AUS Passaround - OXYS Knives

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OxysKnives

OxysKnives

Dennis | OXYS Knives
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Joined
Jan 2, 2021
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Location
Ukraine + Australia
G'day everybody,

I reserved several knives for the Sydney Knife Show but unfortunately it was cancelled. However a passaround should be a good alternative to get our knives into your hands.
Very much looking forward to your feedback about our PM steel and the geometry of this particular bunka(ish) one.

Only AUS for now. Will organise another passaround for EU and USA soon.

Participants:

@cotedupy
@Geigs
@Marek07
@JimMaple98

Rules:
1. Please keep the knife for no longer than 2 weeks
2. Insure the package with standard AU Post option up to 1000 AUD. Total shipping cost should be around 30-40 AUD.
3. Do not use honing rods on this knife. Yes to natural/synthetic stones, diamond or compound abrasives. Strops are fine too although I doubt they will do anything to this steel. We sharpen all our knives on a fixed angle systems so the cutting edge is very thin and narrow. 17-18 degrees per side.
4. If possible, apply some camellia oil on the blade before shipping to the next participant

I'm in Preston (3072) VIC. Given the current situation in Victoria I doubt that anyone is within 5km radius from me. If you are in the area though then feel free to drop by and pick it up. Otherwise it's by mail only.

The knife:
Steel: CPM S90v
Handle: Ironwood
Bolster: Carbon fibre + G10 liner
Steel hardness: 63HRC
Knife weight: 187 g
Blade length: 205 mm
Blade height: 48 mm
Blade thickness: 2.5 mm
Edge grind type: V (flat)

I chose monosteel for this passaround to best showcase our philosophy in general: PM steels, focus on cut aggression and edge retention.

Let me know if you want to be included.
 

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Well I'm definitely down for this! @Marek07 @JimMaple98 might be interested too...

I'm in the Adelaide Hills if you're co-ordinating an order so it's not shipped back and forth across the country too much.
 
cotedupy said:
Well I'm definitely down for this! @Marek07 @JimMaple98 might be interested too...

I'm in the Adelaide Hills if you're co-ordinating an order so it's not shipped back and forth across the country too much.
Click to expand...
Geigs said:
Looks like a fun knife, love to have a play. I'm in Adelaide also.
Click to expand...

All are welcome! If @Marek07 and @JimMaple98 are interested just reply here and I'll add you to the list. Will wait couple of days to let the participants group form and organise the shipping sequence accordingly.
 
Good stuff!
Don't worry about the box. I improvised a little bit with the packaging using some spare materials anyway. I guess the handle just knocked off the ledge a little bit during transportation. As long as it closes tightly, it's all good.
Glad to see the knife made it without damage.
 
OxysKnives said:
Good stuff!
Don't worry about the box. I improvised a little bit with the packaging using some spare materials anyway. I guess the handle just knocked off the ledge a little bit during transportation. As long as it closes tightly, it's all good.
Glad to see the knife made it without damage.
Click to expand...

Cheers for this Dennis! I won't worry about the box then - it's only a tiny bit, so won't affect it at all I shouldn't have thought.

Got to give it a fairly good workout already last night as I has about 5 kilos of onions to dice round at a friend's house. I'll post some thoughts in full in a week or so when I hand it over, but can you tell us a bit about the steel? I've never used a knife from steel like this before...

It is highly wear resistant. I tried just touching the edge up briefly after I received it as I think it might have dulled a bit in shipping and since originally sharpened. It laughed in the face of a Cerax 3k, and a Washita did nothing. I'm sure they would have done with more time and pressure, but I was trying to keep it light and just do a couple of passes. The only stone I tried that really did anything at light pressure was a Turkish Oilstone, which are fairly extraordinary stones in this regard - I would have been very surprised indeed if it had defeated the Turkish too. But it was remarkable just how noticeably different this was in comparison to the Hitachi steels I'm used to.

After I was done on onion duty I let my friend try it out. She trained as a chef and has worked quite a few kitchens, and was probably being a little rougher than I might have been in terms of board scraping and stuff, which slightly worried me... Not a mark on it. She loved it btw :).

Is this the kind of thing people mean when they talk about 'modern super steels'? I assume the 'V' in the name might stand for Vanadium? What gives it the wear resistance? Is this toughness combined with hardness? Something to do with the carbides? (Sorry for all the q.s I just don't know much about this kind of steel, and found it very interesting.)

I also hadn't realised it was stainless, which was just as well after all those onions!
 
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Thank you for this feedback! I'm glad that your friend liked it. Always so good to hear.

Indeed CPM S90v is considered a supersteel just like you said. It is produced using powder metallurgy method and as a result we get better consistency with the microstructure of each blade. We like powder steels because there is almost no variability in the initial mix of elements and the billet we start with is always the same. That in turn gives us a lot of control during the forging process. We can experiment with various heat and cryo treatment formulae knowing that our baseline is stable.
This steel can achieve high hardness and is extremely wear resistant like you pointed out. We found 63 HRC to be a sweet spot within the hardness - toughness - edge retention dance. It makes a dynamic blade that can take hard abuse in an active kitchen and not give you a heart attack when dropped on the counter. Often we are asked why the HRC is not higher because it can be. But chasing numbers here is rather useless since there are many variables at play and HRC is just one of them. S90v is stainless with 14% CH. Together with high vanadium content we get a fine and uniform carbide structure that is very wear resistant. You basically cut with carbides themselves. They are hard, yet embedded strongly in the structure of the steel. It actually really affects the way this steel feels. A very "aggressive" cut is the best descriptor I can use. The downside is the ease of servicing :)

Curious that Washita did nothing to it. We actually use it as well but perhaps a different grain. Medium Shapton Pro and Naniwa Chosera should work well along with the Turk.
 
OxysKnives said:
Thank you for this feedback! I'm glad that your friend liked it. Always so good to hear.

Indeed CPM S90v is considered a supersteel just like you said. It is produced using powder metallurgy method and as a result we get better consistency with the microstructure of each blade. We like powder steels because there is almost no variability in the initial mix of elements and the billet we start with is always the same. That in turn gives us a lot of control during the forging process. We can experiment with various heat and cryo treatment formulae knowing that our baseline is stable.
This steel can achieve high hardness and is extremely wear resistant like you pointed out. We found 63 HRC to be a sweet spot within the hardness - toughness - edge retention dance. It makes a dynamic blade that can take hard abuse in an active kitchen and not give you a heart attack when dropped on the counter. Often we are asked why the HRC is not higher because it can be. But chasing numbers here is rather useless since there are many variables at play and HRC is just one of them. S90v is stainless with 14% CH. Together with high vanadium content we get a fine and uniform carbide structure that is very wear resistant. You basically cut with carbides themselves. They are hard, yet embedded strongly in the structure of the steel. It actually really affects the way this steel feels. A very "aggressive" cut is the best descriptor I can use. The downside is the ease of servicing :)

Curious that Washita did nothing to it. We actually use it as well but perhaps a different grain. Medium Shapton Pro and Naniwa Chosera should work well along with the Turk.
Click to expand...

Ah, thank your for that info - very interesting! It certainly felt more wear resistant than other steels I've used / sharpened around that hardness.

The Washita I was trying it on was an old (very translucent) Pike Lily White, which is the densest/hardest of my Washitas at around 2.45 sg from memory. So a softer one might have worked quicker, this one is quite distinct. And TBH I'm sure it would have worked, but I was trying to use very light pressure.

The grey-green looking stone here:

IMG-3056 (1).jpg
 
Larrin has a very good article about s90v, its history and properties. It is one of the most wear resistant stainless steels commonly available in knives. It’s been used for a long time in folders and some outdoor knives, but not so much in kitchen knives. Using diamonds to sharpen it would make your life much easier.
 
I'll hopefully be meeting up with @Geigs in the next few days to hand over, so here are some thoughts. Many of these observations will apply to only this knife, and not to other stuff Oxys make, and bear in mind - I am newer to smart knives than others on this passaround, so take anything I say with a massive fistful of salt...

The presentation is excellent. I know that when ordering a custom it's mostly about the knife, but the very smart box is a nice touch to remind people they're getting something premium.

On opening, the thing that immediately strikes you about the knife itself is the profile. It has a lot of curvature and upsweep to it:

IMG-3122.JPG


And TBH I thought I wasn't going to like this aspect of it. I did find myself slightly modifying my cutting motion, but I didn't get the accordion cuts that I thought I might - it seemed really to work just as well as a flatter profile.

It is still though probably better suited for rock chopping; the chef friend I mentioned above is a rock chopper and it seemed almost tailor-made for her cutting style.

In a way I actually think this is quite clever; I sell Japanese knives, and if people damage them, and ask me how to fix, it's almost always the result of tipping a k-tip by catching it in the board. That's going to be much less easy to do with this kind of profile.

The grind is interesting too. It has effectively no distal taper:

IMG-3121.jpg


And the grind of the wide bevel doesn't vary much (at all?) along the length of the knife. This means that the front seems relatively thick behind the edge. I found it felt a bit wedge-y when working with the tip. Again though this is probably going to add to the durability I imagine.

The handle also is quite distinctive. It's a kinda slim, tapered, heart shape, but rounded so it doesn't have the octagonal top.

IMG-3123.jpg


IMG-3124.jpg


This is a very comfortable handle design, and not desperately easy to make. Some people will find this particular version too narrow, but I rather like a narrow handle, so thought it worked well. I would though have slightly less neck on the knife.

Dennis has talked about aspects of the steel already above, but just to re-iterate - this is pretty highly wear resistant in comparison to paper steels, but still not particularly chippy. I think what he described rather nicely as: 'the sweet spot within the hardness - toughness - edge retention dance', has been nailed.

Though it does make it difficult to sharpen. And the grind, and curvature of the profile mean that you will have to alter your normal sharpening if freehanding. The geometry of the knife means that a normal sharpening motion for something with this profile still results in this happening, where the edge is slightly wider at the tip than it is at the heel:

IMG-3040 (1).JPG


IMG-3042 (1).JPG


It's only very slight, and I concede that probably reflects more on my own abilities. But I'm not a bad sharpener in the grand scheme of things, so just something for others to watch out for later if touching up. Funnily enough this is one of the only knives I've come across where I think a guided system / jig affair really would help even the best of freehanders.

---

That's my 2c anyway. Many thanks to Dennis for organising this, it's been excellent. Particularly interesting for me to try out this kind of steel for the first time.
 
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Thank you again for a terrific, in depth look! Really appreciate this.

cotedupy said:
In a way I actually think this is quite clever; I sell Japanese knives, and if people damage them, and ask me how to fix, it's almost always the result of tipping a k-tip by catching it in the board. That's going to be much less easy to do with this kind of profile.

The grind is interesting too. It has effectively no distal taper:
Click to expand...

You are exactly right about the purpose of the geometry and the lack of distal taper in this case. We don't do distal taper on our knives for the sake of durability and preservation of the blade. The goal is once again to find the sweet spot of durability and nimbleness.

cotedupy said:
I would though have slightly less neck on the knife.
Click to expand...

Indeed this was a little bit of an experiment. A looong neck on this one. We usually don't make it that way. Maybe it would work better for someone with huge hands.
 
I've had this knife for a week now after receiving it from @cotedupy and have used it almost exclusively aside from a few comparison cuts with a Markin and Mazaki. Being as I am merely a home cook this is not exactly a robust workout, but nevertheless.

I have to say I like this knife more than I expected to. T|he profile reminds me of an oversized K-tip santoku. The continual gradual curvature is something I didn't expect to jive with, but in practice it actually cuts very well and I found it a very easy knife to use. I think my best summation of this knife would be that it is a great all purpose knife that seems like it would be very durable- as noted previously minimal distal taper and plenty of meat at the tip so that should resist snapping off, enough heft to approach most kitchen tasks. Edge retention seems very good - I have not yet touched it up but might give it a few light passes over a hard J-nat and see what happens.

Fit and finish on this is really good- handle is gorgeous, super comfortable in use. The presentation box is very nice also. Overall just a well presented, very functional knife that I've enjoyed using, which is about all you can ask for in a blade.
 
Touched up on a Tsushima Nagura, which is about the hardest stone I have aside from a shapton glass. Only a few strokes and it brought the edge back a little. Won't do anything else before I send it on. Here's a crap video of me cutting an onion, apologise for the wailing children that are a staple in my house. Edit: spelled s90v wrong. Lol.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ppi9C9qvKts?feature=share
 
This knife is a killer. Apart from cleavers and slicers, I don’t often prep with knives longer than about 165mm but this knife has been a pleasure to play with. The balance point is exactly at the heel of the blade. The choil and heel of the knife were perfectly finished with the heel slightly softened to avoid finger cuts. Yet it was very usable for cutting.
Balancing Point 20211114_154835.jpg



First task was slicing a mango. The blade slid through the skin like it wasn’t there. The k-tip was great for diagonal cuts across the flesh. Obviously I wouldn’t normally use a knife this size for cutting mangos but hey, that mango was begging for it!

Second task was peeling & cutting a pineapple. Again, it was a delight peeling and chopping the fruit, using the k-tip when needed for the slicing and the heel to remove a few husks remaining on the fruit.

Third task was fine chopping chicken giblets as I wanted to see how well the blade cut the tough sinew on the giblets. These days it is usually a job for my Magimix. I‘ve chopped kilos of giblets by hand for years but thought this was a perfect application for this knife. Knife action for me is almost always push or pull cut. I don’t rock chop. The knife cut the tough giblet sinew easily without sawing or leaving segments of sinew attached. Knife height can be crucial to saving fingers when cutting small slippery innards (which I do often for my furry friends). The knife height and shape were perfect for this job.




















































Fourth test was finely slicing old ginger. It was an easy job cutting across the grain and then into very thin strips (1-1.5mm thick).

Fifth test was think slicing prosciutto. Again, I would not normally use a gyuto or bunka for this job but being dried meat, I thought it would be worth seeing the results. I cut back the leg skin and removed the segmented bone with my boning knife. The Oxy gyuto gave me some lovely slices 1-2mm thick.



















































Final test was the thin tomato slice. Once the knife had pierced the skin (one push/pull), the tomato sliced beautifully into 2mm slices. I did not attempt to touch up the knife on a strop or stones.



















Dennis, thanks so much for including me in the pass around.


This beautifully finished and versatile knife would be a blessing in anyone’s kitchen.
 
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