NKD (well really month): Fowler and Marr

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

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

Justin0505

Founding Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
1,454
Reaction score
5
2 new knives showed up recently: a Fowler custom and an Adam Marr.

The Marr was made with some of DT's snakeskin AEB-L. Adam sold the knife as the blade already ground (180mm I think)with the option of a custom handle, which I took him up on. When I found out that the knife sale was going towards the last funding that he need to buy an mill machine, I thought that I'd give him something to use the new toy on right away so I talked to him about an idea I'd been kicking around for a modified "D" handle with copper ferrule.

As for the Fowler, the knife was a full custom and also an idea that I'd been kicking around for awhile which was Japanese style poultry knife, but not a traditional honesuki. I wanted it to to be the poultry equivalent to a mioroshi deba: something that could break bone, debone, but also slice. The resulting knife is a 195mm single bevel out of O1 with almost deba thickness over the heel and a crazy distal taper to a very fine point... and a differential HT / hamon line.

Both knives exceeded my expectations, and both knife makers where nothing but a joy and honor to work with. These knifes are going to get a very thorough review as part of a much bigger project I've been working on comparing a whole series of stout petty and boning knives, but for now I thought I'd just take some quick pics and share the porn.

IMG_0110.JPG

IMG_0116.JPG

IMG_0122.JPG

IMG_0119.JPG

IMG_0124.JPG

if you want a few more, full gallery is here:https://plus.google.com/photos/117600618285187025883/albums/5753389651229957617

IMG_0116.jpg


IMG_0122.jpg


IMG_0124.jpg
 
Love the Marr, that Fowler is interesting. I'll keep my eyes open for a review! I'd need one of those way more than I need a mioroshi, but it doesn't stop me from looking at them every day.
 
Very nice knives, I do envy Adam's milling aetup, gotta check with him how that is working for him... The outcome looks great. About the boning knife - how is that different from a traditinal garasuki?

Stefan
 
I love that mod D handle. Great colors and goes well with the feral.
 
I was just thinking about having someone make me a knife just like the honsuki you designed! Let us know how it works.
 
Stefan I could be wrong but a garasuki is typically double bevel with an extreme right bias, no traditional concave back and has no shinogi, no differential HT. Just a larger thicker honesuki.

But hell I'm usually wrong so sorry in advance!:doublethumbsup:

Edit: I will also add that there may be a western version and a japanese version (ala deba) but I only know of the western one.
 
Mmh, juat went to look at my Watanabe garasuki and that does look more like the traditional hollow back single bevel knife, that's what made me wonder about that is different in the Fowler knife. I really like the shape, juat curious.

Stefan
 
I'd love to see pictures of the back of the your Fowler knife if you get the opportunity. Beautiful knives and congrats!
 
Those look great!
It's always nice to see what those two are up to, as well.
 
Very beautiful knives!!! I love the damascus on the Marr.

But I would personally be a bit worried by the presence of copper in such close proximity of what will be slicing my food. Both copper oxide (the dark brown "tarnishing" you see on copper after a while, which forms with oxygen), and copper carbonate (the greeen coating on old copper, think statue of liberty, which forms in contact with water and salt), are considered to be quite toxic... better keep that ferrule polished on a very regular basis!!! :)
 
Very cool. That Marr handle is very D shaped. How does it feel?

That may be the Fowler that has interested me the most. I second the request for pictures of the back side and would also like a spine shot as well please :D. The profile looks pretty flat, but I guess so are most honesuki profiles. How is it performing for you so far?
 
They look really nice! I am curious about how one could create a Hamon with O1, though. I was under the impression that differential heat treating was not possible with that steel.
 
Wow, what bunch of night owls and early morning folks... don't knife knuts ever sleep?

Thanks for the comments everyone!
Sorry for the lack of spine shots: I had a tripod issue and then ran out of time when I was shooting.

If it will help to tide you over, the spine on the Fowler starts at 5mm and goes down to 3.3 before the drop to the tip (where it quickly drops to 1mm and below).

Yes, the back is hollow ground, I'd say about as much as my honesuki and deba, but not as much as I've seen on yanagi's. As for how this differs from a garasuki ? That would be better answered by someone with more J-knife cred than me, but my understanding is that this could typically be called a garasuki as it's a large, single bevel poultry knife, but it is thicker, longer and differently shaped than any garasuki I've seen. It's also designed with slicing in mind, which I don't think is typically a consideration / use for garasuki.

The profile is very flat, but only the first 50-60% of the profile is actually flat. From there, it does have a gentle sweep up to the tip (this helps both to not bury / smash the tip when chopping and to use an arc motion to finish a cut when slicing. Only a few chickens and 2 turkeys have fallen to the Fowler so far, so I'm still getting a feel for it, but it's been working really well. It's nimble enough to do all the de-boning and fillet work, but long enough to slice up the meat and stout enough to smash though the remaining bones and back. No double it's an odd knife, but Stephen gave me exactly what I asked for.

As for the Marr: it's stouter than it looks. I have not doubt that it could also tackle a chicken. The handle is one of the coolest, most thoughtfully designed ones that I've ever held. The craftsmanship is obviously top notch, but there are little details all over that make it really comfortable, functional, and just fun to look at and touch. I don't know if you can see it on the left side of the handle, but he gave the underside just the slightest little concavity which makes a really natural little home for your finger tips.
As Johnny and others noticed: it is "very D" indeed. But it works very well with my large hands and the high grip that I use on a small, low knife like this one. I have no problem making heel contact with the board. It also makes the grip feel very confident when used in the air like a paring knife.

As for the issue of copper toxicity: it doesn't concern me much. My understanding is that the places where this is an issue is if you are cooking highly acidic things in a unlined copper pot or if you are creating a lot of small particles of copper though grinding or sanding. Also, I typically keep my knife hand and handle almost totally out of contact with the food. The kind of soaking, prolonged exposure that would cause copper or copper oxides to leach into the food is not ever going to happen. Still I always appreciate the concern when matters of health and safety are concerned.


I will try to hurry up with my poultry and petty knife project and get a mega gallery and review up sooner rather than later. The other knives in the project include a weird little Carter honyaki honesuki (with an interesting story), zakuri boning, watanabe honesuki, and a Mizuno deba.
 
They look really nice! I am curious about how one could create a Hamon with O1, though. I was under the impression that differential heat treating was not possible with that steel.

DURRR, :scratchhead: yeah that's what I get for posting before bed... steel on the Fowler is W2, not O1.... got my letter/number steels switched around. Thanks for the catch Spike!
 
Only a few chickens and 2 turkeys have fallen to the Fowler so far...

Sounds like the same old story of bird on bird crime. :D

Wow, great knives.
Nice to see folks not playing it safe with traditional design and material choices.
 
DURRR, :scratchhead: yeah that's what I get for posting before bed... steel on the Fowler is W2, not O1.... got my letter/number steels switched around. Thanks for the catch Spike!

Well, rats! I was hoping for a new secret process!
 
Sounds like the same old story of bird on bird crime
lmao, nice.

Thats about the best looking Fowler I've ever seen. Great idea, nice execution, cool knife. Congrats.
 
Neat knives! I love the Dammy on that Marr and the radical idea on that Fowler. Cool hamon, too.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top