Borrowed my laptop from work tonight so I could write down some thoughts while they are still fresh.
Steel:
Sharpening was a breeze. You can make a fine, even burr along the length of the blade with ease. The grain size must be really fine I figured since the stones got a bit clogged and felt glassy. Took the Atoma to them and got right back to it. Edge resilience was quite long lasting as well. I could use it for a few days of full shifts between simple stropping on felt with diamond. Speaking of stropping, it's quite incredible how doing so little results in so much for the steel. Which leads me to a unique point as well, with so little effort in sharpening it became obvious that since you barely ever remove much metal, the useful life of this knife will be quite long. A real plus for me.
It takes on a nice patina quickly. I only had a problem with reactivity with an onion once. At the end of the shift the diced onion had turned black. It's to be expected of a carbon blade though. I figure with a more developed patina it shouldn't be a problem.
Geometry/Grind/Shape:
Food release was just fantastic on this blade. Even the usual suspects posed no threat. Potatoes, squash, whatever. I couldn't make much stick to the blade and what little that did, jumped off with a simple flick. I know that Andrew had said maybe the tip could use an adjustment since it seemed to wedge on onions during the initial horizontal cuts but this never bothered me for one reason, I don't cut onions like that. I use the middle of the blade to push cut towards the root after the radial/vertical cuts. So that doesn't affect me. I even tried to recreate the issue by cutting it like Andrew and to be honest it did feel wonky however, I attribute that to be from my inexperience with that technique and not the knife. It just felt unnatural to me so I may not be the greatest judge in that particular critique. Regardless, as I said it doesn't affect me so I don't care. If Marko can improve this however, I'll take it with the improvement.
Wedging near the heel was not an issue either. No snapping carrots with this blade. Even with a straight downward chop using no directional motion. Clean cutter.
Push cutting works really well. It's almost flat with a slight curve which I really like. I don't want it to be totally flat, then you can't rock without it feeling jarring. I want to be able to do both whenever necessary. Rocking works pretty well also. With just enough sweep towards the tip to keep things smooth. Marko has told me he may offer a nose with a bit more upsweep but I would have to have both in hand to decide which I like better. Which brings us to walking the board. Marko's knife is thin but I wouldn't say it's a super laser like Konosuke etc. Which is fine since I'm always wary of walking with that knife. I can just hear/feel the edge cricking and rolling and I hate using it like that. I didn't have that same fear while using this knife. I think Marko has hit the sweet spot between thinness and grind. Thin yet not anorexic at the spine but still thin behind the edge with enough meat behind that for some convexing. Not to mention the distal taper is great too. It gets thin enough towards the tip to do highly detailed dicing etc. with ease.
Extras:
Weight and balance were perfect for a pinch gripper like me. Didn't feel like a 260 at all. Very nimble in the hand, a perfect extension. Blade face was finished to a perfect even satin. Very nice. Spine and choil should be fully rounded I believe. The choil I found to be exceptionally bothersome. An easy fix though. The tapered D handle felt mostly comfortable. As a pinch gripper, the ferrule should be rounded smooth as well.
Overall:
Performance was fantastic. There wasn't anything I didn't enjoy cutting with this knife. For reference I used both the Tanaka and Konosuke HD 240 alongside this blade and time after time I preferred the performance of the Tsourkan. Those blades may be able to do most tasks really well but Marko's does all of them. Really impressed with all aspects of this blade, just a fantastic cutter. Which really sucks because now the wait for my own Tsourkan is even harder!!
Great job on this blade Marko and a significant improvement over the last blade you sent me. At this point you've got it really dialed in now and we've begun splitting hairs between personal preference tweaks. Really makes me excited for the future!


