Introduction
I took part in a passaround from @SylvainM and wanted to post a review here as well as in the passaround thread.
I want to start off by saying that it has been an absolute pleasure to interact with @SylvainM during the passaround. He reached out to me via DM shortly before I received the knife and I have been updating him on my thoughts and impressions over the last week or so. Throughout these exchanges he has been extremely friendly, pleasant to interact with and receptive of all feedback, both positive and constructive in nature. Based upon this, I imagine that it would be a smooth and pleasant process to organize a custom knife with him. I also have the genuine feeling that he wants honest feedback, so that he can hone in on what knife enthusiasts value in a knife. A lot of things come down to personal preference in this hobby, but I suspect there will be a few common themes that will be shared by the passaround group, which hopefully enable him create knives that appeal to a higher percentage of the enthusiast crowd.
The Passaround Knife
Here are some photos of the knife:
Positive Feedback
I'll start off with the positive, the knife was designed with food release in mind and it certainly fulfils that design goal consistently, when cutting all manner of produce. Over the week or so that I had the knife, I made some direct comparisons between the passaround knife, a similar sized Yoshikane bunka and a Toyama nakiri, with the goal of comparing the food release and cutting performance of the 3 knives. I opted to use the Yoshikane bunka for the comparison, because it has a relatively similar size and shape to the passaround knife and therefore enables a pretty good comparison between the c-grind and a more traditional convex grind. I included the Toyama nakiri in the comparison because it is new and I wanted to see how it performed, but due to the different shapes and weights, it's far from a direct comparison. Near the end of my time with the passaround knife, I realised that I should have used my 140mm double fuller Newham nakiri for the comparison instead of the Toyama, because it's much more similar to the passaround knife with respect to size, weight and design, so I added the Newham in the last few videos. As mentioned above, the passaround knife consistently had the best food release of the 4 knives being compared. I filmed the vast majority of these comparative tests, so that anyone following this thread can see how the 4 knives perform and draw their own conclusions regarding both food release and cutting performance. All the videos, in addition to captions detailing my observations can be found in the link below.
It should also be mentioned that the knife was comfortable to use for the week that I had it. The handle was well proportioned, all of the surfaces on the blade that could potentially cause discomfort were rounded and I found the blade profile worked well.
Important Notes from the Videos
It should be noted that the first two videos in the above link (cutting tomatoes and cucumber) were filmed when the passaround knife was barely acceptably sharp. I received the knife in an extremely dull condition and managed to strop a bit of life back into it, but it was certainly not sharp. I went on to sharpen the passaround knife for subsequent videos, however I suspect that I did not do a very good job either at setting the apex or deburring, because the knife performed pretty sluggishly until I went on to give the knife another touch-up a few days after the initial sharpening. After the touch-up, the knife performed dramatically better and it genuinely felt like I was using a different knife, leading me to conclude that the cutting performance is very sensitive to the quality of the apex. I suspect the passaround knife needs to be kept very sharp to cut well due to the behind the edge thickness, which is greater than most high-end knives that I have had the chance to use. A lot of high-end knives continue to cut most things well (tomatoes and capsicum are the main exceptions for me), even when the apex is a bit dull, due to the extremely thin edge in addition to the thickness (or more accurately the lack of thickness) behind the edge. The passaround knife does not fall into this category, and the cutting performance appears to vary dramatically based upon the quality of the edge. I would be curious to hear if any other members of the passaround have the same experience here.
Geometry of the Featured Knives
Below are some choil and spine shots of the 4 knives used in the comparison, which should help to give a sense of the geometry of each knife. The order of the knives thought the photos is consistent, namely from left to right is the passaround knife, followed by the Yoshikane bunka, followed by the Toyama nakiri and closed out with the Newham nakiri. The heights and lengths of the knives all differ to some degree and I've tried to represent that in the collages, but the images are definitely not 100% to scale.
Constructive Feedback
Now on to the areas that I think could be improved - I'm all for fancy grinds, provided that they act to enhance the cutting performance of the knife or at a minimum offer performance roughly equivalent to a comparable convex grind. In the discussion of food release vs. cutting performance, it's usually a compromise between the two (as can be seen in the videos) and in this instance, I feel that the food release oriented design, while very successful in improving food release, sacrifices too much cutting performance to be worthwhile. That said, this all comes down to personal preference and what the end user values most, because the c-grind certainly aids in food release when cutting a wide variety of foods. There is a lot to like about this knife and I think I could make it suit my personal preferences after spending a few hours on the stones to reduce the behind the edge thickness and thin the tip a bit. If I were designing this knife from scratch I would also reduce the convexity on the left face of the knife to make it a bit thinner and reduce steering, because it doesn't really serve much of a purpose other than to keep the cross-sectional thickness within the c-grind high enough, and that could be done by reducing the depth of the c-grind. The asymmetry also made it a bit difficult to visually align the tip when making a cut, due to the lack of a firm visual reference, which lead to greater than normal inconsistency, especially when making vertical cuts in onions.
I think the knife could be greatly improved by reducing the behind the edge thickness, adding some distal taper and potentially varying the depth of the c-grind so that it is deeper at the heel and shallower at the tip or leaving it at a constant depth and terminating it 30-40mm from the tip. Please note that this analysis is brought to you by an armchair expert. It is always easy to suggest improvements, but what can seem like a simple suggestion can often be difficult to implement or create further unforeseen compromises, so @SylvainM, take these suggestions with a grain of salt.
Conclusion
Excellent food release at the expense of pure cutting performance with real potential for further tweaking and optimization.
I took part in a passaround from @SylvainM and wanted to post a review here as well as in the passaround thread.
I want to start off by saying that it has been an absolute pleasure to interact with @SylvainM during the passaround. He reached out to me via DM shortly before I received the knife and I have been updating him on my thoughts and impressions over the last week or so. Throughout these exchanges he has been extremely friendly, pleasant to interact with and receptive of all feedback, both positive and constructive in nature. Based upon this, I imagine that it would be a smooth and pleasant process to organize a custom knife with him. I also have the genuine feeling that he wants honest feedback, so that he can hone in on what knife enthusiasts value in a knife. A lot of things come down to personal preference in this hobby, but I suspect there will be a few common themes that will be shared by the passaround group, which hopefully enable him create knives that appeal to a higher percentage of the enthusiast crowd.
The Passaround Knife
Here are some photos of the knife:
Positive Feedback
I'll start off with the positive, the knife was designed with food release in mind and it certainly fulfils that design goal consistently, when cutting all manner of produce. Over the week or so that I had the knife, I made some direct comparisons between the passaround knife, a similar sized Yoshikane bunka and a Toyama nakiri, with the goal of comparing the food release and cutting performance of the 3 knives. I opted to use the Yoshikane bunka for the comparison, because it has a relatively similar size and shape to the passaround knife and therefore enables a pretty good comparison between the c-grind and a more traditional convex grind. I included the Toyama nakiri in the comparison because it is new and I wanted to see how it performed, but due to the different shapes and weights, it's far from a direct comparison. Near the end of my time with the passaround knife, I realised that I should have used my 140mm double fuller Newham nakiri for the comparison instead of the Toyama, because it's much more similar to the passaround knife with respect to size, weight and design, so I added the Newham in the last few videos. As mentioned above, the passaround knife consistently had the best food release of the 4 knives being compared. I filmed the vast majority of these comparative tests, so that anyone following this thread can see how the 4 knives perform and draw their own conclusions regarding both food release and cutting performance. All the videos, in addition to captions detailing my observations can be found in the link below.
It should also be mentioned that the knife was comfortable to use for the week that I had it. The handle was well proportioned, all of the surfaces on the blade that could potentially cause discomfort were rounded and I found the blade profile worked well.
Important Notes from the Videos
It should be noted that the first two videos in the above link (cutting tomatoes and cucumber) were filmed when the passaround knife was barely acceptably sharp. I received the knife in an extremely dull condition and managed to strop a bit of life back into it, but it was certainly not sharp. I went on to sharpen the passaround knife for subsequent videos, however I suspect that I did not do a very good job either at setting the apex or deburring, because the knife performed pretty sluggishly until I went on to give the knife another touch-up a few days after the initial sharpening. After the touch-up, the knife performed dramatically better and it genuinely felt like I was using a different knife, leading me to conclude that the cutting performance is very sensitive to the quality of the apex. I suspect the passaround knife needs to be kept very sharp to cut well due to the behind the edge thickness, which is greater than most high-end knives that I have had the chance to use. A lot of high-end knives continue to cut most things well (tomatoes and capsicum are the main exceptions for me), even when the apex is a bit dull, due to the extremely thin edge in addition to the thickness (or more accurately the lack of thickness) behind the edge. The passaround knife does not fall into this category, and the cutting performance appears to vary dramatically based upon the quality of the edge. I would be curious to hear if any other members of the passaround have the same experience here.
Geometry of the Featured Knives
Below are some choil and spine shots of the 4 knives used in the comparison, which should help to give a sense of the geometry of each knife. The order of the knives thought the photos is consistent, namely from left to right is the passaround knife, followed by the Yoshikane bunka, followed by the Toyama nakiri and closed out with the Newham nakiri. The heights and lengths of the knives all differ to some degree and I've tried to represent that in the collages, but the images are definitely not 100% to scale.
Constructive Feedback
Now on to the areas that I think could be improved - I'm all for fancy grinds, provided that they act to enhance the cutting performance of the knife or at a minimum offer performance roughly equivalent to a comparable convex grind. In the discussion of food release vs. cutting performance, it's usually a compromise between the two (as can be seen in the videos) and in this instance, I feel that the food release oriented design, while very successful in improving food release, sacrifices too much cutting performance to be worthwhile. That said, this all comes down to personal preference and what the end user values most, because the c-grind certainly aids in food release when cutting a wide variety of foods. There is a lot to like about this knife and I think I could make it suit my personal preferences after spending a few hours on the stones to reduce the behind the edge thickness and thin the tip a bit. If I were designing this knife from scratch I would also reduce the convexity on the left face of the knife to make it a bit thinner and reduce steering, because it doesn't really serve much of a purpose other than to keep the cross-sectional thickness within the c-grind high enough, and that could be done by reducing the depth of the c-grind. The asymmetry also made it a bit difficult to visually align the tip when making a cut, due to the lack of a firm visual reference, which lead to greater than normal inconsistency, especially when making vertical cuts in onions.
I think the knife could be greatly improved by reducing the behind the edge thickness, adding some distal taper and potentially varying the depth of the c-grind so that it is deeper at the heel and shallower at the tip or leaving it at a constant depth and terminating it 30-40mm from the tip. Please note that this analysis is brought to you by an armchair expert. It is always easy to suggest improvements, but what can seem like a simple suggestion can often be difficult to implement or create further unforeseen compromises, so @SylvainM, take these suggestions with a grain of salt.
Conclusion
Excellent food release at the expense of pure cutting performance with real potential for further tweaking and optimization.
