Well, I have had a few days to play around with this knife and here's my brief synopsis.
Fit and Finish: Not including the cracks that developed, the handle itself is beautiful, and the tang is blended perfectly. The blade is straight with no over grinds etc etc. Maker's mark is very clear, defined and overall, the knife is very well-made.
Aesthetics: Other than Butch's Nakiri, I cannot get into his "radical/rustic" shaped knives. This is my problem, not butch's or anyone else's.
Performance: The profile is perfect for my style of cutting, which is 90% push cutting. The grind is awesome, it fell through everything I threw at it with minimal sticking. Eamon's edge plus Butch's grind = one serious cutting machine. I wasn't perfectly perpendicular with my cutting board when horizontally slicing onions and I shaved a bit off my Board Smith board (oops :O). The performance has been so very great for me, that now I am considering looking into a Butch knife in the future. Function for me is way more important than form I guess, I just wish he made a Gyuto that I liked the look of. Perhaps I will look into getting a Nakiri if I like my Carter when it arrives.
Eamon's sheath was very well-made with no rough areas, gaps or unevenness anywhere. Once again, similar to Butch's knives I prefer a different design asethetically but the blade fit perfectly into his sheath. In fact, it friction fit and the pin was not necessary, although I understand wood changes overtime so the pin will be necessary in the future. Maker's mark was well burned in and overall I thought it was very nice. It is just as nice as my Shigefusa saya, which once again isn't the nicest looking but from a function standpoint, it is amazingly well fit.
Pics...
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chicagopete at 2012-06-11
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chicagopete at 2012-06-11
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chicagopete at 2012-06-11
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chicagopete at 2012-06-11
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chicagopete at 2012-06-11
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chicagopete at 2012-06-11
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chicagopete at 2012-06-11
Below is the crack mentioned earlier.
By
chicagopete at 2012-06-11
Below you will see a very small crack on the top left hand corner of the handle that I noticed.
By
ChicagoPete at 2012-06-11
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chicagopete at 2012-06-11