Firstly, thanks so much to
@bryan03 and
@ian for the chance to participate in this passaround! First one I’ve been a part of since joining the forum so I’ll try to be thorough in my experience.
As stated in the previous post, upon receiving the knife, I did a wide bevel sharpening to get the knife back to OOTB thinness and then was able to test it for several days and do a decent amount of prep with it.
The Raquin has a low wide bevel grind like what I usually associate with Heiji or Tosa/Zakuri knives, but the bevels are somewhat convexed into the shinogi so the shoulders are not as hard. This allows the knife to retain a lot of the good food release elements of this kind of grind with less wedging/cracking in dense foods. Also, the cross-sectional thickness of the shinogi is not as wide as some of these other knives and it has a better taper which contributes to smoother cutting of foods taller than the bevel. This particular knife has a right hand bias as well which helps with more precise cuts as the edge is offset to the left closer to the guide hand.
A downside of this geometry is that the grind thickens up quickly from the thin edge. This is the case with pretty much all the low wide bevel knives I’ve tried or can think of, it’s just a trade-off for this kind of grind. After a few touch ups of just the edge, you will notice the edge start to get thick quicker than something with a high wide bevel or full convex grind.
On the other hand, the knife shines when you have to power through lots of prep without slowing down. Nothing sticks to it and there is absolutely no suctioning where you have to kind of pull and claw a slice of whatever you are cutting off the knife. This seems like a small thing, but in a high volume setting, it saves a lot of time overall.
With the size of the wide bevels on this Raquin, it is extremely easy to do a wide bevel sharpening and get a decent finish on the bevels, much like a Takeda. This means maintenance thinning and keeping the knife thin BTE is super easy which offsets how the geometry thickens up above the edge.
The 145sc steel compares favorably to any of the harder HTs of white 1/2 and other low alloy carbon steels I’ve tried. Super crisp edge taking. Easy to raise a burr and it breaks off cleanly. Edge retention is above average for a simple carbon steel and the peak, fresh off the stones sharpness is very aggressive and keen. Bites into the cutting board like crazy. Very slight microchipping after prolonged use which doesn’t affect overall performance and is consistent with other steels I’ve tried of a similar composition at high hardness and with a nail flexing thin edge like TF white 1. Played around with a couple stones and you can take the steel to a pretty high grit without losing all the bite in the edge.
Great fit and finish, comfortable handle and good balance makes the knife suitable for long periods of use without hand fatigue or discomfort.
Knife looks cool as hell without being flashy. I’m pretty sure the cladding has some waves or banding or something in it that a good polisher could make really pop.
All in all, Mr. Raquin obviously knows how to make an exceptional knife. I think the grind is not for everyone, but those who appreciate its strong points will really enjoy it. Personally, as someone who has worked in a kitchen doing lots of prep, I would love something longer and heavier, a 240-270 gyuto with this kind of grind and more weight behind it would absolutely blast through everything in front of it.
Testing video after several days of prep with paper towel test at the end. The knife could no longer cut clean curves in the paper towel, but was clearly still plenty sharp. Tip/front corner can do horizontal/vertical cuts on an onion well enough, but I imagine a gyuto tip would be better. Also, performance through the large apple was surprisingly smooth.