Blenheim forge.. worth the price?

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HappyamateurDK

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Hi all.

I'm warming up to getting my first Bunka. I've bin looking around, but haven't settled for anything yet.

I did however stumble over a Blenheim forge bunka in Aogami with iron cladding that looks pretty nice.

Anyone here know the maker and can tell if they are good knifes, or just clever sold and over priced?

Have a nice weekend 😊
 
Well if you need another reason to avoid check this out.
Screen Shot 2022-05-07 at 9.23.45 PM.png
 
The choil shot is like the profile of a kris. Pretty impressive, modern take on compound s grinds in order to maximize food release for the most tenacious of product.
 
I think cleancut also recently got a batch of them. No personal experience with the brand though.
 
They’re good guys that manage to turn out some interesting stuff. I’ve got a petty that I thinned down to waifish proportions and the edge has held up well.
They’re more modestly priced stiff isn’t that highly finished and typically benefits from a bit of time rounding choils and spine for comfort
 
Yup that may have just been an unlucky choil. From Bernal, pretty tall knife. I’m admittedly a rank amateur, but the choil looks pretty lasery to me. Looks pretty good to me, and the prices seem reasonable. Definitely on par price wise with the bulk of Japanese knives I see floating through here on BST

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Yup that may have just been an unlucky choil. From Bernal, pretty tall knife. I’m admittedly a rank amateur, but the choil looks pretty lasery to me. Looks pretty good to me, and the prices seem reasonable. Definitely on par price wise with the bulk of Japanese knives I see floating through here on BST

View attachment 178531
Idk a bunka is 350. For that price, there’s plenty of brands where you’ll never get an “unlucky” choil like that
 
Appreciate your inputs👍 but I can't help thinking you seem a bit biased against the brand ?

I have no experience with Blenheim and no dog in this fight, but if my exposure to their work was a thick behind the edge blade with cladding down to the edge--at that price point!--I would steer people away from them too.
 
I agree on the last 2 arguments. But when ones first argument agains is a single vendor out of a handful. Then I find it biased.
Well to be honest ET were the only US vendor for Blenheim I was familiar with, and they carry their own baggage. YMMV.
I was actually a little shocked to learn CKC and Bernal were also retailers.
 
Well to be honest ET were the only US vendor for Blenheim I was familiar with, and they carry their own baggage. YMMV.
I was actually a little shocked to learn CKC and Bernal were also retailers.

That's fair. And I agree the coil shot and the pic with the faulty cladding doesn't look good👍
 
[Disclaimer - I probably do have some kind of bias or skin in the game here; I've known the guys for quite a while and have got quite a few of their knives for myself and others, most of which I've swapped stuff for rather paying in cold, hard cash. But let's try to be as objective as possible eh. Impressions are from knives that were acquired 2+ years ago, when I still lived round the corner in glorious SE London. Combination of iron clad A2 and Stainless clad AS.]

F&F - The knives I've had have always been very good for this, I've never had to touch up, round any choils, &c. It's what I'd expect from a premium knife. And haven't found the cladding to be notably reactive personally, kinda average. The etched iron cladding is pretty gorgeous tbh, it's really stunning. I'm not such a fan of the handles, which are heavily tapered, almost rectangular, and have a large chunk of metal as a collar/ferrule thing. Which means balance points are a little backward of the norm in Japanese knives.

Grind - The grinds are quite thin on the styles I've had. They err more toward laser than WH.

Performance - I can't really fault this; they take an incredible edge very easily, and the retention is extraordinary. Happily hold their own with other 'premium' makers I have, perhaps even better. Our most used knives.

QC - Well it can't all be sunlit uplands can it? BF make quite a lot of knives now, it's not just three of them sitting in a railway arch in Peckham anymore. And from a couple of @Corradobrit1 's pictures above there do seem to be some issues here. I'd say say those are pretty highly atypical, but at the price - you'd expect things like that not to be slipping through at all. Of the 6 or so I've had, there was one (a petty) that I felt I needed to do some thinning and sharpening work on. If I was buying from overseas: I'd probably go direct, ping them an email and ask them to select a knife according to what you want, and snap some pics of it.

VFM/Verdict - These obviously aren't particularly cheap knives, positioning themselves pretty firmly in the range of some quite smart Japanese or Western custom makers. But mine stack up well against things I've tried or have in a similar range. I wouldn't say they're extraordinarily good value, but they certainly aren't style over substance, and the performance of the steel (and whatever they do to it) is really quite impressive.
 
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[Disclaimer - I probably do have some kind of bias or skin in the game here; I've know the guys for quite a while and have got quite a few of their knives for myself and others, most of which I've swapped stuff for rather paying in cold, hard cash. But let's try to be as objective as possible eh. Impressions are from knives that were acquired 2+ years ago, when I still lived round the corner in glorious SE London. Combination of iron clad A2 and Stainless clad AS.]

F&F - The knives I've had have always been very good for this, I've never had to touch up, round any choils, &c. It's what I'd expect from a premium knife. And haven't found the cladding to be notably reactive personally, kinda average. The etched iron cladding is pretty gorgeous tbh, it's really stunning. I'm not such a fan of the handles, which are heavily tapered, almost rectangular, and have a large chunk of metal as a collar/ferrule thing. Which means balance points are a little backward of the norm in Japanese knives.

Grind - The grinds are quite thin on the styles I've had. They err more toward laser than WH.

Performance - I can't really fault this; they take an incredible edge very easily, and the retention is extraordinary. Happily hold their own with other 'premium' makers I have, perhaps even better. Our most used knives.

QC - Well it can't all be sunlit uplands can it? BF make quite a lot of knives now, it's not just three of them sitting in a railway arch in Peckham anymore. And from a couple of @Corradobrit1 's pictures above there do seem to be some issues here. I'd say say those are pretty highly atypical, but at the price - you'd expect things like that not to be slipping through at all. Of the 6 or so I've had, there was one (a petty) that I felt I needed to do some thinning and sharpening work on. If I was buying from overseas: I'd probably go direct, ping them an email and ask them to select a knife according to what you want, and snap some pics of it.

VFM/Verdict - These obviously aren't particularly cheap knives, positioning themselves pretty firmly in the range of some quite smart Japanese or Western custom makers. But mine stack up well against things I've tried or have in a similar range. I wouldn't say they're extraordinarily good value, but they certainly aren't style over substance, and the performance of the steel (and whatever they do to it) is really quite impressive.

Thanks a lot for writing a great input. I actually ended up with buying the knife. And I agree with your impression. f&f is great. The grind is thin but not a laser. The handle is as you mention on the big side with a heavy taper. I have big hands and it works great for me.

All in all I'm really happy with the knife 👍
 
Thanks a lot for writing a great input. I actually ended up with buying the knife. And I agree with your impression. f&f is great. The grind is thin but not a laser. The handle is as you mention on the big side with a heavy taper. I have big hands and it works great for me.

All in all I'm really happy with the knife 👍


Ah nice, glad you like! I think you'll be impressed by the performance too, the guys know what they're about. I know a lot of knife geeks and top chefs in the UK who rate them highly, and I'd be very confident in recommending to anyone here.
 
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