Stephan Fowler Custom Order

This is still in Georgia, but will be mailed to me tomorrow with a matching maple saya/red pin. Can't wait to get it. I will update with pics, specs and a review ASAP!

Beautiful.

~M

It looks like an improvement over previous work. It may be the angle but the handle and machi look incongruous, as is often the case with Fowlers. What is it?

sorry but I don't know what a machi is

the handle is curly maple with stainless and red spacers and a horn ferrule

the knife is a suji/petty 210

BobCat said:

sorry but I don't know what a machi is

the handle is curly maple with stainless and red spacers and a horn ferrule

the knife is a suji/petty 210

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You might want to refer to Gator's Japanese Kitchen Knife Anatomy:

http://zknives.com/knives/kitchen/misc/jbladeant.shtml

Nice knife.

Rick

That looks really nice! I'm looking forward to the review and extra pics.

I'm curious what his grind is like right now.

My Carter and DT both make effortless cuts...but at work I ignore almost everything but my Fowler because its just a pleasure to use when I have a ton of work to bang out.

quote from Stephan

"The grind I've been using on these is a very slight convex from about halfway up the face terminating at the edge with .003 edge thickness and then put a primary bevel on with waterstones at a 15 degree combined angle"

Bobcat, I hope you enjoy your new knife. I'm currently using one of Stephan's Heiji style gyutos and even though it's pretty beefy, I'm loving it.

Looks good, I've got one on the way from Stephan too, hoping it will be as good a cutter as it is a looker

This one is 52100 and is supposed to be a good cutter. I am hoping it will be my go to knife in my home kitchen. Good luck with your purchase!!

Nice piece, congrats

Gorgeous, love the handle.

Very nice, I'm sure you'll be thrilled every time you use it.

Nice red spacer you got there. I know someone who is going to like it!


Stephan's work is CLEARLY leaps and bounds past when he went full time. I guess banging out knives day after day kind of does that.

To be honest, in my mind, he has taken a bit of a knock, quite unnecessarily, in the past few months. He's a perfect example of how trendy this market really is. He took his licks in the most respectable way I can think of. Instead of opening his mouth, he fixed (most of) his knives' issues (if you want to call them that) and let his new work speak for itself. The funny thing is, I know a few people who have his old work and say that it performs beautifully, as is.

For me, aside from not liking the whole wrought iron thing, and the f&f of a knife from 2+ years ago, it was that they didn't seem intentionally made, and that to me is huge. His current stuff doesn't look that way at all to me.

I would love to try one of his again, but I got (other knife related) bills to pay! I hope they still have that dramatic taper.

Lefty said:

To be honest, in my mind, he has taken a bit of a knock, quite unnecessarily, in the past few months. He's a perfect example of how trendy this market really is. He took his licks in the most respectable way I can think of. Instead of opening his mouth, he fixed (most of) his knives' issues (if you want to call them that) and let his new work speak for itself. The funny thing is, I know a few people who have his old work and say that it performs beautifully, as is.

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Do you own any of his knives?

-Chuck

No, I don't, and I'm not saying that all of the criticism was unwarranted. Just that I think he handled it well, and perhaps we "hated" on him a bit more than he might have deserved.
Sorry, I should have made that a bit clearer.

I had the chance of comparing his passaround and my gyuto side by side and the difference is huge!

Lefty said:

To be honest, in my mind, he has taken a bit of a knock, quite unnecessarily, in the past few months. He's a perfect example of how trendy this market really is. He took his licks in the most respectable way I can think of. Instead of opening his mouth, he fixed (most of) his knives' issues (if you want to call them that) and let his new work speak for itself. The funny thing is, I know a few people who have his old work and say that it performs beautifully, as is.

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I think this forum has to learn to separate personal from objective and judge makers on merits of their work. There is nothing wrong with a constructive criticism - that very criticism resulted in makers changing profile, grind, some other things.

M

Marko, are you on my side with this one? I can't tell. Haha
Either way, yes, we all do, on all forums.

I really like my Fowler gyuto. The wa handle is a little chunky, but 9 months later I have not taken him up on his offer to taper it down a little. There are a couple gaps in the cable damascus, but as long as no evidence of rust pops up I fine with them. I really like the blade profile (Carter-esque); it's a great cutter.

Well it's in the mail. I must say I had no idea my post would generate this discussion. Uncle Sam owed me some money so I decided upon a long petty/suji. I found Salty's video on YouTube showing a Fowler 210 petty so I got in touch with Stephan about a custom. Why not, it was even my birthday!

I will do my best to photograph and test the knife. Please consider I am not a knife expert, just a home cook. Stay tuned.

Deborah

How tall is it at the heel?

Here are the specs:

203mm edge length, 42mm tall at the heel
1.7mm thick at the heel, .95mm at 1" from the tip
166 grams, balances just behind the end of the ferrule
Curly maple octagon handle with stainless and red spacer

42 mm at the heel will make for a really nice utility petty. I have a 190 that is 35 mm at the heel, and it has become the knife I reach for more often than any other.

Looking forward to pics and the review!

Wife wanted primavera for dinner tonight, and we both got home kinda late. So I grabbed the Fowler and knocked out prep on a pile of squash, onions, red bell peppers and garlic. I had my "Chopped" game face on, and rocked it out as fast as I could -- which I'm sure is painfully slow to a pro. But the Fowler flied through everything, and was a joy to use. The thin tip made short work of slicing all the garlic cloves.

As a reward, I let it thinly slice duck proschiutto (thanks, Travis -- great stuff!), which added some nice blue streaks to the patina.

My Fowler sits in my block unused. I have seen and used a number of them, all different. Performance was wildly inconsistent ranging from excellent to less than mediocre. Most were oddly profiled and fit and finish was often a problem beyond what I would characterize as "rustic." Edge taking and holding is very good and build quality is also very good. A number of people have come through my kitchen and taken a turn with them and comments are consistent. Perhaps he's worked out his issues, at this point. I have not seen anything he's made within the past few months. Personally, I like Stephan but I ran out of patience with respect to knives. I haven't posted anything like this because I don't like to but I think it is only fair to post the good and the bad.

tk59 said:

... I think it is only fair to post the good and the bad.

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Absolutely. I think you should get with Stephan and work something out about your knife. Maybe exchange it for a new version. One thing is for sure, if you don't ask you won't know.