Beautiful work, might have to order one of those in the future.
Beautiful work, might have to order one of those in the future.
One of my first J-knives was a moritaka kiri-gyuto, which has a very flat profile for the entire length. There's a slight upward curve at the tip for about the last 1/3 - 1/4 of the blade, but not more than a 1/4" if that. Rock chopping was impossible - puch cutting and slicing only.
When I first used it I was using my old techniques developed from years of using a 12" Wusthoff, and I embedded the tip in the board so many times - my board has gouges in it as a reminder. I broke the tip off the knife (not from embedding the tip, but from trying to find the balance point - the knife rocked forward on it's side and hit the tip sideways and it snapped off a couple mm) and when I ground it to reshape the tip I added a bit more curve to get the tip a little higher. More user friendly now for some tasks.
For me, again it's personal from one to the next, there's a sweet spot for how much curve the tip has and how high it is off of the board. Too high like current German profiles suck. Too flat sucks too. I think the classic Sab and KS profiles are about ideal for my taste.
Although it's a little hard for me to see the profile of Michael's knife in this thread due to the angle of the pics, I think this profile is nearly spot-on! The only thing I'd consider adding is a flat spot from the tip back towards the curve up from the main edge - A completely cureved tip is only good for rock chopping in the current food media fashion. Having a flat spot near the tip allows the tip to be used for fine mincing, chopping, dicing, push cutting, etc what ever you want to call it.
Shibui - simplicity devoid of unnecessary elements
Hmmm. Very good. Thanks.
-M
I am much more used to a flatter, lower tip. My go to knife is a 240 Carter funy. I didn't want my Rader to be a replica of any of my other knives, i wanted something different. So i didn't think that i would like the upswept tip as much, and i didn't really think it would be as useful. I still havent used the Rader a whole lot yet. Work has been so busy that i havent wanted to have it get beat up there quite yet. I have just been using it at home for the past week and i am enjoying the tip on it just as much as the carter. This knife has been really great to use, it is so much bigger than what i am used to, but it still glides through food really well. I think once i get more practice in with it, it will be my go to knife.
Mike
Thanks Mike. Been a pleasure.
-M