NoneMoreBlack
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- Apr 18, 2012
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I'm a sous-chef in San Francisco. I have seen and worked with a pretty broad range of knives in a diverse set of high-intensity kitchens. One thing that always bothers me about knife reviews is that they are "out of the box," which tells me nothing about how that knife will hold up to a couple years of abuse. It's alot easier to spend a couple hundred on a knife that I am confident will last me 5 years; actually cheaper than using a variety of inferior knives that wear out or get thrown away in the interim.
So this is half gear-gallery, half shorthand review of knives I have experience with.
This is my half-assed tool tray setup I keep my stuff in 90% of the time at work; I hate continually packing and unpacking my knife roll.
Left to right: JCK Carbonext 270mm Sujihiki, JCK Carbonext 140mm petty, JCK VG10 honesuke, mystery butcher saber, Akifusa 240mm PM gyuto, skewer, microplane, Hand American borosilicate glass hone, Edgepro 1000grit white ceramic hone. In back: random tools (I get lots of compliments on the pink Kiwi peeler, and I keep that sucker sharp with my ceramic)
I sharpen with an Edgepro, which has given me about 5 years of loyal service and which I consider the best investment I ever made in kitchen equipment. I have bought interesting knives at thrift stores for $0.35, put a nice edge on them, and sold them to other line cooks for $20. I used to sharpen the knives for all the dudes on my line, as it is so much more efficient than a freehand stone, and they would bring me tacos and beer in exchange.
I start with the stock edgepro stones, going up to 1000 grit, and then jump to the 5k chosera. I know many people have more complicated sharpening regimes, and go down to micrometer strops and whatnot, but in my experience, even this relatively basic edge loses its polish pretty quickly in real-world use, and is several times sharper than just about anybody else's knife on the line.
The ceramic hone that comes with the edgepro works fine, as far as I can tell it is identical to the Mac or other versions of the same. I also absolutely love the Hand American glass hone. Since I got it, my honing regime is glass rod several times a day, ceramic rod maybe once a day or less, and sharpening isn't necessary for weeks if not months at a time.
I'll discuss the Akifusa first. My understanding is that this was one of the first of the current generation of PM steel knives on the market. It was my first serious gyuto (I had a pretty basic Tojiro before that which I still use extensively at home) and I mostly purchased it on the strength of the review at zKnives. It is a very abrasion-resistant steel, but has a surprising amount of malleability, and once profiled, sharpening is not at all terrible. The first time I tipped the knife (argh!) it actually just bent sideways, and I was able to rectify it without losing a significant amount of material at the tip. The second time did break a bit off, but oh well.
I am extremely pleased with this knife. It's about 3 years old now, and has lots of life left in it. Its distal taper is fairly pronounced and thickness at the heel is medium, so while I wouldn't classify it as a laser, it has a nice flex at the belly and it robust enough at the heel for real line work. I cut my teeth on the edgepro with this knife, so it definitely suffered excessive wear in its first year of ownership. I have never experienced significant chipping or breaking of the edge, even hacking my way through chicken bones and hard vegetables. To my knowledge, the steel has superior wearing characteristics to Misono UX10 (a very popular choice in kitchens I have worked), and at the time I bought it, they were of similar price (I now see the UX10 is $150 MORE.)
The blade profile is fairly narrow, which I like. It is very lightweight at under 8oz (UX10 is 8.5). My only complaint is that I would prefer a 270mm, which I do not believe they produce. I am currently struggling with the decision to upgrade to an Aritsugu, which based on my impressions of the reviews would fit my needs very well.
So this is half gear-gallery, half shorthand review of knives I have experience with.
This is my half-assed tool tray setup I keep my stuff in 90% of the time at work; I hate continually packing and unpacking my knife roll.
Left to right: JCK Carbonext 270mm Sujihiki, JCK Carbonext 140mm petty, JCK VG10 honesuke, mystery butcher saber, Akifusa 240mm PM gyuto, skewer, microplane, Hand American borosilicate glass hone, Edgepro 1000grit white ceramic hone. In back: random tools (I get lots of compliments on the pink Kiwi peeler, and I keep that sucker sharp with my ceramic)
I sharpen with an Edgepro, which has given me about 5 years of loyal service and which I consider the best investment I ever made in kitchen equipment. I have bought interesting knives at thrift stores for $0.35, put a nice edge on them, and sold them to other line cooks for $20. I used to sharpen the knives for all the dudes on my line, as it is so much more efficient than a freehand stone, and they would bring me tacos and beer in exchange.
I start with the stock edgepro stones, going up to 1000 grit, and then jump to the 5k chosera. I know many people have more complicated sharpening regimes, and go down to micrometer strops and whatnot, but in my experience, even this relatively basic edge loses its polish pretty quickly in real-world use, and is several times sharper than just about anybody else's knife on the line.
The ceramic hone that comes with the edgepro works fine, as far as I can tell it is identical to the Mac or other versions of the same. I also absolutely love the Hand American glass hone. Since I got it, my honing regime is glass rod several times a day, ceramic rod maybe once a day or less, and sharpening isn't necessary for weeks if not months at a time.
I'll discuss the Akifusa first. My understanding is that this was one of the first of the current generation of PM steel knives on the market. It was my first serious gyuto (I had a pretty basic Tojiro before that which I still use extensively at home) and I mostly purchased it on the strength of the review at zKnives. It is a very abrasion-resistant steel, but has a surprising amount of malleability, and once profiled, sharpening is not at all terrible. The first time I tipped the knife (argh!) it actually just bent sideways, and I was able to rectify it without losing a significant amount of material at the tip. The second time did break a bit off, but oh well.
I am extremely pleased with this knife. It's about 3 years old now, and has lots of life left in it. Its distal taper is fairly pronounced and thickness at the heel is medium, so while I wouldn't classify it as a laser, it has a nice flex at the belly and it robust enough at the heel for real line work. I cut my teeth on the edgepro with this knife, so it definitely suffered excessive wear in its first year of ownership. I have never experienced significant chipping or breaking of the edge, even hacking my way through chicken bones and hard vegetables. To my knowledge, the steel has superior wearing characteristics to Misono UX10 (a very popular choice in kitchens I have worked), and at the time I bought it, they were of similar price (I now see the UX10 is $150 MORE.)
The blade profile is fairly narrow, which I like. It is very lightweight at under 8oz (UX10 is 8.5). My only complaint is that I would prefer a 270mm, which I do not believe they produce. I am currently struggling with the decision to upgrade to an Aritsugu, which based on my impressions of the reviews would fit my needs very well.