I just took delivery of the knife. It arrived in great shape.
ABblades Gyuto Passaround
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What's your thoughts about it?
Typing up some thoughts now!What's your thoughts about it?
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Hey all, time to share some thoughts on this gyuto. First, thanks to Andrei for the opportunity to try this knife - it was a real pleasure, and a challenge to some expectations I had at the start.
My preferences aren't too adventurous and based on aesthetics, this isn't typically a knife that I'd go for. To provide some context, some knives that are seeing a lot of use lately are a Migoto 240mm B1 gyuto and a HSC3 235mm in CruWear (which was a more adventurous steel choice for me).
This was my first S-grind and my 2nd time trying Apex Ultra (with some brief, enjoyable recent use of a KKFer's Lucid). The steel on this AB felt great - came nice and sharp, no brittleness, and stayed sharp throughout the week. I did not sharpen it (sorry or you're welcome, @brimmergj
).
I had thought the downswept heel would be an issue for me. On initial inspection, it seemed fragile and something to take care not to run into the board too hard for fear of chipping. In practice, this really wasn't the problem I had imagined. I started off babying it, but eventually was able to relax and use it comfortably. The heel is a dishtowel killer, though, and drying it off left a few (new) holes in the towels I'm allowed to dry knives with. Not a huge deal.
My week with this knife didn’t see a lot of animal protein, but the AB went through plenty of veg. It did very well on onion horizontals, and didn’t pull up much during verticals. I bought some really thick horse carrots, and they were no problem for the knife. Some cracking in the centers of whole carrots (of course) but almost none on sections with 1-2” cuts. Thin discs led to more sticking than I expected on an S-grind, but I didn’t find this to be a chronic issue. All veg cuts with this knife felt authoritative and effortless - celery, tomatoes, peppers, etc. Due to some family health issues, I didn’t have the daily full meal prep time I would have liked with the knife, but I tried to take every opportunity to put it to use (even if it was just to pack up whatever I’d cut and figure out what to make with it later). I found it really balanced and pleasant each time.
I think that if I was looking through WTS and saw this knife a few weeks ago, I would have kept scrolling. It doesn’t conform to my somewhat plain tastes (though it’s certainly not a wacky statement piece). After using it and feeling how well designed and constructed it is, I’d definitely consider AB Blades in the future.
My preferences aren't too adventurous and based on aesthetics, this isn't typically a knife that I'd go for. To provide some context, some knives that are seeing a lot of use lately are a Migoto 240mm B1 gyuto and a HSC3 235mm in CruWear (which was a more adventurous steel choice for me).
This was my first S-grind and my 2nd time trying Apex Ultra (with some brief, enjoyable recent use of a KKFer's Lucid). The steel on this AB felt great - came nice and sharp, no brittleness, and stayed sharp throughout the week. I did not sharpen it (sorry or you're welcome, @brimmergj
).I had thought the downswept heel would be an issue for me. On initial inspection, it seemed fragile and something to take care not to run into the board too hard for fear of chipping. In practice, this really wasn't the problem I had imagined. I started off babying it, but eventually was able to relax and use it comfortably. The heel is a dishtowel killer, though, and drying it off left a few (new) holes in the towels I'm allowed to dry knives with. Not a huge deal.
My week with this knife didn’t see a lot of animal protein, but the AB went through plenty of veg. It did very well on onion horizontals, and didn’t pull up much during verticals. I bought some really thick horse carrots, and they were no problem for the knife. Some cracking in the centers of whole carrots (of course) but almost none on sections with 1-2” cuts. Thin discs led to more sticking than I expected on an S-grind, but I didn’t find this to be a chronic issue. All veg cuts with this knife felt authoritative and effortless - celery, tomatoes, peppers, etc. Due to some family health issues, I didn’t have the daily full meal prep time I would have liked with the knife, but I tried to take every opportunity to put it to use (even if it was just to pack up whatever I’d cut and figure out what to make with it later). I found it really balanced and pleasant each time.
I think that if I was looking through WTS and saw this knife a few weeks ago, I would have kept scrolling. It doesn’t conform to my somewhat plain tastes (though it’s certainly not a wacky statement piece). After using it and feeling how well designed and constructed it is, I’d definitely consider AB Blades in the future.
@pcs_abc thank you very much 
I dropped the knife off to the Post Office on friday. I'll try to get my thoughts posted this evening.
Spoiler alert: great knife
Spoiler alert: great knife
My week with the knife was a very pleasant one. Lots of salads, a bit of stir fry and some chicken quesadillas.
I was quite surprised that the height wasn't an issue for me. I'm on the shorter side of things and have a tall cutting surface. With that being said, I rather enjoyed the size and felt it was balanced very well.
The blade had a nice heft to it that helped cut the various veggies that make up my daily lunch salads. I did notice the s-grind seemed to help with harder and taller ingredients. Cutting and slicing were fantastic, very sharp and had and excellent toothy quality.
Overall, I enjoyed this knife and was thoroughly impressed with the build quality. Fantastic knife, Andrei. I really think you're on to something special here
I was quite surprised that the height wasn't an issue for me. I'm on the shorter side of things and have a tall cutting surface. With that being said, I rather enjoyed the size and felt it was balanced very well.
The blade had a nice heft to it that helped cut the various veggies that make up my daily lunch salads. I did notice the s-grind seemed to help with harder and taller ingredients. Cutting and slicing were fantastic, very sharp and had and excellent toothy quality.
Overall, I enjoyed this knife and was thoroughly impressed with the build quality. Fantastic knife, Andrei. I really think you're on to something special here
VincenteFox
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did you sharpen/think it needed sharpening at all?
Thank you very much for the feedback, @brimmergj. I'm glad you liked the height of the blade. It's relatively new for me, having a thick spine allows it to perform as well at the heel of the blade as the rest of it."
Firstly, thanks to @AB blades for organizing this awesome passaround.
I've used a couple S-grinds before, but they were never really my go to. I think for some of them, the grind of the bevel below the S-grind is left too thick and the improved food release is not worth the wedging and poor cutting feel. Or they are too light due to the removed weight from the S-grind and you have to kind of push them through product. This is not the case with the AB blades gyuto. It is properly thin BTE with a thick spine that gives it the necessary mass to get that "fall through food" feeling. The shoulders are wide enough to help push food away from the knife, but not so wide that you can feel them while cutting. The deep S-grind works excellently at improving food release and reducing stiction, so through tall, wet foods, you don't get that slow down stiction feeling you can sometimes get with tall knives with a lot of surface area on the blade face.
The profile is a little too flat right at the heel where it comes to a slightly hard stop, but this is a minor nitpick and most of the time when I'm cutting, I'm using the front two thirds of the knife and the heel doesn't quite hit the board. You would only really notice if you're chopping with the back third. In terms of actual performance, the profile is like an elongated santoku, very similar to a Wat/Toyama with a higher heel and bigger flat spot. Very good at cutting long foods like carrots lengthwise and big heads of cabbage.
When I received the knife, it was still quite sharp except for a couple of areas that had some light deflections in the edge that would get caught when cutting paper towel. I honed the edge lightly on a midgrit stone, no real sharpening and it was slicing paper towel cleanly after just a couple swipes. I can't say much about the steel because I don't want to mess around with it too much to preserve the original geometry for the passaround, but the edge holding is good after a lot of use at home and some testing in a prep kitchen, maybe about 50 lbs of onion, medium diced and some potatoes, mushroom and bell peppers. Handle is very durable and comfortable with long use. In the video below, you can see how the edge holds up after all this use, still plenty sharp, even through a very ripe tomato. On onions especially, this thing is a joy to use. The thin tip and lack of stiction from the S-grind means it absolutely flies through onions while leaving them mostly intact. The tall blade then allows you to scoop things off the board almost like a cleaver and drop them in a pan or tray. Makes prep work very efficient.
Overall this is a very fun knife to use, but also very practical and not at all "gimmicky". The geometry is very dialed in and looks like it would allow for easy maintenance thinning in the future. The fit and finish and craftsmanship is excellent and the execution of the deep S-grind is indicative of a maker who knows what he is doing.
I've used a couple S-grinds before, but they were never really my go to. I think for some of them, the grind of the bevel below the S-grind is left too thick and the improved food release is not worth the wedging and poor cutting feel. Or they are too light due to the removed weight from the S-grind and you have to kind of push them through product. This is not the case with the AB blades gyuto. It is properly thin BTE with a thick spine that gives it the necessary mass to get that "fall through food" feeling. The shoulders are wide enough to help push food away from the knife, but not so wide that you can feel them while cutting. The deep S-grind works excellently at improving food release and reducing stiction, so through tall, wet foods, you don't get that slow down stiction feeling you can sometimes get with tall knives with a lot of surface area on the blade face.
The profile is a little too flat right at the heel where it comes to a slightly hard stop, but this is a minor nitpick and most of the time when I'm cutting, I'm using the front two thirds of the knife and the heel doesn't quite hit the board. You would only really notice if you're chopping with the back third. In terms of actual performance, the profile is like an elongated santoku, very similar to a Wat/Toyama with a higher heel and bigger flat spot. Very good at cutting long foods like carrots lengthwise and big heads of cabbage.
When I received the knife, it was still quite sharp except for a couple of areas that had some light deflections in the edge that would get caught when cutting paper towel. I honed the edge lightly on a midgrit stone, no real sharpening and it was slicing paper towel cleanly after just a couple swipes. I can't say much about the steel because I don't want to mess around with it too much to preserve the original geometry for the passaround, but the edge holding is good after a lot of use at home and some testing in a prep kitchen, maybe about 50 lbs of onion, medium diced and some potatoes, mushroom and bell peppers. Handle is very durable and comfortable with long use. In the video below, you can see how the edge holds up after all this use, still plenty sharp, even through a very ripe tomato. On onions especially, this thing is a joy to use. The thin tip and lack of stiction from the S-grind means it absolutely flies through onions while leaving them mostly intact. The tall blade then allows you to scoop things off the board almost like a cleaver and drop them in a pan or tray. Makes prep work very efficient.
Overall this is a very fun knife to use, but also very practical and not at all "gimmicky". The geometry is very dialed in and looks like it would allow for easy maintenance thinning in the future. The fit and finish and craftsmanship is excellent and the execution of the deep S-grind is indicative of a maker who knows what he is doing.
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