milkbaby
Well-Known Doofus
For other knife steel nerds, here's an article from Larrin Thomas (Hoss' or Devin Thomas' son) with info and testing of Nitro-V steel which is the stainless steel used in this knife. It's a steel based on modification of AEB-L by adding a pinch of nitrogen and vanadium.
Larrin's article here:
https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/09/23/nitro-v-its-properties-and-how-to-heat-treat-it/
One of the advantages of AEB-L is it's higher toughness than other stainless steels and the fine microstructure that makes it easy to sharpen. It seems Nitro-V still has the same properties as AEB-L with a possible increase in corrosion resistance.
As I mentioned previously, it was extremely easy to sharpen this knife. I did do only the minimum that I felt was needed to give a decent working edge which resulted in what I felt was a pretty toothy edge.
I didn't use it long enough after sharpening to judge edge retention but I did enjoy using it to make a large curry. The blade is really tall as is in vogue nowadays. For me the height and angle of the handle isn't optimal for my normal use, though as @thebradleycrew mentioned, it only took a minor adjustment for me to enjoy it more.
The knife cubed hard sweet potato nicely. I compared it with my similar sized Takeda gyuto and the CJA makes the large cuts thru intact sweet potatoes easier than the Takeda. However, similar to the Takeda, the blade is light for the size and I prefer more overall weight.
Slicing and push cutting bell peppers, squash, and mushrooms was great. Maybe a little sticking of wet pieces of squash on the blade moreso than the Takeda but not suctioned on (fell off with a flick).
Carrot cut test was very easy. This knife is ground thin behind the edge. The edge is thin enough to deflect on my fingernail, and I'm sure it would pass the old knifemakers' brass rod test. This is when you roll the edge along a brass rod and see the edge deflect without chipping showing your heat treat and temper came out "nice"; geometry of this CJA is also important because the grind needed to be thin enough to deflect on my fingernail to the point it was visible. It's not scientific, but I feel this knife is a nice balance of thin behind the edge with toughness to back it up without being chippy.
As I mentioned, the grind seems to be a "diamond grind" where the blade not only tapers from the "shinogi" to the cutting edge but also thins out a little from "shinogi" to the spine. My guess is this is designed to push or encourage pieces to fall off as it reaches the ridge in the middle of the blade and be an advantage to reduce sticktion when going through tall hard foods. However, out of all the stuff I cut (veggies and tofu) it didn't seem to make a difference, but I'm guessing the grind probably will help discourage sticktion through tall hard foods that I didn't try it on. This could be an important performance tweak for tall blades like this one.
If the extra tall profile and handle angle works for you, it's a beautiful knife. And life is too short to use an ugly knife!
Thanks to @thebradleycrew for putting on this passaround. It was very fun to use this knife!
Larrin's article here:
https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/09/23/nitro-v-its-properties-and-how-to-heat-treat-it/
One of the advantages of AEB-L is it's higher toughness than other stainless steels and the fine microstructure that makes it easy to sharpen. It seems Nitro-V still has the same properties as AEB-L with a possible increase in corrosion resistance.
As I mentioned previously, it was extremely easy to sharpen this knife. I did do only the minimum that I felt was needed to give a decent working edge which resulted in what I felt was a pretty toothy edge.
I didn't use it long enough after sharpening to judge edge retention but I did enjoy using it to make a large curry. The blade is really tall as is in vogue nowadays. For me the height and angle of the handle isn't optimal for my normal use, though as @thebradleycrew mentioned, it only took a minor adjustment for me to enjoy it more.
The knife cubed hard sweet potato nicely. I compared it with my similar sized Takeda gyuto and the CJA makes the large cuts thru intact sweet potatoes easier than the Takeda. However, similar to the Takeda, the blade is light for the size and I prefer more overall weight.
Slicing and push cutting bell peppers, squash, and mushrooms was great. Maybe a little sticking of wet pieces of squash on the blade moreso than the Takeda but not suctioned on (fell off with a flick).
Carrot cut test was very easy. This knife is ground thin behind the edge. The edge is thin enough to deflect on my fingernail, and I'm sure it would pass the old knifemakers' brass rod test. This is when you roll the edge along a brass rod and see the edge deflect without chipping showing your heat treat and temper came out "nice"; geometry of this CJA is also important because the grind needed to be thin enough to deflect on my fingernail to the point it was visible. It's not scientific, but I feel this knife is a nice balance of thin behind the edge with toughness to back it up without being chippy.
As I mentioned, the grind seems to be a "diamond grind" where the blade not only tapers from the "shinogi" to the cutting edge but also thins out a little from "shinogi" to the spine. My guess is this is designed to push or encourage pieces to fall off as it reaches the ridge in the middle of the blade and be an advantage to reduce sticktion when going through tall hard foods. However, out of all the stuff I cut (veggies and tofu) it didn't seem to make a difference, but I'm guessing the grind probably will help discourage sticktion through tall hard foods that I didn't try it on. This could be an important performance tweak for tall blades like this one.
If the extra tall profile and handle angle works for you, it's a beautiful knife. And life is too short to use an ugly knife!
Thanks to @thebradleycrew for putting on this passaround. It was very fun to use this knife!
Last edited:
