My New Wedging / Cracking Stress Test

[nhb22]

After the horse carrot test last weekend, I have been looking for something else to increase the difficulty just for fun. A few people mentioned big sweet potatoes. I bought a bag from Costco. Not significantly more challenging than those horse carrots to me. Looked around a little more today and found this massive taro in a local store. 200mm x 110mm. I don’t want to list out all the knives, but I tried a bunch of them. The popular KU knives all got stuck…short (in height) gyutos all got stuck…light lasers all got stuck…some mid weight knives did ok. One knife really stood out - my 52100 Eddworks. 244mm x 57mm, 232g. No idea what secret sauce @eddworks added to this knife. Really don’t want to make him even more popular as I want more knives from him, but this knife is really something else.

 

[Stevem627]

Well, I find that not at all surprising. Eddie just has a grind that is exceptional against almost every Japanese knife that I have tried…and I have, and have tried, a lot of them.

The more knives we have of his used here in the forum, the more it will be evident the guy has something special going. I’m still waiting to come in line for my second custom from him and I’m quite excited about it.

 

[Simply]

Awesome testing, that’s a serious block of taro. Interestingly my 52100 eddworks is also the most consistent performer of everything I own. 1/3 the price of others and will always be in rotation. Pure cutting performance, only rivaled by kyuzo EH, lucid, and hate to say… Yoshikane.

 

[KasumiJLA]

Look at that beast! And I'm not talking about you @nhb22

You really raised the bar and my girlfriend needs taro. I think I'll try it too..

 

[nhb22]

Update:

After the kids went to bed, I further processed one of the taros into 1inch by 1 inch chucks (ended up with about 5lbs of taro now I need to figure out how to use…). Used about 12 knives to do it. Eddworks wins at this particular task hands down. Does this test have any practical value you may ask? Maybe not if you don’t cut any larger root veggies. If you do often, I would say night and day difference. Not only how pleasant the process would be, but also how quickly you could do it. Of the knives I used in this test, many of them cost $1,000 plus. My Eddworks cost me $365 including shipping and it came with a leather saya.

 

[nhb22]

Look at that beast! And I'm not talking about you @nhb22

You really raised the bar and my girlfriend needs taro. I think I'll try it too..

Can totally send these to you if we can figure out whether these would be subject to Health Canada and CBSA inspections…

 

[Gavva]

Update:

After the kids went to bed, I further processed one of the taros into 1inch by 1 inch chucks (ended up with about 5lbs of taro now I need to figure out how to use…). Used about 12 knives to do it. Eddworks wins at this particular task hands down. Does this test have any practical value you may ask? Maybe not if you don’t cut any larger root veggies. If you do often, I would say night and day difference. Not only how pleasant the process would be, but also how quickly you could do it. Of the knives I used in this test, many of them cost $1,000 plus. My Eddworks cost me $365 including shipping and it came with a leather saya.

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Realized the relative bargain pricing of Ed’s knives at this point so I just jumped back in line. His popularity however has resulted in a probable year long wait this time. Sheesh.

 

[SwampDonkey]

This conforms with my own Eddworks gyuto experience in hard, dense veggies.

 

[Taz575]

I found some big sweet potatoes to test recently on a blade I was working on! The blade was 240mm length heel to tip and around 54mm tall, which gives you an idea of the 2 sweet potatoes, large onions and cabbage! It was getting a wa handle, but I left the tang bigger to use as a temp handle while I was still grinding and testing.

Rutabaga also is a good one to test, too. Going to look for Taro next time I am at the store!

 

[pitted_soul]

Butternut squash has been many a knife's downfall in my experience. Sweet potatoes and carrots are my go-to dense veggies for my knife testing. If they get wedged in either, they're sold (unless of course it's really cool or special). I love when I get a butternut and get to test my knives out, all of my gyutos are mid-weights to workhorses, no lasers, and they all can make it through pretty well. My best are, like you, my Eddworks and F. Vaz closely followed by Konosuke (Yoshikane) YW, Masashi Kokuen line, K. Karys, and Munetoshi. I sold my Adonis, it wedged always. Other wedgers HVB (very sad about that one), Spare Honyaki, 3rd Hill Customs (two different knives and even more disappointing), and Shiro Kamo. And all sold.

 

[Tekkz]

There's only one knife from a maker that is better than my Eddworks when it comes to wedging & food release: Hopwood Goods.

 

[ethompson]

Apples are better than carrots and sweet potatoes IMO - I don’t expect a knife to silently chop a sweet potato, but if it stalls on a apple I’m annoyed

 

[nhb22]

Apples are better than carrots and sweet potatoes IMO - I don’t expect a knife to silently chop a sweet potato, but if it stalls on a apple I’m annoyed

For sure. Different apples can be different too. Some are easier. My eddworks can cut apples pretty well. Most of my knives can’t cut through apples easily. Can you push through anyway? Sure. Does it feel great when you do it? No. So much so I decided to keep this short Tanaka gyuto (that I otherwise have no use for) for nothing but apple duty since I cut a lot of apples for my kids. This knife is thin enough and has the right balance to never wedge on any apple.

https://www.japanesenaturalstones.com/tanaka-yoshikazu-gyuto-170mm-blue-1-special/

 

[dragjp]

Lovely test, I also don't use carrots often now since the stain is hard to clean up. Taro chunks? I got some delicious taro cakes back after giving them out to a few cantonese friends, just a hint

 

[blokey]

I use another blade, if it can’t cut my previous favorite clean half, what’s the point?

 

[Koop]

I just finished peeling and French cutting a jicama. That was a worthy wedging/cracking test.

 

[nhb22]

So I received some really really nice jumbo carrots from an organic farm in Lancaster, PA. Super fresh and hard. I used a couple of lasers I had in the kitchen to cut them. I didn’t think too much until I realized the knives I used made cracking noise. I then became curious about how Eddworks would perform on them. I picked the biggest one from the bunch - about 2 inches thick. If I go fast, very tiny cracking noise (I mean really tiny). If I go slow, buttery smooth with no sound at all. The slice in my picture is about 12-15mm ish thick. I did also make 1 inch thick cuts, but forgot to take pictures. These are no horse !

 

[aporigine]

So I received some really really nice jumbo carrots from an organic farm in Lancaster, PA. Super fresh and hard. I used a couple of lasers I had in the kitchen to cut them. I didn’t think too much until I realized the knives I used made cracking noise. I then became curious about how Eddworks would perform on them. I picked the biggest one from the bunch - about 2 inches thick. If I go fast, very tiny cracking noise (I mean really tiny). If I go slow, buttery smooth with no sound at all. The slice in my picture is about 12-15mm ish thick. I did also make 1 inch thick cuts, but forgot to take pictures. These are no horse !


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Daaang.
Reading your reports, now I want one.

also, sliced taro tempura is delicious.

 

[FishmanDE]

I’ll have to try this. My favorite test is thicker leeks. They stop most things dead

 

[pitted_soul]

I love when I get a butternut and get to test my knives out, all of my gyutos are mid-weights to workhorses, no lasers, and they all can make it through pretty well. My best are, like you, my Eddworks and F. Vaz closely followed by Konosuke (Yoshikane) YW, Masashi Kokuen line, K. Karys, and Munetoshi. I sold my Adonis, it wedged always. Other wedgers HVB (very sad about that one), Spare Honyaki, 3rd Hill Customs (two different knives and even more disappointing), and Shiro Kamo. And all sold.

I saw this old quote of mine. I've acquired some laser-esque knives in the last half year. Also, some great midweights. I have one, maybe three, true lasers. I still don't love them but I have a few that have been good enough. They rarely are as smooth or have as good release as heavier knives.

 

[OkayMode]

I’ll have to try this. My favorite tea is thicker leeks. They stop most things dead

Leeks are super unforgiving in my experience too and do not tolerate poor technique either.

 

[FoolClone]

Truly an intriguing read !
- #251 on The EddList
In seriousness, reading comparisons of his work compared with other familiar makers, both here and reddit, is impressive to say the least

 

[pitted_soul]

Oh man, this Boniato separated the wheat from the chaff. Super dense and big. Like a big sweet potato on the denser end and fibrous.

 

[nhb22]

Oh man, this Boniato separated the wheat from the chaff. Super dense and big. Like a big sweet potato on the denser end and fibrous.

Is this an Asian sweet potato with white flesh inside? If so, this could be quite challenging.

 

[pitted_soul]

It was a brute. Only my smoothest made it through. Now that I know what they are, I need to try a few more. I've acquired one or two that would like a shot.

 

[SwampDonkey]

Leeks are super unforgiving in my experience too and do not tolerate poor technique either.

8 stalks worth of leeks went in to my mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. Wonderful test. Can happily say both Watoyama and ShiHan passed test with flying colors