300mm Damascus Suji. U.S. Pass-around

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Thanks Johnny and thanks Tk for the feedback, its much appreciated, especially as i'm sure you have a ton of knives to get through:D
Did you take it to the hones Tk?, i'd be very interested in your views of the steel in terms of the edge you could get off it.
The texture in the steel is pitting from over etching, trying to get the non-contrasty steels to show a bit more contrast.:O
I ht then grind my blades, any flaws show up during the grind and certainly on polishing. The blank was clean as a whistle. Interesting things though flaws if you think about it wrought iron has very beautiful flaws in the form of slag inclusions in hazy lines from rolling. But then bad wrought, does have a tendency to come apart on you.:D
 
I saw the other thread you started with the new suji. Looks like you've already responded to a lot of the criticism. I did not take it to the stone per your request but I'd be more than happy to do so. I was impressed with the toughness of the edge. I have observed very little damage under magnification although it isn't cutting tomatoes particularly well even after stropping on 1 micron diamond. As for the flaws, I agree, they could add an interesting touch, as long as rust doesn't set in the fissures or weaken the blade in some way. I couldn't detect either on this blade. It looks like Pesky won't be by to check it out for a couple of days. It will go off to Jon on Friday or Saturday.
 
I sent the knife off to Jon today, now that Pesky's had a turn with it. I've attached a picture of the patina in it's current state. It's gorgeous, if I do say so myself. I also sharpened the knife gently on Gesshin 1k-5k-Awasedo-Dave new strop loaded w/ 1 micron diamond. I'll say it wasn't the easiest thing to sharpen for a number of reasons (some flexibility, the length, the small bevel and the weight distribution) but it did sharpen up just like a lot of simple carbon steel knives. It get blazingly sharp pretty easily. The burr was pretty easy to remove (gone by the time I finished with the 5k, which was not very long). It did improve the cutting but not as much as I thought it would. To me, that reinforces the idea that the grind would be the main way this knife could be improved...like it needs a little yanagiba mixed into it. =D
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Woo, that looks great, thanks Tk, i'd nearly forgotten how long I made the handle:eek2:. So a little check list, so far.
A good deal more convexity on the faces will help part food, without sticking on the slice.
More weight to the tip by shifting the balance,
Shorter handle,
More up-sweep to the tip, maybe over the last third of the blade? This accentuates cutting area.
Shorter emoto so as not to have to over stretch pinch grip.
No upsweep to the handle to ease the wrist position doing long slices.
Thanks all for the feedback,:biggrin:
 
I hear ya. I just thought it was sad...
 
Whats sad is me having to change my pants from laughing so hard.
 
got the knife yesterday... took some pics this morning.

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Very cool detail shots there Jon, many thanks:biggrin:
 
my pleasure... looking forward to playing around with it a bit... so far, i think my comments will mirror what others have said... long neck, weird edge profile (esp. near the back 1/3 of the blade... you get a wierd clunk clunk when cutting with the profile that flat), handle super long (but nicely done), etc. I'll say more when i've had some time to use it a bit.
 
Looking at these pics reminded me of something I meant to say earlier. The skill level on these knives is very high. This knife reminded me a lot of my experience with the Rader passaround. Plenty of skill but the design needed some work. I'm putting Catcheside on my short list of wants along with another Devin, a Burke, a Rader and a Tsourkan...
 
tk59 said:
Looking at these pics reminded me of something I meant to say earlier. The skill level on these knives is very high. This knife reminded me a lot of my experience with the Rader passaround. Plenty of skill but the design needed some work. I'm putting Catcheside on my short list of wants along with another Devin, a Burke, a Rader and a Tsourkan...
Click to expand...

Your short list isn't so short anymore. All set on Carters for now?
 
JohnnyChance said:
Your short list isn't so short anymore. All set on Carters for now?
Click to expand...
What are you talkin' about? That's really short! As for Carters, yes. I can't justify getting a fourth any time soon. I hope Bill doesn't call me too soon, either...
 
Back on line folks. Kalaeb is up next.:D Thanks all for your input so far, its been a real learning experience.
 
Thanks Dude, Enjoy. By the way if anyone can find a use for this knife, do drop me a pm. Obviously its far from perfect, so I would certainly let it go at used/ practice knife prices. Would save Mark posting it back to the uk too.:D
 
Some comparison shots w/ my Pierre Rodrigue 300mm suji. Assist by BoardSMITH. Sorry about the poor spine shots.

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and just for fun...

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Thanks for the pictures, they are great. Hope you enjoyed using it.
Will
 
I really enjoyed my time with it. It was by far the most popular knife at our Christmas party -- I was using it to slice the hams and people kept picking it up to admire it.

The longish handle was really my only issue with it. It wasn't quite as comfortable as the one my other suji, and it shifted the weight balance a little more towards the handle, leaving the front half of the blade feeling a little light (in car terms, it understeered a tad :))

The spine was wider then on my suji, and it had less taper at the tip. Before I used the knife, I thought that would hurt the overall performance, but it was thin enough behind the edge and was quite a capable slicer.

I did not cut up much in the way of vegetables with it, just a couple onions and potatoes. The lightness near the tip made it a little less then ideal for those tasks, but then again a 300mm blade isn't exactly a go-to length for me when it comes to gyutos, so I'm not used to doing much with knives this length other then carving roasts, etc.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the level of workmanship. The metal and woodwork were top notch! And you gained a dozen or so new admirers that evening -- many of whom collect pocket knives and could not understand up until that point why I would spend more the $50 on a kitchen knife.

Thanks for letting me try it out! :cool2:
 
Thanks David, it was a crazy length to do the handle:D I guess I was thinking artistically rather than practicality. The addition of a brass dowel to handles on longer knives has addressed that issue meaning a handle can be made to fit a hand measurement, (Mine is 130mm) and not be overly blade heavy.
My grinds have got more and more extreme as I have gone along from the Pass around. Something like 2.8, 1.8. 0.8 an inch behind the tip is presently what i'm doing on a 300mm Suji. With a tad more convexity.
The edge profile seems to be an area of personal taste. Between this one, which is quite a flat profile, notably too flat for many, My latest Suji near matches a Masamoto ks 270 gyuto from the tip back. So a slight curve to the heel but pretty flat then a sweep up to the tip. How do you prefer your profile on a Suji?
 
Will, the edge profile of your suji matches the profile of Pierre's pretty closely (I should have taken a pic of them overlaid). I like this flattish profile. But then again I do not use my suji for 'board work' -- I have a few gyutos for that.

So I would say if you want to use the suji as an all-around knife then a little more curve might be good, but if mainly for slicing it's good as-is. Obviously this is personal, and I tend to prefer gyutos that are a little flatter then the norm.
 
Thanks David, yep I think I'll leave the exact edge profile to personal choice on orders. Thats the beauty of custom knives after all.:biggrin:
 
Where has this got to then? Spike had it last I heard.:D
 
Mark should have it now, it was scheduled to be at his place Saturday.
 
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