Hello from New England, USA.

[mockit]

Hi there,

I have been lurking here for a while without an account before seeing that I need a few posts to participate in B/S/T without becoming a $ member. Seems totally fair. I guess that means I will have to start participating! I am very new to the world of high-end cutlery, but it is easy for me to go down the rabbit hole and nerd out on craft items. I am currently a graduate student (CRNA) in the Hartford, CT area. I am originally from Reno, NV, and was a specialty/craft coffee roaster there for several years before becoming a nurse. My first knife was a Global 8" chef that I thought was like a scalpel! Little did I know... Fast forward many years and I have a MAC Pro 8" chef and two Yu Kurosaki Fujin AoS petty knives (120/150mm), all of which I enjoy. What I like most about this site/topic is the artistry and craftsmanship on display. I love everyday functional art and older, more heirloom cooking pieces. I have a couple of Griswold cast iron skillets that I use all the time. The intersection between science and art excites me, so metallurgy is increasingly interesting to me. I love to cook and wish I was a better one .

I plan to slowly grow a functional collection of knives I can admire while using and display as art in my kitchen. I got lucky and recently snagged a custom spot from Jonas of Isasmedjan. I am stuck between a dammy clad - apex ultra or a full mirror honyaki (230mm integral gyuto) as my first significant knife order. Thoughts on that decision are welcome . Andy Billip lives really close to me, so I am hoping as a graduation gift to myself, I can get my hands on something from him in a couple of years. Otherwise, I would like to make slow and purposeful decisions lol. It would be easy to spend $$$ on a lot of knives. There are so many unbelievable smiths displayed on this sight! I think my favorites so far in no particular order are Billip, Kamon, Isasmedjan, Yu Kurosaki, and the9 or Yannick for that elegant KU. My instagram is now split between MTB, coffee, skiing... and blacksmiths .

I look forward to participating more and learning as I go. Thank you for the knowledge that many of you share on a daily basis!

Warmly,

Casey

 

[Nemo]

Welcome to the forums.

Yep, it's pretty easy to spend up big on knives. And we haven't even started talking natural stones yet...

What sort of MTB do you do?

How do you brew your coffee?

It's worth deciding whether you want a knife that will look flashy or one that will be easy to maintain at peak performance.

Mirror polishes tend to increase stiction on the blade. Some damascus finishes can increase friction on the blade (most don't). Both require a LOT of work to refinish them after thinning the blade. This tends to discourage maintenance thinning, meaning that your knife will gradually thicken behind the edge over successive sharpenings, thus losing performance.

 

[mockit]

I have some Shapton ceramic stones (1k and 5k) that I have been practicing with on my current knives. The hardest part for me is to get the tip without making a mess of things. I am still working on technique. Are natural stones far superior, or are they more nostalgic/traditional? If I have to ship my artisan knives once a year somewhere to get thinned, I wouldn't mind that for the piece of mind. Do home users thin their knives much more than that? This is good information for me as I want to get something usable and not just pretty to look at (thinking about that custom order).

I got into MTB 2-3 years ago and have really enjoyed it. Mostly just trail category riding. I have never done DH / lift-served but would like to. I am still learning to jump and drop. I can go a bit more than rollable and into some single black diamond trails, but not much more! It gets spicy pretty fast, and I rely on my body for work. Injury is not an option, especially as a student.

I brew filter coffee with a V60 at home! Australia has an awesome coffee culture btw. I have tasted coffees from St. Ali and ONA and both were great. USA is still heavily influenced by old-school Italian and commercial coffee, so the average shop is probably less tasty than what you have! George Howell Coffee in Boston is probably my favorite that I have tried in New England. I have only been here for about a year so still figuring things out.

Thank you for the warm welcome,

Casey

 

[stumpt]

Welcome from Boston! I'm sure you'll enjoy your time here. Natural stones have different capabilities, but I don't think you could necessarily call them superior in every way. It's a pretty deep rabbit hole if you do decide to go down it .

As Nemo said, both of those knife options from Jonas would require either a lot of experience to thin/refinish at home, or sending out for spa treatments and the like. There are some experienced sharpeners/refinishers in the Boston area you could look into if you're looking to go down that route. Or you could always ask for a low/mid bevel knife, which is relatively easy to thin at home. No matter what though, Jonas' work is great, and you can't really go wrong.

 

[Nemo]

Shaptons are good stones. Are yours the Glass, the Pro or some other line?

Naturals are... different. You definitely don't NEED them. They can be very good for polishing the blade face to a pretty kasumi or similar finish. Some believe that they improve edge retention but this is controversial to say the least. They tend to struggle with highly alloyed steels and are generally slower than synthetic stones.

Many, including me, tend to thin a little bit each time I drop down to a medium stone. That is to say, I don't bother thinning when touching the edge up on a fine stone but I do if I need to drop down to a medium (circa 1k) stone. I do this when I can't create a burr within a dozen or so strokes on the fine stone. This approach maintains my knife's geometry in peak condition and it means that big thinning jobs are only rarely required. As metioned, this approach is more difficult with fancy blade face finishes... unless it is a wide bevel with a fancy finish above the wide bevel.

Sending your knives away for thinning is certainly an option and I suspect that many people take this approach, especially if there is a fancy finish to restore. The geometry will deteriorate a little in the meantime, obviously depending on how often you sharpen it and how long it goes between thinning. Nonetheless, this is definitely a viable alternative. Also, it's not as though you can't learn to refinish fancy finishes. Doing so will teach you why fancy finishes are expensive. Especially a full mirror finish.

I do trail MTB as well. Blue runs seem the best balance between fun and safety (I also can't afford a serious injury). With the drops and jumps, I found that practice on small ones (I started dropping off the gutter on a footpath/sidewalk) and gradually working my way up worked well. Dropper posts made roll offs so much easier.

I brew espresso, which is a bit of a finnicky beast, with lots of variables. I just adjusted the pressure limit valve down to 10 bar, with a significant improvement in quality (more sweet, less bitter). I remember as a kid going to Pellegrini's bar in the main street of Melbourne. One of the first (if not the first) places to get an espresso in Australia. How things have changed. Now even my small rural city has half a dozen serious quality coffee roasters.

 

[mockit]

These are the Shaptons I have:

https://www.amazon.com/SHAPTON-Kuro...sr_1_2?keywords=Shapton&qid=1674353378&sr=8-2
Definitely not glass so maybe the pro? Some of the other Kuromakus are labeled pro so not sure. All good info to know on finishes and sharpening. I'd like to learn and take care of things the best I can. I think sharpening is fun and part of the experience. I'll practice on less expensive pieces for sure!

10 bar is a lot of pressure! "Standard" is around 8 bar. The trend is moving lower and lower. I was a barista before I was a roaster and a lot of places were switching to 6 bar. You can pull great espresso on a variety of pressures though. Just like knives and sharpening, there are many ways to skin a cat. Glad you are having fun with it. Coffee was probably my first professional love . What is your setup like?

~Casey

 

[Nemo]

Yeah, I think the Pros are called Kuromaku. KKF is a pretty good place to learn about sharpening and blade polishing.

My machine is a Cellini (La Pavoni but I think Rocket makes an identical machine, maybe just rebadged?). It shipped at 14 bar! I was aiming for a brewhead pressure of 9, but most of the info I found suggested that static pressure proximal to the brewhead is around 1 bar higher than the actual pressure that the brewhead sees during extraction. I have read that some people are using lower pressures than 9. I might experiment with reducing it a bit more. I use a Eureka specialita grinder.