Passaround of an outdoor kitchen knife with raffle at the end

[blokey]

I've got a lovely package from Chen at JE Made, he's from the same city as me, and doing something really nice there, making high quality outdoor knives. I've bought several from him in the past, they are all very nicely made with good attention to details and heat treatment. This time I got his new Nessmuk 4, it is a more cooking oriented out door knife but still could take a beating. The steel is 14c28n treated in small batches to ensure quality, at 59.5 HRC it should be better than most mass produced knives in same steel. To gain more feedback, he generously provided me an extra at no cost, to just share with people and listen to their opinions. He currently does not have a fixed dealer in US, but do cooperate with Messerdepot in Germany. If you want a direct purchase I can contact him after Chinese new year.

This pass around will be limited to 10 members in NA, better if you can use it outdoors, at the end it will be raffled to one of the participants for free. He would really appreciate videos or pictures of it in use so he can show case.

 

[Gshep91]

Neat, would have been nice for my family camping trip last month.

Won’t be doing much cooking outside so I’ll pass on this one, but curious to follow along

 

[PPIIBBSS]

Man you are just too generous with these passarounds and giveaways! I am not sure I'll be able to use it outdoors during the PA period, but if that's not a requirement, then I'm definitely on board! Los Angeles area for my location

 

[blokey]

Seems like there’s less enthusiasm here… let reduce the participation to 5, anyone is welcome, honestly this is a really well made knife, and could be yours for free at the end…

 

[Gshep91]

I’m happy to give it a go, but as @PPIIBBSS said, it would only see home use from me lol

 

[daveb]

I'm in. Taking moma camping as soon as I can stitch 4 or 5 days together...

 

[blokey]

Just 2 more than we can start! Tho I don’t mind start early and adding people midway tho

 

[KasumiJLA]

I would have liked to participate because I like survival in the woods, long hikes and the outdoors in general. But it's not the right season here in Quebec

Really generous of you! Have fun guys

 

[blokey]

I would have liked to participate because I like survival in the woods, long hikes and the outdoors in general. But it's not the right season here in Quebec

Really generous of you! Have fun guys

No worries, if you want to just test it out and put in some feedback that would be great too, I can even pitch in some shipping if the fee is too high

 

[KasumiJLA]

I'm seriously lacking time to accomplish everything in my weeks so it would be lying to myself to think I had time to test this knife in ideal conditions But thank you for the offer, it's super nice of you!

 

[Matt Jacobs]

I just saw this, I would like to join if not too late. I camp at least 1 x month

 

[Skylar303]

In, thanks for the opportunity.

 

[blokey]

Thanks! I will sort of the pass around order today, and hopefully ship it out to the first member tomorrow

 

[blokey]

Let me know if this works
1. @PPIIBBSS CA
2. @Gshep91 CA
3. @Skylar303 CO
4. @daveb FL
5. @Matt Jacobs DC (Assume it is Washington DC not the state)

 

[Matt Jacobs]

Let me know if this works
1. @PPIIBBSS CA
2. @Gshep91 CA
3. @Skylar303 CO
4. @daveb FL
5. @Matt Jacobs DC (Assume it is Washington DC not the state)

@blokey It is actually Washington state.

 

[blokey]

@blokey It is actually Washington state.

Oh in that case
1. @PPIIBBSS
2. @Gshep91
3. @Matt Jacobs
4. @Skylar303
5. @daveb

 

[blokey]

Sorry for the delay, terrible weather past few days, now knife enroute to @PPIIBBSS

 

[PPIIBBSS]

Knife arrived safely I cut a carrot with it today, but I'll wait to make a report until I use it for a full meal. It feels nice in hand. This knife might be just as much at home being used to cut jungle vines as food

 

[blokey]

Knife arrived safely I cut a carrot with it today, but I'll wait to make a report until I use it for a full meal. It feels nice in hand. This knife might be just as much at home being used to cut jungle vines as food

Nice!

BTW videos of it in use and commentary would be great appreciated, not necessary tho

 

[PPIIBBSS]

Overall Thoughts:

I want to start by saying I am by no means an expert in outdoor knives. I have gone camping countless times though, and my friend group is no exception to the rule of "If you go camping with the boys, bring a badass knife," and I typically do most of the cooking, so I have used plenty of outdoor blades. In my experience, this knife performs FAR better than any other non-kitchen knife I've ever tried. Truly an incomparable difference! Let's get into the details.

The upside of this knife is also the downside: It's truly made for outdoor use.

If you go into it with that expectation, it's a phenomenal tool. The shape falls just in between a kitchen knife and a machete, and it seems like it would feel equally effective cutting vines or widdling wood as it does chopping veggies. The size and weight feel confident and simply badass in hand. It's tough and thick enough to (probably) open a can without getting damaged, but let's not try it just to be safe. It comes in a really nice plastic sheath, which it clicks in and out of in a very satisfying way. It also comes with some kind of mounting supplies, which I didn't play with.

In regards to performance, I was only able to use it in my home, so I can only comment on how it peforms with food. The first thing I did when it arrived was cut a carrot, and it felt... fine. I'm not ashamed to admit that my most used knife at home is my Whustof 8" stainless. It's hard to beat that convenience for quick tasks, and this knife felt quite similar. I then tried it out on some onion and some softer veg like celery and cucumber. The weight allowed it to fall through those watery veggies nicely, but it did struggle tremendously on the onion. In fact, since I wanted a fine dice, I had to put it aside and finish with a thinner blade...

So this sounds like all downside for performance, right? No, absolutely not! As I said earlier, it's about expectations. Is anybody out there in the woods making brunoise onions for tomato sauce? Well, maybe some whackos ), but generally not. So I tried a different approach. I tried to act like I was cooking outdoors, and that was when the knife showed what it could do. The video I included shows me cutting a pineapple, which was an absolute joy. In fact, I picked up a few other knives afterward (saved half the pineapple for that purpose), and this thing really did hold its ground! It far outperformed my Whustof lol. I then rough chopped the other half of that onion, and while it still of course doesn't compare to your prized Japanese laser, it was more than sufficient to get the job done. I should mention that I have always had better luck with pull-cutting on thicker blades, so that's what I was primarily doing on the veg.

All of this, mind you, while still feeling tough and thick enough to truly be used in an outdoor setting. That's the real kicker for me. It is a blade that could literally be used to Indiana Jones your way through the jungle, then get back to camp and cook dinner.

Pros:
- Best performing non-kitchen knife I've used
- Tough enough for actual outdoor use
- Perfect size and shape
- Useable in many scenarios

Cons:
- For culinary applications, it's simply never gonna stack up against a nice chef knife

I've got it packed up and ready to send to @Gshep91! Also attached a video of its current condition

And of course a huge thank you to @blokey for hosting this, and always being a great presence in the community!

Pineapple Video:

 

[PPIIBBSS]

@Gshep91 has chosen to sit out this passaround, so I'll be sending the knife to @Matt Jacobs

 

[Matt Jacobs]

Received today. I'll cook a couple of meals and send in my thoughts later this week. Thanks again

 

[Matt Jacobs]

 

[Matt Jacobs]

JE Made thoughts. This is a really interesting knife. Its so well put together I would expect to buy it from a high end sporting goods store. The attention to detail is awesome, I love the finish. The handle is really comfortable and the sheath is fantastic. It doesnt feel like a handmade knife, its too well made with no imperfections. I did about 3 meals with it and will say it is not a kitchen knife. The profile of the blade is really nice for slicing but as you can see from the choil shot it is just too thick for a kitchen knife. I was interested thinking something like this would be cool in a camp kitchen but for someone with a trailer it doesn't really fit. For tent camping I could see this being your main use knife. I would probably carry it all of the time in the woods and it would be fine for light dinner prep. I didnt beat on it as its not my knife but I think it could take a beating. I am sure you could chop down a small tree then prep dinner with it. The maker is someone I will definitely watch. I don't know his price point but his build quality is fantastic. I dont know exactly where this knife fits but it was fun to use and got me excited for camping this summer!!!

I reached out to Skylar and will try and ship tomorrow.

 

[Matt Jacobs]

This guy has been shipped to Skylar

 

[Skylar303]

Hey sorry for the late update, knive arrived safe. Been battling snow here, and Bday weekend. Hope to get to test it soon after.

 

[blokey]

How’s it going so far?

 

[Skylar303]

How’s it going so far?

Good just got it sent of to Dave, about 5m ago. I'll work on my write up as well. Sorry for the delay... been fighting, snow, so unfortunately didn't go quite as planned got another bout the otherday. But figured I had taken up enough time already so I shipped off the knife.

 

[Skylar303]

First I want to thank @blokey and Chen at JE Made for this pass around! Unfortunately timing and weather prevented me from doing much outdoor testing... The edge it arrived with seemed good, and I didn't touch up the blade or anything before sending off.

First impression when I took it out of the box was "Wow sturdy". Nicely finished with polished choil and spine! Comfortable in hand, good balance which always is a plus! My goto is a older CRKT fixed blade, and recently an unknown fixed blade brought back from the folks cabin.

Not being in the "high end knife" user range, I found this to be a great knife bang for buck. I thought it preformed well in the kitchen for being and outdoor camp knife, would it be my go-to? Probably not. I diced some potatoes and onions for a "pouch" style meal. That unfortunately didn't end up getting cooked that way... I went ahead and diced a half onion to see how well it did with that task. And because of the nice grind they chose the tip is thin enough to swipe through it pretty easily, no harder than a old stock Henckels chef. While not the finest chop, it certainly is fine enough for something like a Chilli. I also cut a pineapple as well, I was going to do some simple skewers with a protein. But a majority of that was no good so I didn't add pictures, and had to change meal plans. I will say it certainly is a chopper.

The only thing I wasn't so pleased with was the sheath. It is very snug and secure but sometimes a tad hard to get ahold of the grip to release it with gloves on. But fine if you pop the gloves off.

Overall, I think it is a great value for an outdoor knife. While not the "best performer" in the kitchen it was enough if not more for most tasks I needed it for. And would feel very confident if I had to have this be my only knife camping. I wanted to try to make some kindling with it, but decided not to just Incase... since I was not the last person in the pass around I'd hate for them not get a chance to try it. But I'm more than certain it can easily make kindling, if not split small logs without issue! My only qualm would be that one friend you let "borrow your knife for a second", uses something metal to hit the blade to split wood and ruin the nice spine hah!

Sorry again for not getting to use it as intended, or as I intended for that matter. Just sometimes timing doesn't line up and I felt like I had been holding up the PA.