EU passaround- z wear

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I have a king neo st 800 coming any day for z wear and other such.

I’ve been using a king 1000 and king 800
They work fine. But I’m also starting out at the thinnest ground edge without any use and it’s predictable to me how it will sharpen. I’ve also been using a tsushima (I think) to finish. And always a loaded leather strop.
 
I just received the knife, all looking good 😊

IMG_20210122_183002.jpg
IMG_20210122_182859.jpg
 
For all passaround participants: I replaced the box. The box the knife arrived in has been sent To Harbeer. The current box is just an ordinary box. No dalman kiri box or anything. So don’t worry about it getting lost or destroyed. All best!
 
For all passaround participants: I replaced the box. The box the knife arrived in has been sent To Harbeer. The current box is just an ordinary box. No dalman kiri box or anything. So don’t worry about it getting lost or destroyed. All best!
Nice harbeer got is box ,he really love that box ,was his favourite box 😂😂😂
 
Do we have pictures of said mythical box since I'm missing out?
Any data, specs?
Where is the review of that wonderful box??!
I need answers:waiting:
 
Few thoughts about the knife. It came with good edge from @Carl Kotte. I still decided to touch it on the stones because Harbeer is going to make me a custom so I wanted to try the steel and where my skills are atm. It felt good on the stones. I noticed that more pressure than my normal sharpening routine worked better.

I've used it for 5-6 meal preps at home. I like the profile, good lenght and height. I need to say that I prefer heavier and thicker gyutos so my opinion is a bit biased and I don't have a real comparison to this knife. For me it feels like an allrounder, no big cons or pros, gets the job done. Little wedging with carrots, some sticking with potatoes and softer products but nothing too serious. I am no pro and I noticed that when using more speed with the cutting, there were less sticking. Handle is well made, a bit thin for my hand but my prefered shape.

Edge retention the best so far from the steels that I have tried. I think I will choose this steel for the custom 😊.

Thanks again for this passaround.
 
Review HSC3 – Z-wear
HSC rechts.jpg HSC links.jpg
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
HSC Spine K.jpg
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.
HSC Choil.jpg


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:
HSC Schweinefleisch süß-sauer Prep.jpg Schweinefleisch süß-sauer.jpg
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.
HSC Zucchini.jpg

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:
HSC Süßkartoffeln.jpg Steak mit Süßkartoffeln.jpg

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:
Risottobällchen.jpg


I'm going to send the knife along its way as soon as @minibatataman contacts me.
 
Review HSC3 – Z-wear
View attachment 115294 View attachment 115295
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
View attachment 115296
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.
View attachment 115297

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:
View attachment 115298 View attachment 115299
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.
View attachment 115300
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:
View attachment 115301 View attachment 115302

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:
View attachment 115304

I'm going to send the knife along its way as soon as @minibatataman contacts me.
Wow, that is some great review, you really put effort and time for the writing 🙏.
 
Wow, that is some great review, you really put effort and time for the writing 🙏.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you.
I always want to get as much info out of reviews as I can so I can get a sound opinion of a knife. That's why I always try to write them in a way which attempts to convey that. So others can also come to conclusions and I get a deeper understanding for the knives I try and own.
 
Wow, that is some great review, you really put effort and time for the writing 🙏.
Thank you.
I always want to get as much info out of reviews as I can so I can get a sound opinion of a knife. That's why I always try to write them in a way which attempts to convey that. So others can also come to conclusions and I get a deeper understanding for the knives I try and own.
[/QUOTE]
Big respect 😊. Looking forward of reading your next review 🥳
 
Review HSC3 – Z-wear
View attachment 115294 View attachment 115295
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
View attachment 115296
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.
View attachment 115297

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:
View attachment 115298 View attachment 115299
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.
View attachment 115300
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:
View attachment 115301 View attachment 115302

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:
View attachment 115304

I'm going to send the knife along its way as soon as @minibatataman contacts me.
This is some hell of review 👍👍✊💦💦
 
Now that I have some time off of work and school I can finally talk about the knife :D

Thank you @HSC /// Knives and @preizzo for the PA, it was a very very interesting knife to use, very different than anything I've tried.

Also I spent most of the last week without my phone, sorry for the lack of pictures!

While there isn't much to add after @JayS20 's review, here's what I thought:

Profile:
Loved the profile. A good flat spot in the back (bar a small upswing at the heel) and then a continuous, slow curve for the rest of the knife. Profile is pretty flat overall, and the spine doesn't dip till the tip, giving the knife a pretty tall feel in use. Despite being more or less the exact same dimensions as my heiji, it feels MUCH taller in hand, while being lighter. Overall it's a great all-round (a description you'll hear a lot in this review) profile that's great for all uses.

IMG_20210320_113455.jpg


Grind:
A very middle ground grind. Pretty thin but not laser thin. It's mostly flat but with a little bit of convexity to help with food release. In use it's pretty good. I usually prefer heavier knives but there's no comparison in dense veg. This knife goes through carrots and beetroots with very little cracking, much less than my heiji, but as expected it sticks more, especially with potatoes. I had a very similar experience with sweet potatoes as Julian, noticing a lot of sticking, I missed the weight of a heavier knife here because this knife doesn't lend itself to extra pushing. Pull cuts were a dream though, the the thinness throughout and the simple edge made it very easy. The tip is very average too. It's thin enough for me, and I had no issues, but you'll notice some resistance in onions and such. But it feels tough and robust while still performing well, so that's a big plus for me.

IMG_20210320_113648__01.jpg


Steel and daily use:
Here is where the knife shines. I received the knife with a solid edge so I only touched it up on a hard jnat and it got as sharp as anything I've ever tried. Insanely sharp edge that just keeps going no matter what I do. I must have went through 20 kilos of root veg at work and all I ever needed was some stropping to bring the edge back to shaving sharp. While I didn't go through a full sharpening progression my touch up and following stropping weren't particularly difficult, add the fact that it's stainless and it's pretty much the dream knife for line work. I loved the feel in hand with how light it is but again, I missed the added weight to go through produce with less work, but that's down to personal preference.

Fit and finish:
A functional finish for sure. This is a PA knife so I can't really judge, but the choil and spine were polished well enough. The knife had a medium finish that worked, as well as a very nice smooth nashiji finish coming out of the handle.

IMG_20210320_113536.jpg


Speaking of the handle, I was very pleasantly surprised. Some said it was a bit narrow, some thought it was a tad wide. For me it was perfect. Big enough for my hands but tapers nicely towards the front, very comfortable in use and looks very nice. It's my first Koa handle, but definitely not the last. The two halves are sealed well and I didn't notice any issues with it not being a single piece of wood.

IMG_20210320_113556.jpg

IMG_20210320_113610.jpg


Final thoughts:
This is a fantastic all-rounder gyuto, and excellently made one all things considered. While it doesn't excel in much, it's jack of all trades that does well with anything you throw at it. The only issues I had were some sticking issues that are to be expected with thin knives. I'd love to try more of Harbeer's work, if this knife was a bit heavier and had a more pronounced grind, I'd be calling it the perfect knife.
 
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