Review HSC3 – Z-wear
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Z-wear is a powder metallurgy high alloy carbon tool steel by Zapp. Carbon content of 1,15% , 7,5%Chromium, 1,6 Molybdenum, 1,0 Tungsten, 2,4 Vanadium. It belongs to the semi-stainless steels, has a good corrosion resistance, is quite tough and has good edge retention. Harbeer tempers it for his chefknives to 63HRC.
The knife is a PA substitute and therefore not necessarily representative of his knives in the fit and finish department. It was done in France with mostly hand tools and is a stock removal from a piece of steel he tempered in Arizona. He focused more on ease of cutting than foodrelease.
Specs:
Monosteel Z-wear
Length:
Edge: 24,5cm
Handle: 13,9cm
Total: 40,3cm
Height: 51mm
Weight: 203g
Spine thickness:
out of handle: 2,56mm / middle: 2,29mm / Drop to tip: 1,78mm / 1cm in front of tip: 0,87mm
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Height tip: 2,4cm
Thickness blade: (slightly over the edge, 1cm above, 2cm)
heel: 0,4 / 1,07 / 1,86
in front:
5cm: 0,31 / 1,01 / 1,77
12cm: 0,27 / 0,77 / 1,49
3cm : 0,34 / 0,70 / 1,17
to tip
Handle:
Height: 2,6cm to 2,3cm
Width: 2,1cm to 1,8cm
The handle is made out of Koa, which is really appealing to me. It consists of two pieces. He split the handle and morticed out the space for the tang. This is really well done and you only notice it if you take a closer look in a good lighting. The handle slightly tapers towards the front, feels a bit too chunky, bulky for me though. I'd prefer it to be thinner but as soon as you start cutting with it you barely notice it. It's an octagonal form and the edges aren't rounded, except in front but also not sharp. Thanks to the thickness and the gradient, how it rests in my hand, I don't bend my forefinger as much as I usually do with pinchgripping. Hence I feel a light pressure of the choil against the middle joint of my middle finger. On account of this I also wish for the blade to be taller. The tang could be fitted a bit cleaner into the handle but it's a quickly done PA knife. Also there is a groove around the tang slot which could be filled up more, so there won't be a place to trap moisture. The handle is else well sealed but not slippery.
Grind and finish:
The spine and choil are nicely eased. On the right side of the choil a bit better than on the left. The last 15mm towards the edge are a bit sharper. The blade finish is very much a working finish. It’s a medium scotchbrite belt finish. Coming out of the handle the blade has a slight and smooth nashiji finish which feels really good. The edge bevel is ground pretty consistant, apart from the last centimetre towards the tip. It's a bit wider over there.
The blade has at first a flat grind spine to edge for about 17mm, then it switches into a minimal convex grind and the last mms it's back to a flat grind. On the left side the convexity is slightly more distinct. On the right side the convexity starts a bit deeper. The convexity declines more and more leading up to the tip and glides down. The knife doesn't have crazy distal taper. It mostly starts at the drop for the tip. The tip is rather robust than thinly ground. It's sufficient and cuts well but gets noticeable cutting onions. The edge tapers from heel to tip.
The last 2cm close to the tip are magnetized.
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Profile and cutting techniques:
The knife has a flatspot of about 10cm with the heel having a really small upswing, barely noticeable. Then there is a gradual curve with the last 7cm going upwards a bit more pronounced.
I would call the knife an allrounder. Pullcutting with the tip works very well. Push cutting ain't a problem at all. Chopping is fine as the knife is relatively light and well-balanced. The knife has to be quite sharp though since there isn't that much weight and the balance point isn't in front of the pinch which would help with chopping.
The point of balance is 32mm in front of the handle, pretty much on the “H“ of the logo and close to where I pinch.
Rocking worked surpisingly well but you need a forward movement, else you are getting close to the heel hitting the board and biting into it which it never did though.
Pork sweet-sour:
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Enjoyment of cutting:
The knife arrived with a nice sharpness, the tip could have been a bit sharper. Onions were a breeze, at least the horizontal cuts with the middle part of the edge since the tip wasn't perfectly sharp and is more solid ground. Cutting leek was nice but the knife struggled a bit trying to cut several leeks next to each other at once. Cellery was also easy, same for carrots which resulted in barely any cracking noices but carrots did stick a bit especially longitudinal cuts. Bell peppers felt great. Mushrooms felt good but not perfect, slight resistance. Zucchini was fine, did stick quite a lot but weren't hard to get off with your hand. It was a bit better with a faster cutting style and pullcuts but not great.
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There was quite some wedging in bigger parsley roots. Cooked potatoes were fine as long as you didn't need to cut them too thin. Then you had the problem with sticking and getting them off without breaking apart. Minicing herbs was nice. The biggest offender I encountered were sweet potatos. Trying halving them was pretty much an impossible task, way too much sticking, wedging and getting stuck so you needed to put quite some pressure onto the spine. After that it wasn't much better cutting them longitudinal. Pullcuts worked the best on single slices.
Steak with Sauce Hollandaise, pepper-ragout, yam purée and fries:
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Parmesan worked quite well at least the pieces you can buy for home use. Cabbages were a joy.
I could only work with the knife at home since I'm still out of work, shortterm-employment, but I didn't really notice any big loss of edge retention for the 9 days of home usage. The steel feels good on the board better than e.g. SG2 and never felt brittle. It had a fine sharpness and didn't really feel toothy but rather clean so you could do bell peppers and tomatos without any struggles. The blade didn't oxidize and I didn't notice any change of colour.
Conclusion:
Altogether I really liked how the steel felt on the board and the experienced sharpness. I can't make any informed statements on the steel regarding edge retention and sharpening though. The profile worked great for me. The handle could be a tad more comfortable but was still fine. The knife is pretty good in the aspect of ease of cutting but not perfect when you also include the lack of foodrelease and sticking since it's not totally in the laser category for me. All in all I had some fun with the knife and could imagine buying a knife like this.
Fried mushroom risotto balls with creamy mushrooms:
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I'm going to send the knife along its way as soon as
@minibatataman contacts me.