So I'm thinking about passing around my Dragon slayers.

[Chef Niloc]

I didn't sharpen them, wanted to pass Eamon's edge along, bur free!

 

[Eamon Burke]

Ok here's my quick review(I'm tired of remembering I haven't given my thoughts on these). I put off making comments for too long, and now I've likely forgotten things, but here's what stood the test of time.

Aesthetics:
They are SA-WEET looking. These things have that antiquated, heirloom look to them. Nice enough to hang on the wall. We've all seen them. Yes, the scales drifted and have gaps on them. I could tell that really bothered Randy, they didn't leave his shop like that, and I'm sure he'd do what it takes to fix them if Son wants.

Performance:
The profile of the chef's is very flat--a bit too flat for me. It cuts well, and the balance point is far forward enough for me. You can tell this is a knife for Sabatier enthusiasts. I didn't get to use the slicer much, but it's more like a boning knife since it's not longer than the chef's anyways. The belt holster was great to have around at work, if I still worked there, I'd at least buy a canvas one. It's just too handy to have a knife right there, especially the paring knife. The paring knife was really handy, btw. A bit long for my style on a parer, but comfortable nonetheless.

The blades stuck pretty good, making cutting some things seem a bit more laborious than needed. The grind is pretty flat and the damascus is grippy grippy. Low reactivity.

The tip on the gyuto is thin, and has all the things that come along with that(more nimble, but flexy).

The bolster area is pretty thin, and necessitates a strong pinch grip. Also, being such a small amount of metal, the chef's knife was prone to flexing a lot at that spot.

The Edge:
They sharpened up easily enough(it is carbon steel), but they just wouldn't go past a certain point. I couldn't get that insane, piss-ripper edge off of them. They sort of took a nicely cleaned up toothy edge and stopped dead right there. I took them to a sigma select II 10k, then on strops of 3 microns, 1, .5 and .5. I like to do this basically to see what happens. The answer: nothing really. Anything beyond a stropped 5-6k edge on these will make little to no difference, and won't improve cutting ability. Not sure what that's about, maybe it's the damascus. It's not required that a knife shave like a comfortable straight razor, but I just wish I knew why this was.

Overall:
I liked them. I liked looking at them, and wearing a set of knives on my person at work. Cutting performance didn't really stand out to me, but they honed up well on my Idahone, low reactivity, and very cool look to them.

Basically if you like things to look like timeless antiques and love Sabatiers, you'd probably love these.

 

[eto]

I sharpened them and so did Eamon, I assume. Why?

No reason. Just cut with them and they are sharp. nice sharpening job guys. I will use them for a few days and send them to mr drinky who I think got skipped in line.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[eto]

Slayers are on there way to mr drinky.

 

[mr drinky]

Who is next on the list or who hasn't gotten to try these out? Justin is passing on trying them out as he is too busy.

k.

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

K.,

I think I'm next on the list. PM sent with my addy.

Rick

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

Just my luck. My wife had the day off so we went to lunch and the Brown Truck of Joy that usually comes at dinnertime came while we were gone. I have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

Got them today. Thanks again for doing this pass around, Son.

Rick

 

[sachem allison]

have fun.

 

[sachem allison]

who on the list hasn't gotten a chance to use these? We are going on 6 months and nobody has communicated with me, we need to know where to send them next.

 

[Eamon Burke]

SOMEONE ELSE REVIEW THESE!!!!!!

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

SOMEONE ELSE REVIEW THESE!!!!!!

I'm working on it.

 

[sachem allison]

someone stick crothcipt in there please.

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

OK, who on the list hasn't gotten the knives yet?

Rick

 

[mr drinky]

SOMEONE ELSE REVIEW THESE!!!!!!

I will fully admit I have been a slacker on reviewing these knives and posting to the forum in general. The knives came at a super crazy time and I didn't get to work them out nearly as much as I had hoped, and I didn't even sharpen them for Rick before I passed them on. Sorry Rick.

Anyhow, even though it isn't a proper review, here are some of my impressions.

* I'll reiterate the handle thing that Eamon mentioned. The gaps from the wood pulling away was noticeable and made me a bit cautious with them as I didn't want too much moisture to get in on my watch. Son said he is going to send them back to Randy to get them reworked after everyone is done, so I imagine all will be fixed in due time and they will be looking super sexy.
* Along that line, the look of the knives is amazing and I loved the damascus pattern and its low reactivity. They were stunning blades IMO, and handling them only made me more eager to get my custom knife from Randy.
* I did think the chef's knife a bit sticky for my taste and sometimes reached for other knives for certain cutting tasks. With that said, I'm not a huge stickler on this issue, and I believe there is more to a knife than just pure cutting utility.
* As for the slicer, I really liked the knife. I thought it was a nice size and very nimble, and it was a great utility knife for my cooking style. In the future I would like to get something similar in size and shape.
* The parer, however, was too small for me. The western handle in such a small size felt awkward to me.
* The belt/holster was very cool and everyone who saw it was complimentary. With that said, as I was packaging the knives up to send off, I slid the slicer in and the tip was able to poke out the bottom and punctured my finger. A parting gift of some blood
* And as I said before, I didn't have time to sharpen them, so I didn't get a proper read on how the sharpened up, and usually I like to compare to a similar knife in my arsenal too, but that too didn't happen.

Thanks again Son for the pass around.

k.

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

These will be on the way to Crothcipt in the morning.

Thanks, again, Son for generously allowing us to have a chance to see and use Randy's work.

Rick

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

Here are my impressions of the Dragonslayers.

As I unpacked the three knives, I was struck by their understated yet elegant appearance, in comparison to the photos that Randy had posted in his WIP thread. The months of patina formation had muted the flash of the damascus and the ironwood handles and copper rivets had acquired an antIque appearance that was very attractive.

On first use, I found that the edges needed attention, so out came the Gesshin 6000. I was able to touch up the edge on the gyuto and slicer, but I needed to drop back to a Gesshin 2000 on the parer.

I diced celery with the gyuto and found that I had to “power through” it, rather than have it slice the celery easily as with some of my other gyutos. If it was my knife, I would want to thin it behind the edge to improve performance.

The slicer, on the other hand, was a good performer, probably because it was thinner and not as tall as the gyuto. It was my most liked knife, and made me appreciate the utility of a thin blade of this length for a lot of tasks. It made the job of following the contour of the seed when cutting the flesh of a mango away from the it very easy. It shone at trimming steaks and slicing a roast chicken. The best knife of the trio, in my opinion.
Oddly, the parer is thicker than the slicer, and this negatively affected its performance. Everything from peeling an apple or peach to hulling and slicing strawberries was affected.

In the week or so that I had them, I used them exclusively in my kitchen, and found them to be very pleasing to use. WIth a little tweaking, they will be great.

Thanks again to Son for letting us use Randy’s creations.

Rick

 

[Crothcipt]

I got them on Thrs. but have yet to do much with them. It's our busiest week out of the year, and I got a second job washing dishes (hey easy money is all I can say) at a Thai/Sushi restaurant on mon. This also means more funds for knives. Any who I am loving the satchel, am thinking of having a friend who does tack work make me one. The box was very well packed, and was a flash back to christmas as a kid.

 

[Crothcipt]

Well first I have to say that I dropped the slicer one day. I have no idea what happened but I turned my back and heard the thunk of it hitting the ground. It hit right under the lanyard hole and created a "chip" in the scale. The lanyard moved and created a crack in the second scale.

the crack on the other side.

and a total shot of the handle.

I have already contacted Son about this.

They are on the way to Heath Besch.

I will do a review in a few days, after I put my thoughts in order.

 

[SpikeC]

Ouch! Bummer, dude!

 

[Crothcipt]

When I first started posting on kkf Chef Son put these up for the passaround. I being a new member was a little afraid to ask, but I wanted to try out Randy's work. At that time the Zombiebuschef knife was happening. Which got my curiosity on how well his work is. Fast forward a few months. I asked Son if I could get in at the end of the passaround, really wanting to try out Randy's work. Ty so much Son for letting me in on this, it was well worth the wait.

That being said my first reaction when I was unwrapping each knife from the bubble wrap was a complete awe. The wood matched the blade in many areas that you just don't see when looking at pictures. The scabbard is rustic and "worn" looking that is matches the blades very much.

I had a hard time trying to use the scabbard, but I think that it was just me not being used to it. I couldn't figure out how it was supposed to fit. But I am still wanting to have a friend make one for work.

The small pairing knife was almost to small for me to use. It didn't seem sharp to me but it worked well enough it didn't need sharpening. When I get the video done you can see what I mean. I liked it very much and wished it was a little bigger.

The slicer was the best one out of the bunch. It took a mean edge and would do anything you needed it to. Right length and very comfortable in the hand.

The Kiritsuke tipped gyuto was cool looking and mean. It sharpened up very nicely, exp when the "dead spot" showed up at the end of the video. I loved the tip for work with it. It just worked well. In compairason with Butches it is very similar (reflecting back not side by side) in shape but that is about it. I think for this Randy's to be more functional the height at the heel needed to be a little higher. But I am not writing this with it in hand and with memory of each so I won't break that down. Don't get me wrong I loved using this when I got used to how it worked.

In all total I miss these still. I found many ways these could be used and often. I took great pride in just holding each blade and looking at the scabbard, to the feeling of it being American made. Hopefully I will have the video edited and downloaded tonight or early tomorrow.

The bowl of salsa in the back ground is a commercial to the video.

 

[Crothcipt]

well after some editing and editor software problems I finally got it done and posted this morning. It is a more in action than anything.

[video=youtube;G4X-Mkobh9M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4X-Mkobh9M[/video]