Apologies, I'm long overdue on this one. For full disclosure, I did a couple meals with both knives to get a feel for the difference (using the pass around mainly for these initial preps), then sent the knife on to Tostadas so as to not slow things down. As such a little more of my use is based on my own knife made to largely the same spec as the pass around. Overall they performed very similarly in that limited experience with the biggest difference being I the flatter profile on my custom vs. a bit more curve to the profile on the pass around.
General Observations/initial impressions:
The knife comes nicely packaged with a custom fit leather sheath and chapstick style wax applicator. Overall fit and finish is very nice with well rounded/comfortable spine and choil that to me is unheard of st this price point. The handles have nice crisp and consistent lines/ chamfering, the fit up is very clean and the walnut burl is a nice touch. The forced patina and scotch brite finish with a diagonal brushed effect is a small but nice contrast from the vertical pattern you usually see on a belt finished knife and from my view went nicely to complement the forged finish towards the spine.
The length, height and flatter profile were right on target of what I was looking for on my custom. The handle is shorter than my usual preference and the weight is lighter than I'm accustomed to for a knife of this size, but it feels great in hand with a balance right at the markers mark (the first 222mm Gyuto from
@eddworks gave the initial visual impression that the handle was to short lengthwise, but I was instantly proven wrong once I picked it up and used it). From a purely size-to-weight-to-balance perspective it feels a lot like a Kamon production knife in hand with the shorter but very comfortable handle.
Specs:
261mm x 61mm
221g
Spine: 5.92mm above heel, 2.25mm mid, 1.01mm ~1" from tip
Handle length: 121.41mm
For full disclosure, I'm just a home cook, so you pros out there are infinitely more qualified than I to review a knife like this.
Blade:
The overall profile has a flat that extends about the last 40% of the edge. With the heel height to accompany the flatness, it can have a little bit of the abruptness at the heel reminiscent of a Yoshikane (though I asked for this), but a slow steady curve up the forward half with more of a forward lean to the profile than a Yoshi. The significant taper down from the thickness above the heel and the nail flexing edge are the next things that standout. The overall thinness is more than I'm accustomed to with a knife of this size where I generally will lean towards something with more heft at the feel. I worried how this would hold up for a pass around, because it is really thin, but more on that later*.
Time for testing:
The thinness on a knife of this blade left me eager to compare it to some of my more comparable blades as well as a couple other favorites, plus my new hammered finish Wakui. That said, I stopped short of pulling out some of the highest price tag knives as I was already comparing to knives costing 2-3.5 times as much outside of the Wakui, so I kept the comparisons to those priced under $1k.
For the last week prep has leaned heavily on veggies and a 4 year old on a kick focused almost entirely on her primary food groups of noodles and berries. As such my use is not as diverse as I'd like so I bought some extra random root veggies/tubers to mutilate. Slicing proteins was limited to some partitioned legs, boneless chicken breasts, raw salmon and yellow fin tuna. Performance was as expected from these rather simple tests, so onto the veggies. Starting with celery, carrots and onions and the knife performed really nicely to dice these up and the thin tip was especially nice and smooth going through the onions. Next meal was highlighted by cutting some peppers, limes, radishes, garlic, cilantro, green and white onions. I was rushed, so I wasn't as attentive to the knife, but at the end I stopped and reflected that no piece of the prep was anything but a pleasure. Last the general veggie mutilation... this is where it shocked me and Eddworks had already won me over before this knife. I started on the bunny slopes with hothouse cucumbers because well, I wanted some, then moved to the making the biggest carrots I could find into match sticks and then sweet potatoes. It performed slightly better than the others on the carrots but the only knife it really left massively behind was the beefier Wakui that did some brrapping, but again it was being compared to some well respected western makers at 2-3x the price. Moving onto the sweet potatoes I was distracted in discussion and stopped dead in my tracks when I realized it felt as effortless as the cucumber. I stopped and compared one knife after another and nothing felt as effortless going through them. I was surprised that one of my absolute favorite knives (though finish probably played a role here) really needed some force to go through the same thing this knife just made feel as easy to cut as cucumbers or some small radishes.
Cons:
1. There was some minor sticking on a couple items, but nothing I'd notice if I wasn't doing a review
2. Very minor, but the abrupt flat of the heel is noticable at times, but as noted before, this design is something I requested
3. *The thin blade on the pass around knife hit something hard when I was cutting some chicken. It turns out a piece of dried rice from something I had done earlier had stuck to the back of the chicken and I hit this while using the blade. For a second I thought I had done more damage to the edge, but it really just left a small glint on the blade edge. I decided not to do anything to remove this after further use and it appeared small enough that it would sharpen out on the next touch up, but I did want to call this out.
Pros:
1. The knife is very nimble for a 261mm knife with a nice continuous distal taper
2. Consistent and aggressive grinds with a nail flexing edge
3. This is personal preference, but I really enjoyed both profiles
4. Very comfortable spine/choil and overall well executed fit and finish
5. Quality materials and finish make this feel like something from a higher price point
6. Very nicely balanced blade right at the pinch
7. Amazing value is made moreso with the nice leather sheath addition
In closing (yes, I kinda feel like I'm fan-girling here) there's nothing about this knife that I don't like. I understand that this thin of an edge or the flatter profile on my version might not be everyone's cup of tea. It was just very fun to use time and again. This lighter profile is an interesting contrast to the s35vn tall bunka I have that uses that heft and nice tapering grinds to just fall through food vs. the way this knife just glides through things. I will safely say this in my top 5-6 favorite knives in my collection at this point and nailed what I asked for in a taking the initial 222mm/8.75" Gyuto to this scale. What really makes this stand out even more is the fact that this and the tall bunka set me back $250.00 and $325.00 respectively versus those other favorite blades which outside of a Markin Gyuto, cost me between $900.00-$1900.00 each. I hope you all enjoy the pass around knife as much as I have and if you have questions or want to see pictures of any of the work from Eddworks shown further up this thread, please let me know. I've moved forward from the pass around to add two more customs to the queue and I look forward to hearing everyone else's thoughts.
@eddworks Thanks for your willingness to jump into the forum for a pass around from the request of a random customer that won't stop pestering you on Etsy.
Cheers!
