the weight? There is really nothing about the way this knife cuts that reminds me of a Wusthof or Henckels.
 
looks like you took more than half of the end cap off... power tools I hope ? I'm due for a thinning and end cap grind... better get to work.

Just wanted to throw this back up as well. I can not express how awesome this knife would be if it was made out of just a bit better steel imho.

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looks like you took more than half of the end cap off... power tools I hope ? I'm due for a thinning and end cap grind... better get to work...
Yup, this little POS grinder from HF has been a great tool for me. Probably the best $40 (plus belts) I ever spent on something knife-related.
 
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