Like a naughty schoolboy

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btbyrd said:
Since this thread comes up periodically in Takeda discussions, I thought I'd chime in to note that the grinds on Takedas vary so much from knife to knife that generalizing about whether or not nakiris outperform gyutos or yanagis or whatever is sort of a fool's errand (no offense to the OP). There's no such thing as "the Takeda nakiri." There is only "this Takeda nakiri" and "that Takeda nakiri" and so forth. I have two Takeda gyutos and they're worlds apart in grind. If I ever buy another Takeda, I'm going to try to handle it in person first and see how it handles or buy used from someone whose feedback on the blade I can trust. That said, I do very much appreciate this thread -- especially the photos and cutting anecdotes. I hope even more knives get added to it in time.
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I couldn’t agree more … in fact comparing seemingly identical hand made knives is probably more hyperbole than anything else. They are all different … thats part of the point. As with many things YMMV when you depend on anything more than your own experience. Still … it’s nice to chat about this and that with our favourite pastime.
 
I have an old Henckels 4star utility knife that if I am having sticking problems that kind of works for me. It is thin for a Henckels. This is what I would use if the potatoes were sticking. It was roughed up playing with someone's "good" electric sharpener. Maybe 25 years ago.

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Brian Weekley said:
In my recent Naughty Schoolboy Great Potato Takeda Slapdown the one Takeda that was missing from my test was the Takeda Nakiri ... or as some people call it a “vegetable cleaver”. It was one of the few Classic AS series Takeda’s that I didn’t have in my collection. As luck would have it Brontes decided to part with his AS Series Takeda Nakiri and posted it on BST. About three milliseconds later (or so it seems) I pressed the buy it now button and it was mine.

When it arrived I gave it the thumbnail test for edge and touched it up on my gold compound strop. I peel a couple of large russet potatoes and commenced the “Naughty Schoolboy” test. The following pics record the results.

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No question in my mind ... the Takeda Nakiri is the new hands down winner of the “Naughty Schoolboy” Potato slap down. Sorry Sasanoha ... you’re now in second place.
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That’s awesome! Can’t wait for mine to arrive! Fantastic thread by the way!
 
Not to be pedantic, but if I was cutting enough potato slices to actually care about food release I'd just get a mandolin.
Personally I mostly cut wedges or cubes. For cubes stickage in the first 2 cuts (basically making planks, then sticks) can be annoying but lately I've experimented with using draw cuts on those and it actually works fairly well.
Other than that, avoid mirror polishes on your knives. It's worth considering degrading the polish on the blade just to make it less sticky. I think the blade finish is an often forgotten element of food release that plays a significant role.
 
captaincaed said:
The three on the right needed a flick. No others.
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Dan Bidinger, yea? Who was it recently that I saw recently plugging his knives… @crockerculinary maybe? Performance above looks stellar. I feel like I have to be guarded about him since our last names are almost the same, but it looks like he knows his business!
 
Jovidah said:
avoid mirror polishes on your knives. It's worth considering degrading the polish on the blade just to make it less sticky.
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I just got a Birgersson and everything sticks. So far I've used it once; for sausage, carrots and peppers, but they all stick. The mirrored blade road is pretty and it cuts far better than my other blades, but it needs a windshield wiper on the side.
 
Jovidah said:
Not to be pedantic, but if I was cutting enough potato slices to actually care about food release I'd just get a mandolin.
Personally I mostly cut wedges or cubes. For cubes stickage in the first 2 cuts (basically making planks, then sticks) can be annoying but lately I've experimented with using draw cuts on those and it actually works fairly well.
Other than that, avoid mirror polishes on your knives. It's worth considering degrading the polish on the blade just to make it less sticky. I think the blade finish is an often forgotten element of food release that plays a significant role.
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Or you could just get a knife with good food release 😅. I mean a mandoline is great for chips, but other than that no need for it. Also you can’t make all the cuts with it. Plus don’t you have more than one knife? It’s always funny to me when people on here have these knive collections but omit having a knife that excels a food release. I mean that’s their prerogative but🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Jville said:
Or you could just get a knife with good food release 😅. I mean a mandoline is great for chips, but other than that no need for it. Also you can’t make all the cuts with it. Plus don’t you have more than one knife? It’s always funny to me when people on here have these knive collections but omit having a knife that excels a food release. I mean that’s their prerogative but🤷🏻‍♂️
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Yeah but if you truly care for a bunch of thin slices, a mandolin will do it far faster and more consistent than even the most gifted knife user in the world, and at a low price too. Personally I never really use potato slices so it's not a big deal to me, but it feels backwards to look for a knife optimized at making potato slices. It's like looking for the best horse for your transport needs.
With food release, while I agree that having the really high stiction I had on some mirror finished stuff was counter-productive, most stickage short of that is frankly never much of a problem to me. Draw cuts fixes the problem on potatoes, and potatoes are the only product where I ever really noticed in the first place.
I'm more than willing to try a knife optimized for better food release, but so far it has never been enough of a problem for me to make it a high priority.

When it comes to really sticky cheeses the solution is to either go for some specialist knife that's more hole than blade, or to just dip the blade in boiling water to essentially melt it through.
 
ian said:
Dan Bidinger, yea? Who was it recently that I saw recently plugging his knives… @crockerculinary maybe? Performance above looks stellar. I feel like I have to be guarded about him since our last names are almost the same, but it looks like he knows his business!
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man Dan’s work is phenomenal. I did some testing for him on one of the O.G. B-grinds and an s-grind and was crazy impressed. Dan is putting in a lot of time and effort into figuring out the fine details and maximizing the effects of this grind. I am SUPER JEALOUS of @captaincaed for owning this knife, it’s one of my favorites of his and I wish it was mine. If y’all are interested, herr are some videos of one of my testing sessions where I do a bunch of potatoes and other stuff, and I think it demonstrates pretty well. I was actually plagued with mistakes (mine of course) trying to get this on film, so there were a lot of products I didn’t capture that did remarkably well too.

 
crockerculinary said:
man Dan’s work is phenomenal. I did some testing for him on one of the O.G. B-grinds and an s-grind and was crazy impressed. Dan is putting in a lot of time and effort into figuring out the fine details and maximizing the effects of this grind. I am SUPER JEALOUS of @captaincaed for owning this knife, it’s one of my favorites of his and I wish it was mine. If y’all are interested, herr are some videos of one of my testing sessions where I do a bunch of potatoes and other stuff, and I think it demonstrates pretty well. I was actually plagued with mistakes (mine of course) trying to get this on film, so there were a lot of products I didn’t capture that did remarkably well too.

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That is hella sexy.
 
crockerculinary said:
man Dan’s work is phenomenal. I did some testing for him on one of the O.G. B-grinds and an s-grind and was crazy impressed. Dan is putting in a lot of time and effort into figuring out the fine details and maximizing the effects of this grind. I am SUPER JEALOUS of @captaincaed for owning this knife, it’s one of my favorites of his and I wish it was mine. If y’all are interested, herr are some videos of one of my testing sessions where I do a bunch of potatoes and other stuff, and I think it demonstrates pretty well. I was actually plagued with mistakes (mine of course) trying to get this on film, so there were a lot of products I didn’t capture that did remarkably well too.

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This is the video that made me call Dan, thank you Gabriel. If you're ever in the PNW, come by for a beer and some dinner prep :D
 
Well this certainly answered my curiosities regarding Bidinger KnIves B grind. I actually have one on the way, and couldn’t be more excited.
@captaincaed is that the 240 Magnacut Dan had posted recently in his IG feed? Man that looks nice. Handle looks very smart and comfortable
 
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