Practice knife review

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Keith Neal

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
386
Reaction score
2
I have not been meeting forum standards for knife reviews, so I thought some practice would help. Critiques are welcomed.

Suncraft.jpg


This is a Suncraft paring style petty made in Japan of stainless steel. The blade is perfectly straight with an even, machine grind. The grind is done on a small diameter wheel, producing a dramatically concave hagane. It is fairly thin behind the edge, but thickens quickly. The steel is soft. It sharpens easily and it is quick to raise a burr and to remove it. Five minutes on a King 1200 raised and removed burrs on both sides. A little stropping on the stone and running the edge across soft wood removed the remaining burr and left a decent edge. The King 6000 was quicker, and stropping on newspaper left a good feeling edge.

In spite of being fairly thin behind the edge, the concave hagane causes the knife to wedge quickly. It starts to cut nicely, then resistance increases significantly, and it feels quite dull.

I had reduced the bevel angle a little, and that along with the soft steel I expect to give poor edge retention.

Specifications:

Overall Length: 194mm
Blade: 94mm
Handle: 93mm

Blade height @heel: 22mm

Spine thickness above heel: 1.2mm
Spine thickness @midway: 1.2mm
Spine thickness @tip: .015mm
Blade thickness 1mm above edge: .015mm
Weight 22g

Cost of the knife and saya was fifty cents at a flea market.
 
Thanks for the review! You can't beat that price.

One question: If it was done on a grinding wheel wouldn't it be concave (or hollow), not convex?
 
In spite of being fairly thin behind the edge, the concave hagane causes the knife to wedge quickly. It starts to cut nicely, then resistance increases significantly, and it feels quite dull.

Sounds like you got your 50 cents worth out of this one at least. ;)

Thanks for sharing and nice review.
 
Um, I paid $10 for this recently....boy do I feel robbed:). Makes for a great little picnic knife for cheese and salami :hungry:. Thanks for the review!
 
Um, I paid $10 for this recently....boy do I feel robbed:). Makes for a great little picnic knife for cheese and salami :hungry:. Thanks for the review!

I plan to use it as a tomato peeler. I usually just need one tomato for a sandwich, and peel it grandma style with knife in one hand and tomato in the other. Wedging and edge retention won't be a concern, and it may just work fine.

Besides, I think it is cute!

Though this review was a little tongue-in-cheek, it was a real attempt at getting more thorough. More photos, OK. Anything else?

Thanks,

Keith
 
Well, balance point, if spine and choil are rounded, F&F as well as impressions in use are always interesting...

But honestly, all reviews are good in my mind. Every bit of info helps when you are lookig toput the puzzle together
 
Well, balance point, if spine and choil are rounded, F&F as well as impressions in use are always interesting...

But honestly, all reviews are good in my mind. Every bit of info helps when you are lookig toput the puzzle together

I was gonna say balance. How is the handle? It seems little large for the blade. Other that that great review. When I do anykind of writing I forget over half of what I want to say.:plus1::ggodjob:
 
Nice review, covered most things I'm interested to know. This thread may be the prompt I need to do some reviews of my knives and I may well "borrow" your template if that's ok?
Cheers,
Tom
 
Nice review, covered most things I'm interested to know. This thread may be the prompt I need to do some reviews of my knives and I may well "borrow" your template if that's ok?
Cheers,
Tom

Sure, though I am hardly the one to emulate. I have added a few things I should have covered:


F&F
Photo of blade straightness
Balance point
Handle length, shape, feel
Spine & choil rounded?

This is a Suncraft paring style petty made in Japan of stainless steel. The blade is perfectly straight with an even, machine grind. The grind is done on a small diameter wheel, producing a dramatically concave hagane. It is fairly thin behind the edge, but thickens quickly. The steel is soft. It sharpens easily and it is quick to raise a burr and to remove it. Five minutes on a King 1200 raised and removed burrs on both sides. A little stropping on the stone and running the edge across soft wood removed the remaining burr and left a decent edge. The King 6000 was quicker, and stropping on newspaper left a good feeling edge.
In spite of being fairly thin behind the edge, the concave hagane causes the knife to wedge quickly. It starts to cut nicely, then resistance increases significantly, and it feels quite dull.
I reduced the bevel angle a little, and that along with the soft steel I expect to give poor edge retention.
Specifications:
Overall Length: 194mm
Blade: 94mm
Handle: 93mm

Blade height @heel: 22mm

Spine thickness above heel: 1.2mm
Spine thickness @midway: 1.2mm
Spine thickness @tip: .015mm
Blade thickness 1mm above edge: .015mm
Weight 22g

Cost of the knife and saya was fifty cents at a flea market.
 
I have now removed the concave blade road. This is my first attempt at modifying a grind, and it is not pretty! However, it works. The knife has no tendency to wedge, and is very sharp. I finished with a King 1200, which seemed enough for a fifty cent knife.

A few things I learned. 1) The Bester 500 cut faster and much smother than the Atoma 140. 2)The starboard side of the knife seemed to have a deeper concave blade road, but it was more likely poor technique. 3)It looks like I let the finger pressure get a bit too far from the edge in a few places, moving the shinogi up too high. 4) I am no threat to the knifemakers among us!

Suncraftportmod.jpg


Suncraftstarboardmod.jpg
 
Back
Top