Haslinger Teaser!

[Potato42]

You hear people talk about thin knives like sports cars a lot. To me, this one says "jet fighter".

 

[echerub]

The Canada Post strike/lockout isn't going to help...

 

[BertMor]

That's a sweet knife. Too bad I'm a day late and a dollar short to get in on the passaround. I've always wanted to try one of his knives. He made a cleaver a while back that I still lust after.

Hmmmm must have missed my frequest, right after Andy's ... Oh well maybe next time

 

[echerub]

Just picked up the knife earlier this evening! Nothing for me to make tonight, but I'll start putting the knife through its paces tomorrow

 

[Lefty]

Great! Glad it got there. Take that Canada Post! Haha

 

[Lefty]

Haslinger Review:
Sorry for the delay, guys. Here's a short(ish), but true review of the knife.

First Impression:
The knife is a real looker! My wife was in the room when I opened it and she said something along the lines of, "Wow! That's pretty. It's smaller than your other knives. Is it for me"? I think that's a compliment!
Looks alone, it's a star!
The only noticeable "imperfection" was an overgrind on the right side (looking down at the spine), at the heel. It looked as though the belt (or stone) got away from Thomas for a second. It didn't affect performance, but. I know it is something I new to point out.

Profile:
It has a nice profile, with kind of a new-age euro inspired design. There isn't a huge amount of flat in the blade, but it ended up working pretty well for push cutting. It wasn't a strength, but it was passably good at it. The blade was made to be used by people who have a slight rock in their motion, and when used accordingly, it was very nice.
The tip is VERY pointy, and in a pro kitchen, i'd be afraid it might get bent, or worse yet, broken. In a home setting, it's great for trimming, and delicate tip work.

Grind:
I didn't examine it quite as closely as perhaps I should have, but I will say that it was a tad thick behind the edge. I felt it in hard product, but it wasn't really getting stuck. It cut through, but felt abrupt.
As I mentioned before, I lightly eased the shoulders and made the "factory grind" a little bit steeper, and it felt like a new knife. With my edge (or close to it), the blade felt much more nimble than it did upon receiving it. Looking at the knife, you would think "agile", and after a tweak or two it was VERY close to this.

Steel:
The steel felt very good on the board, and I never once felt like it might chip. This, of course, could be partly because of the grind of the blade.
It sharpened very strangely, with a screeching noise, at times. You can tell S35VN is very abrasion resistant. Sharpening took a while, but felt worthwhile. I've been spoiled with white steel lately, and I just don't tyvm S35VN can get as sharp as white. Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't feel like getting tendonitis trying to find out
For a really thin knife that will allow geometry to dictate performance, or a knife that is meant to be beaten up on (line knife), i think S35VN is a great steel. However, for an in between (dare I say it...Addict-type knife), I think it would be an awful choice.
I got the knife relatively sharp, but I don't see polishing this steel being advantageous.

Workmanship/Handle:
A+! Thomas has skills! The knife itself is almost perfect to look at! Aside from the overgrind (minor), I can't pick on anything. The handle is modern, comfortable and I loved the wood choice.
I had no issue with knuckle clearance (I hold a knife very loosely), but I think some will mention they'd prefer a bit more room between the handle and board.
The handle is a pinch gripper or a finger on the spine type of handle. I see this as a positive, for sure!

Overall:
I am pleased with the knife, overall. It's not a lazer, but Thomas will be the first to tell you that. He took a European knife and made it much better. For this, I say "well done"!
The knife was a good, not great, but better than those "other knives" cutter. The edge seems like it will last for years, and I think it would fit in where people might like A-types (I won't say for sure), but want something A LOT prettier, less labour intensive and much more unique.
Was I amazed by this knife? I some ways, yes, and in others, no...not quite. Would I hang it on my rack, alongside a Rodrigue, Carter, Konosuke, Misono, and Fuji? You're damned right I would. I'd use it when I wanted to have a showpiece knife that I can beat up on (and my in-laws can do whatever it is they do to knives). The only area I'd truly worry about is the tip. I just felt like I might snap it off...It was great to use, but made me a bit nervous.
If Thomas addresses the abrupt bevel to blade road area, and gives us a bit more board contact, I think he'll have a real winner. Until then, fix it with 15-30 minutes on the stones and let your friends and family drool while you prep dinner.
Thanks Thomas, for lending us your knife and putting yourself and your work out there. There will be some VERY tough reviews along the way, but I honestly think most will find this to be a nice knife!

 

[AnxiousCowboy]

too late for an east coaster to get in on the pass around? Looks beautiful and would love to give it a go in my kitchen...

 

[echerub]

Hey guys. I've got the knife boxed up and ready to continue on with the passaround. Here are some of my thoughts about the knife:

Cosmetics, Fit & Finish

The fit and finish are top-notch. The spine and choil are rounded, and the handle both looks and feels fantastic. The curly koa wood is a beautiful, dark wood that exudes elegance and style.

My girlfriend thought the knife looked really nice, but the sharp, fine tip "scared" her and she refused to use it. When I brought the knife to use in my cooking classes, the knife garnered attention very quickly due to its looks.

As Lefty mentioned, there is a slight overgrind on the right side of the heel. You will see it as a slight "flare" to the bevel right at the heel. Other than that, though, the knife is almost perfect in the fit, finish, and looks department. It'll catch your eye in the kitchen, as well as everyone else's. It's a beautiful knife and a wonderful example of style and craftsmanship.

Blade Profile

I'm used to doing push-cutting with the knife held parallel to the cutting board all the way through the cutting motion. I thought this might be a problem with the Haslinger design, but it turned out to be alright. I found that to compensate for the curvature, I naturally put in more forward motion than usual into my stroke, and went with a slight rock or curvature through the stroke. I'd start the cut with the blade ever so slightly tip-down from flat, and as I pushed the knife down and forward, I'd bring the heel down a little faster so that by the time I ended on the board, it was heel-flat on the board.

I rock-chopped once with the blade, when I was mincing up some Italian parsley. Other than that, I did slightly modified push-cutting all the way and encountered almost no "accordioning" of my food. I think there was only one instance of "accordioning". In general, the blade curvature isn't as problematic for push cutters as it first appears, even though the actual length of perfectly straight edge is rather short. No problems going through a load of potatoes and large-dicing onions. Carrots, however, were not a joy with the knife as I found I needed to move the knife with more of a forward motion than usual and I felt noticeably slower. A bit more flat edge to the profile I think would make a difference here.

I have a preference for taller blades, so what follows is going to be more a matter of preference than anything else. I found the height on this knife to be rather short, so I don't think I did my usual pinch grip at all with this knife. I either used the knife with my index finger riding on top of the spine, which lent it really nicely for slicing, or with a slightly crunched up pinch grip. One of my classmates, when handling the knife, commented that the "ferrule" didn't feel very comfortable for him. For me, it was never an issue - even with my slightly crunched up pinch grip, the handle felt comfortable at all times. However, the the short blade height was sometimes less than ideal for me.

The sharp, fine tip is one of the hallmarks of this series' design and look. It's good for fine tip work in some cases, but not in all cases. When I finely mince garlic cloves, I cut horizontal with the blade, then use the tip to make vertical cuts before finally using the main blade body to finish it all off - just like the way many of us mince onions. I found that I had to slow down when using the tip to do the vertical cuts. On other chef's knives, gyutos, or whatever, the tip is a little taller and there's somewhere on the blade that can ride along one of my knuckles. Not so with this particular profile, so I had to carefully watch the tip. I wasn't slow on the garlic, but there was a noticeable reduction in speed compared to what I normally do with other knives.

Blade Geometry

This knife isn't a laser-type knife, and isn't meant to be. It's good, multi-purpose geometry that will suit many folks. It's not a beefy geometry, it's just not a waif-like laser geometry. The knife felt nice going through veggies of all kinds although there was some cracking on harder root vegetables, went through meat like a dream, had no issues dealing with pineapple or small watermelons. Peeling an apple with the knife, though, isn't playing to its strengths.

Handling & Feel

This is a light knife, perhaps because of its short length. The balance point is right at the "ferrule" end of the handle scales. Yet, there was a strange kind of feel in the hands for me when I first handled the knife. It felt nimble, but not "lively". I'm not sure I have the right vocabulary to describe the feeling. I could move this knife any which way I wanted to and easily - partly because of its short length, partly because its resultant lighter weight. For some reason, though, the knife didn't jump alive in my hand as some other knives do, even if they are a bit bigger or heavier.

I suppose it has something to do with the balance point, but I am left scratching my head on this. Would having the balance point just a little bit further forward make the difference in liveliness? It could also be a matter of what I'm used to using, since the vast majority of my knives are wa-handled or if they are western handled have more metal in the blade and therefore probably all have balance points just a little further forward. That being the case, maybe this is a matter of personal preference, but it might not be. Only time will tell as others review the knife and comment on its feel in the hand.

I'll say more about this in my wrap-up, but after using this knife for 10 days deliberately prepping more meals and a greater variety of meals than I would in a regular week-and-a-bit, I think this knife handles and feels like a large petty knife.

Edge Retention and Maintenance

Edge retention surprised me on this knife, and not in a good way. The knife came to me sharpened by Lefty, and I worked with that edge the whole week. When I took the knife out of the box and felt the edge with my fingers, it felt nice all the way from tip to heel. Cutting on a variety of poly and end-grain boards posed no issues for most of the week. However, towards the end of the week I noticed that the heel end of the edge had become noticeably dull. The front half of the knife still had a nice sharp edge, but that made sense since it was the back half of the knife that was always making board contact.

I didn't expect the edge to dull at all during the week I was using the knife, which is why this observation surprised me. I first noticed the dulling when cutting up some tomatoes and found that it wasn't cutting through the skin well. When I felt the edge with my fingers, sure enough the back end of the blade had become dull. I hadn't been any rougher on this knife than any of my usual knives, and others go through the same poly boards without issue. Indeed, one of my cleavers is used only on poly boards and retains its edge very well.

On the other hand, quickly stropping this knife on a leather pad with diamond honing spray brought the edge back to life. I don't know how durable this "resurrected" edge will be, since I packed up the knife for shipping the next day.

Overall Impressions

This knife is made with skill, attention, and care. That much is obvious right from the first time I saw it and handled it, and I still say it now after using it for a week and a bit.

The knife, in my hands, is really better thought of as a large petty knife than as a small chef's knife. If I frame my experience with the knife in terms of what I expect a chef's knife should handle and feel, it doesn't quite jive and I wouldn't be satisfied with the knife. However, once I frame my experience in terms of a petty, things change: this knife is great as a large, beefier petty. If I think of the knife as a large petty, it does everything I'd expect of it, plus more. If I think of it as a chef's knife, though, it falls short simply because there are design choices in the profile that don't suit the way I want to use a chef's knife. I think that those who use sujis as their main cooking knives, for example, will come away with a totally different experience.

The knife handles great as a short slicer, particularly with the index-finger grip and with the low blade profile. Curving the along watermelon rind to get out all the "meat" was a cinch. Thin slicing deli meats was wonderful. Cutting up chicken breast into fine strips was a breeze. It takes on small melons and pineapples great. Veggie prep will go by quickly, too - though some, like carrots, won't be as nice an experience as it could otherwise be.

The only thing that concerns me at this point is that edge retention. The back half of that edge should not have dulled that quickly based on just one week's use by a home cook and part-time culinary student. I am encouraged by the way the edge came back to life so quickly after just a few moments on a leather honing pad, but I think it will fall to subsequent testers to suss out more about edge retention and ease of bringing an edge back.

 

[Lefty]

Thanks for the review, Len! Great job!
Did you detect any sort of wire edge on the heel portion? Maybe I didn't fully deburr that area and am to blame for the issue(?)

 

[echerub]

I thought about that, but a wire edge would have just crumbled without being able to resurrect it on the leather hone, right?

 

[Eamon Burke]

Not necessarily. Depends on the steel.

 

[spinblue]

Hi All,
I received the knife Friday afternoon as I was heading out of town for the weekend.

I unleashed it from the box, unrolled the bubble wrap and was instantly smiling with the visual appeal. The knife is very, very nice looking from the blade, the way light bounces off the grinds of the blade and the handle is gorgeous and feels great.

I'll get a chance to look more at it later today.

 

[SpikeC]

Haslinger passaround

First impression out of the bubble wrap: Very beautiful piece of work!
As I look closely, there is some staining on the front 3 inches of the blade, so it is not truly "stainless". It is not glaring by any means, but is visible. The koa handle is really pretty and feels nice in the hand at initial impression.*
*Looking closely at the blade profile there is no truly flat place on the cutting edge, very much like my Takeda gyuto. *I don't anticipate a problem with chopping as long as there is a slight rocking movement to the cut, but we shall see how that works out in practice.
*The grind on the blade is not the same on each side, the left side of the blade is nearly flat while the right side has more convexity.*
*Thomas mentions a slight rounding of the spine and choil to make them more comfortable to the hand, I think that a bit more would be in order, especially if the knife is going to be used for more than a few minutes. In a few moments of use I found myself very aware of the edges of not only the metal areas but also the front of the wood on the handle.
*I did a little veg prep with the knife as it came out of the package and it was apparent that it had not been sharpened. The edge near the tip was dull with light reflecting off the edge, and there was no edge near the heel. A few passes on .5 micron diamond paste helped, but I had to hit the stones to get the edge back, briefly on 1K, a few passes on 4K, and then some stropping on a 6K Suehiro followed by a few passes on the charged leather. Now it has a great edge. What little burr I rose came off on the edge of my workbench.
*
*I wrote that without looking at the previous reviews, and now for a few more thoughts.
*What looked like staining on the front of the blade disappeared after a few days of use and cleaning.
*It was said that there was a slight overgrind on the right side near the heel. I could not detect any with my straight edge, but I did detect a bend in the length of the blade to the right. I don't think that the curve affects the cutting, but it is there.*
*I need more knuckle clearance than this knife provides, and I find the edges of the scales bothersome.*
*With all of the talk about food release I thought at I would mention that it really gloms onto the blade on this knife. I did a side to side with my ebony handled knife and initially mine cut more easily, but after tuning the edge some the performance was comparable as far as ease of slicing and chopping was concerned.*
*I am a little unsure about the profile of this blade. It seems to me to be between a slicer and a chef's. I would like the front half of the blade to be wider if it is a gyuto type, and the second half to be narrower if it is a slicer. The all around profile seems to not quite hit the mark for me.*

 

[SpikeC]

All of those * marks were inserted by the iPad, I don't know where they came from!

 

[JBroida]

just got this knife in the mail last night... havent had any time to do anything with it yet, but i took some pictures for you guys

 

[Lefty]

Nice pics, Jon!
How's it holding up after all of the hands it's been in, so far?

 

[JBroida]

Measurements:
Handle Length- 122.0mm
Handle Height- 26.25mm
Handle Width- 21.00mm
Handle to Tip Length- 209.0mm
Heel to Tip Length- 200.0mm
Blade Height at Heel- 45.5mm
Width of Spine at Handle- 2.5mm
Width of Spine Above Heel- 2.5mm
Width of Spine at Middle- 2.2mm
Width of Spine about 1cm from the tip- 0.5mm
Blade Thickness at 1/2 way between the Spine and Edge- 2.0mm
Weight- 170g

 

[JBroida]

Nice pics, Jon!
How's it holding up after all of the hands it's been in, so far?

seems like its in good shape, but its in bad need of some sharpening... so thats my plan for the day

 

[Lefty]

Lucky knife!

 

[JBroida]

sharpening done... as some previous reviewers have noted, there is some funkiness near the heel with the grind.

The steel sharpened much easier than i expected... people always make it out to be a tough steel... sharpening from 400 through to 8k took no more than 5 minutes.




It takes a nice edge, but not quite as fine as i normally like... you can feel the steel has a natural toothiness to it (not necessarily a bad thing with kitchen knives).

Anyways, i'll be using it over the weekend a bunch and will get back to you guys with more then.

-Jon

 

[JBroida]

Getting ready to post my final thoughts and also trying to figure out who's after me... Lefty, can you shoot me a PM when you have a chance (your inbox was full)

 

[El Pescador]

I have always thought that I’d own a Haslinger Chef’s Knife, and for a short time last month, I did. I have always admired his knife work and thought it was just a matter of the right circumstances. Without any notice, a Haslinger 200mm (8in) s35vn gyuto showed up on my doorstep. Truly a welcome surprise!
Intial Impressions-This is a good looking knife! Thin tip, comfortable handle. Beautiful Fiddleback Koa with a mosaic pin. That’s the good.
Here’s the bad. Flat grind so stuff sticks, it was most noticible with hard vegetables like acorn squash where it wedged like a mofo. As a meat cutter it was ok, but it was too short to really be of any use slicing. It had a weird blade profile, I felt like it wanted to be a slicer but was way too short and while the lenth was right for a small gyuto it was too narrow with a big belly. Another thing, it’s too short at the heel. Your fingers get in the way so the first 1 ½ inches of the blade are unusable.
Sharpening was not that much more difficult than a vg10 knife but it did take longer. As to edge retention, I gave up on the knife due to profile issues long before any impression of steel performance could be reached.

 

[Salty dog]

He's been making knives for a while now. He must have found a comfy market. He seems to be happy with his design. I checked out one of his knives and was unpleasantly surprised.

 

[mr drinky]

That cleaver is definitely drool-worthy, but reading this old thread begs the question: What happened in the passaround? Or did I miss the thread. I searched for a Haslinger passaround thread and didn't see anything.

k.

 

[El Pescador]

That cleaver is definitely drool-worthy, but reading this old thread begs the question: What happened in the passaround? Or did I miss the thread. I searched for a Haslinger passaround thread and didn't see anything.

k.

this is the passaround thread

 

[Lefty]

Unfortunately, this is the thread. I think we've lost some excitement, or perhaps the info is going straight to the man himself.
I have to be honest, Pierre and I talk regularly (the other passaround I set up), but I haven't heard a peep from Thomas in months. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, and assuming he's just busy.

 

[mr drinky]

So how many have gotten to road test the knife? Just wondering.

Btw, I am pretty sure Justin0505 has a Haslinger.

k.

 

[tk59]

Pesky brought it by for a little test drive. My opinion mirrors his except for the part about always wanting one. It's a decent small slicer. Tip work is decent and I tend to do a lot of it. It takes a while to grind on the stones but the edge is good.

 

[Eamon Burke]

Two more then to me, two more then to me!

 

[El Pescador]

My problem with this knife is the size...Im sure a bigger (240mm) knife performs better than this one. sometimes small isn't better.