A Power Sword's Day at the Spa

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Vertigo

Slightly Less Hooligan
KKF Supporting Member
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Mar 1, 2011
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Oi folks,

As many of you know, I own a 270mm custom Rodrigue gyuto in CPM-154, which was affectionately dubbed "the Power Sword" and regarding which I wrote a gushing joyful review here. As we often do with knives we love and cherish, I abused the living hell out of this knife: it spent more time in the kitchen than many of my coworkers, was used extensively daily, and got banged on more than my last ex did the first week after we split. Naturally, this left the knife a little... under the weather. Between the chips, the scratches, the dings and all the other abuse it suffered, I decided to send it back to Pierre for a stint in the day spa.

Never one to be content with a simple tune-up, Pierre gave the knife a complete overhaul and I couldn't be happier. For starters, the knife was initially fully flat ground and a little chunky behind the edge (as I mentioned in my first review.) The "new and improved" version has been thinned dramatically, losing about 25% of it's initial weight, and given slight convexity to help with food release. Secondly, after all the talk I've done about preferring knives with a more functional tip, Pierre brought the spine down quite a bit and made it much more pointy and nimble. Third, the entire blade was taken to higher level of polish than before, which was completely unnecessary and just shows with more clarity all the scratches I've since put on it (but damn it looks nice!). Lastly, he smoothed over the ding I somehow got in the choil and then refinished the handle to it's original luster.

All in all, he didn't just tune the knife up, he went beyond any reasonable expectations and made it a completely new (and better, IMHO) knife instead.

The original knife:

rodrigue1.jpg


After the day spa:

IMG_4236.jpg


I have a "before" choil shot and will post it, as well as an "after" shot, once the sun finds it's way to this part of the world.

Thanks again Pierre!
 
I like the tip much better. Gorgeous knife! Enjoy the refurb!
 
The original knife was like a sexy full figured gal. After Pierre's spa treatment it's a sexy lithe figured thing of beauty.
 
:lol2: HOLY CRAP. That is something of a "repair job".



*edit* is the "power sword" thing a WH40K reference?
 
25% weight reduction?! Wow! The new profile looks great.
 
Nice!


Went in to the thread, expecting that Martell or Burke had gotten in one of those electrical saw-like knifes for a sharpening or something.

Saw another OP, and saw the knives, beautiful knives, but a bit disappointed that the tv-shop knives weren't present!



Great job Pierre!
 
:lol2: HOLY CRAP. That is something of a "repair job".



*edit* is the "power sword" thing a WH40K reference?

Ignores armour saves. A thing to fear when wielded by the howling banshees in particular...
 
Ignores armour saves. A thing to fear when wielded by the howling banshees in particular...

I'm not saying I am a huge nerd, but back in high school I parked a loaded Land Raider Crusader next to a squad of Necrons and had to roll 32d6. I scrounged the house for every one and rolled them all at once on the floor, just to revel in it.
 
I'm not saying I am a huge nerd, but back in high school I parked a loaded Land Raider Crusader next to a squad of Necrons and had to roll 32d6. I scrounged the house for every one and rolled them all at once on the floor, just to revel in it.

A real nerd wouldn't have to scrounge for 32d6. They'd all be piled up right next to his Shadowrun books. ;)
 
OMG... :rofl:

About the knife... Very nice. What were the before and after masses? I'm just asking because I felt like I thinned the bejeezus out of a blade recently and it lost 10% of the total mass...without the handle.
 
What were the before and after masses? I'm just asking because I felt like I thinned the bejeezus out of a blade recently and it lost 10% of the total mass...without the handle.
I never took a before weight so I couldn't give you precise numbers. It's just a feel by hand which, while prone to error, feels "about right" after holding something so long.

I can say though that it lost about 5mm of height at the heel and 8mm on the edge (262mm length now) in addition to the weight lost bringing it to a narrower tip, and that the balance point was moved up onto the handle. The choil shots speak for the volume of metal that it lost though.

(Right Click for Big)

Before:

before.jpg


After:

after.jpg
 
A real nerd wouldn't have to scrounge for 32d6. They'd all be piled up right next to his Shadowrun books. ;)

Psh. We played 3rd Ed D&D, stripped-down D20, and V:TM. Had more d20s and d8s than anything else before tabletop gaming started. Plus we had all those Spindown d20s for playing Magic.

Rolled so many dice in high school that I worked a Craps table at a graduation lock in and made my buddy $120, $5 at a time, because the lady running it didn't require we bounce the dice off the end of the table.

DMing was the only thing I remember ever being really good at.

Now I'm just getting nostalgic...makes me want to put on Return of the King on mute, crank some Cannibal Corpse and make an army list or fill a town with NPCs.
 
Plus we had all those Spindown d20s for playing Magic.
My crowing achievement in the Kingdom of Nerd is tied between winning a WotC sanctioned Ice Age sealed deck tournament (the last expansion I played, though I think I have a few decks still kicking around if you ever want a match with a champ--you gotta let me play my beta cards though), and when my friends and I were brought up in a City Council meeting to discuss their handling of our V:tM LARPING at the beach after midnight.

We were acting scary in our trenchcoats long before those asshats at Columbine made it a crime. Just sayin'.
 
My crowing achievement in the Kingdom of Nerd is tied between winning a WotC sanctioned Ice Age sealed deck tournament (the last expansion I played, though I think I have a few decks still kicking around if you ever want a match with a champ--you gotta let me play my beta cards though), and when my friends and I were brought up in a City Council meeting to discuss their handling of our V:tM LARPING at the beach after midnight.

We were acting scary in our trenchcoats long before those asshats at Columbine made it a crime. Just sayin'.

If you were a real nerd necrons wouldn't have been around yet, and your harlequins would have messed up the space marines big time in their Rhino. Necrons. Pfft.

Nice. An Ice Age champ... i still have half a box of fallen empires sitting around in a cupboard somewhere unopened...

And 9 pages filled with nether shadows, and a page of vesuvian dopplegangers. It was a thing. I quit the day that someone stole my two long boxes of uncommons from my bag. Sighs. Only have my rares and my commons... a big blow to a poor teenager. Didn't want to be part of that community if they resorted to theft.
 
I don't understand anything in the last page and a half. Thanks for the pics, Jack. At least I get them....

Nice looking blade!!!
 
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