masibu
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2012
- Messages
- 322
- Reaction score
- 7
Hey, just looking for a bit of opinion on these budget carbon steel knives. I bought a fkh suji for a chef to use to trim and portion fish a while ago, not keeping in mind that he is a bit of an animal when it comes to knives. I would sharpen it up for him once every couple of weeks and he would complain about how quickly it would go blunt and the unexpected rust issues.
Fast forward a few months and I decided I wanted to have a go with the same knife and trade him a misono stainless I bought by accident via rakuten. I like carbon knives and use them with care and went about cutting whatever prep jobs I had for the day with this same suji. I found that it was plenty tough, took a really toothy edge and was able to handle a variety of jobs without discomfort and still having the same toothiness about it. I cut bread, sliced sourdough, made croutons out of baguettes and trimmed up 5 sides of salmon and 15 kilos of barramundi, portioned it and skinned off the offcuts to use for specials. There was still plenty of tooth left after doing this, and after stropping on a suehiro rika a couple times it was right as rain again. I also tried honing it lightly on a steel to see how it would respond and was happy enough with the results. I didn't see any of the problems he had with the knife and am tempted to keep using it for a while longer as it is so cheap that I don't feel bothered if someone borrows it but it also performs well enough and sharpens easy enough as well to be a bit of a workhorse.
What does everyone else think.about these knives? Sure they aren't exciting and pretty but they seem to perform well enough for me to consider them more seriously. The edge retention was certainly better than what I was expecting yet sharpening was also a piece of piss
Fast forward a few months and I decided I wanted to have a go with the same knife and trade him a misono stainless I bought by accident via rakuten. I like carbon knives and use them with care and went about cutting whatever prep jobs I had for the day with this same suji. I found that it was plenty tough, took a really toothy edge and was able to handle a variety of jobs without discomfort and still having the same toothiness about it. I cut bread, sliced sourdough, made croutons out of baguettes and trimmed up 5 sides of salmon and 15 kilos of barramundi, portioned it and skinned off the offcuts to use for specials. There was still plenty of tooth left after doing this, and after stropping on a suehiro rika a couple times it was right as rain again. I also tried honing it lightly on a steel to see how it would respond and was happy enough with the results. I didn't see any of the problems he had with the knife and am tempted to keep using it for a while longer as it is so cheap that I don't feel bothered if someone borrows it but it also performs well enough and sharpens easy enough as well to be a bit of a workhorse.
What does everyone else think.about these knives? Sure they aren't exciting and pretty but they seem to perform well enough for me to consider them more seriously. The edge retention was certainly better than what I was expecting yet sharpening was also a piece of piss
