Merion Forge Integral Gyuto 280mm Passaround

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Hey all,

I just sent the knife off to @Gshep91
I've attached a video to show its current condition. I cooked two meals with it (only veg). I'll do a separate comment breaking down my thoughts. For now, I'll just say I'm very excited for my upcoming custom slot with Dom!

Thanks for hosting this @blokey!
 

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The size of the knife is likely why it was somewhat difficult to sell? Just speculation. Anyways I’ve never used one of these handmade integrals before so I’m pretty excited about that. My other beef is why are most integrals always big ass knives haha. Where are all the 230mm integrals at? Maybe it’s just me
 
labor of love said:
The size of the knife is likely why it was somewhat difficult to sell? Just speculation. Anyways I’ve never used one of these handmade integrals before so I’m pretty excited about that. My other beef is why are most integrals always big ass knives haha. Where are all the 230mm integrals at? Maybe it’s just me
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Here’s a 220 mm
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Overall Thoughts:

This knife is incredibly fun to use. This was my first time trying Dom's work, as well as my first time using a high-end integral. I was a chef for 17 years, but during that time, I only used a 240mm Global 🤷‍♂️

This knife is surprisingly thin, considering how dominant it feels. It's absolutely massive, but doesn't feel unweildy at all, which I found truly impressive. I've felt 240mm knives which were way more unweildy, so he really has mastered the size to balance ratio. Each segment of the blade performs differently, making this a very versatile knife. You can easily execute horizontal onion slices with the tip, while also rock-chopping herbs with the heel. I feel like I would need to spend months with this knife in order to truly get to know it. The handle is indeed not flush with the metal, but this does not affect things at all in a pinch grip, so not even really a con. My only complaint is that it lacked "bite," but I didn't take it to a stone to see how easily it could be brought back, so I can't really properly comment on the steel. It had very low reactivity when cutting onions though, which is always a nice bonus.


Pros:
- Impressively thin for its scale
- Each segment of the blade has its own personality
- Low reactivity

Cons:
- I will never need a knife this big
- Seems to lose bite rather quickly
 
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labor of love said:
Yeah if you have a buyer I’ll go ahead and bow out of the pass around to help expedite things along quicker.
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Not my intention at all. I’d be more than happy to wait until the end.

This thing deserves to be tried by everyone. It’s my second merion I’ve tried and both are very impressive
 
blokey said:
How's it going here
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I shipped the knife to @Godinlhi on Monday. I shipped with USPS priority mail, but it is expected to arrive on Saturday 3/9, which seems really long for USPS priority. I really enjoyed the knife, and I have been meaning to do a write up, but I have had a busy week at work and been tired. I should be able to write something this weekend. Sorry for not sending an update earlier.
 
mrmoves92 said:
I shipped the knife to @Godinlhi on Monday. I shipped with USPS priority mail, but it is expected to arrive on Saturday 3/9, which seems really long for USPS priority. I really enjoyed the knife, and I have been meaning to do a write up, but I have had a busy week at work and been tired. I should be able to write something this weekend. Sorry for not sending an update earlier.
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No worries, thanks!
 
mrmoves92 said:
I shipped the knife to @Godinlhi on Monday. I shipped with USPS priority mail, but it is expected to arrive on Saturday 3/9, which seems really long for USPS priority. I really enjoyed the knife, and I have been meaning to do a write up, but I have had a busy week at work and been tired. I should be able to write something this weekend. Sorry for not sending an update earlier.
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I find the shipping time to be all over the place with USPS. Last time, I sent @Godinlhi a knife from New York via some sort of savers rate (the cheapest option) and it got there almost the next day...I sent a knife to North Carolina via USPS priority at the same time. It took a week...
 
I really liked using this knife. I was honestly half of a day to a day away from buying this knife before it got pulled for the pass around, and I would not have regretted it. I might throw my name in the purchase randomizer at the end of this pass around, but if someone really wants the knife, I am happy to step down.

What I liked:
  • Good cutting performance: The knife generally cut well, and I did not have any issues with it.
  • Nice distal taper: beefy and thick at the heel but thinner in the midsection and even thinner at the tip. Horizontal onion slices were really easy.
  • Food release: it released food nicely. Similar to the blank blades 10v pass around knife.
  • Weight: nice and heavy
  • Balance: great! It balanced forward enough to feel great in hand and in use. I always worry about this with a western handle, but it wasn’t an issue with this knife.
  • Length: I was worried that this knife could be a bit too long for me, but it felt really comfortable to use.
  • Fit and finish: good but not the best that I have felt.
  • Profile: I never had any issues with the profile. It didn’t have any abrupt curves, so the whole edge was easy to use without any accordion cuts or any other issues.
  • Cladding: not too reactive with the patina it arrived with, and it looked like there would be a lot of fun details in the cladding to bring out with polishing.
I can’t really think of anything I didn’t like about the knife.

I already have a knife from Merion Forge (pictured below). It was his first “monster gyuto,” as he put it, and it was made ~2-2.5 years before the knife in this pass around. It is 265mm x 62mm and 329g, with a higher grind. Everything about the pass around knife seemed at least as good and in most cases more refined than my Merion Forge gyuto. Mine has been thinned and polished my previous owners and me, and the cutting performance is similar to the pass around knife. Due to the higher grind on mine (and maybe my ****** coarse shaping technique), the food release was a lot better on the pass around knife compared to mine. I just thought that including this information could be helpful to explain how nice recent Merion Forge knives are. I really like the one I own, but the pass around knife is on another level.

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So knife tracking just updated and is now in San Francisco.. no idea what’s going on but I leave for Japan on Sunday for a work trip. Among other things I hopefully will be meeting Takada-San for a pick up!

Sadly it doesn’t seem like I was meant to try this knife. I’ll reach out to the next person and I’ve already arranged for my dad or gf to send it to them when it arrives since I will be out of town.

I also want to say that this is very unusual, please don’t let this deter anyone from shipping to Hawaii in the future. It’s usually just as fast maybe a day or two later than conus.
 
The PA is headed to @labor of love Really glad I had the chance to try this one out. I think the Toyama comparison in the original post is pretty apt as a starting point but it's much beefier feeling. I did some side by side testing with my Wat Pro IC 270 and the Wat feels like a midweight in comparison. I think the chunky bolster has a lot to do with it but it also holds spine thickness out even more than the Wat. End result is it feels like an absolute tank but still reasonably agile. Their profiles are pretty similar but the extra height on the Wat gives it a bit more cleaver-y feel.

The overall craftsmanship is at a high standard, but I have to admit I don't totally get the handle ergonomics. Just behind the bolster the scales flare out a bit in a way that doesn't feel quite right in a pinch. I suspect there's some combo of grip and hand size that its perfect for but evidently not me. The wrought is very nice, it looks fairly homogenous when dry but when wet reveals a lot of fine banding/activity.

Overall, this was a good confirmation that Merion should be on my to-try list, but this particular example is a little too big to have a place in my drawer.
 
MF has landed. Joel Black is the largest knife I own at the moment. Makes it look so small and wimpy lol.
Wabi Sabi detected I may enjoy this one.
New Shihan is arriving tomorrow though so I plan on quickly getting this on to the next person in the mail on Monday. Thanks again @blokey for the opportunity. Will report back this weekend or Monday when I ship it.
 

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SwampDonkey said:
I will only accept this if @labor of love includes boudin in the package when he passes it down.
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I was plotting a way to get boudin in the box actually lmao. I think if I froze some and insulated it with a few layers to catch the condensation it might work for the travel. Oh well we can work something out next time.
 
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