Passaround: Kippington Chevron Hook Grind

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Apologies for the delay in posting my review.

The chevron arrived reasonably sharp, except at the tip. A light strop was all that was required to bring it back to life, even at the tip. I can't remember which steel the chevron grind is but it reminds me of stropping the original hook, so maybe 52100?

I compared the pass-around to my existing hook grind, which I think is a slightly more robust grind and has a taller hook bevel (13mm vs 9mm):
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As you can see, the chevron knife has a lower tip.

The distal taper looked quite similar:

20200303_185537.jpg


As you can see, the taper is pretty significant, as is the Kippington style.

The original hook has an excellent tradeoff between thinness and food release (both resisting stiction in wet foods and releasing food from the blade face).

In hard foods, the chevron grind performs as though a little thinner than the original. In wet foods, it exhibits a little less stiction. I am unsure if this improvement in the thinness vs stiction tradeoff is due to the narrower hook bevel or the chevrons.

The chevron grind does not shed food from the blade face as easily though:
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20200303_190947.jpg


I suspect that this may due the the taller and perhaps fatter grind of the hook bevel pushing food further away from the remainder of the blade face.

In summary, they are both very capable knives. The chevron grind behaves a little thinner, with a little less stiction. This could be because of the shorter hook bevel but the chevrons may well contribute.

Should the chevrons be a part of the hook grind from now on? I'm unsure. If it doesn't interfere with the number of sharpenings that can occur (and it's not too onerous to do), I would say that it's probably reasonable to do. It's a shame that the hook bevels on the two knives were not more similar, as this introduced a bit of a confounder into the comparison such that I don't know whether the difference in performance is due to the chevrons or the difference in the hook bevels or a bit of both.
 
Apologies for the delay in posting my review.

No worries. It can take a surprisingly long time to take images and write articulately... Kudos! Great that you could do a one-to-one (sort of) comparison.

It's a shame that the hook bevels on the two knives were not more similar, as this introduced a bit of a confounder into the comparison such that I don't know whether the difference in performance is due to the chevrons or the difference in the hook bevels or a bit of both.

A little bit of column 'A' and a little bit from column 'B'. My gut feel is that the difference in the grind would be the primary factor (your knife seems more stout)?
 
I've mailed the knife to @M1k3. Hopefully, it'll show up in CA some time next week, corona gods willing…

I won't repeat what other people have said already, so just some of my impressions here.

When I first picked up the knife, it felt hefty (which I like), even though, at 261 g, it isn't heavy. It has this really solid feel to it that I enjoyed a lot. This isn't some flimsy laser thingy, but it isn't a workhorse either, IMO. It just says "I rule around here", without having to strain.

The taper towards the tip is great, and I like the profile. It reminds me of my KS, but it felt friendlier than the KS. It doesn't stop as abruptly on the heel as the KS, and it's also better suited to rocking.

@Briochy sent it to me really sharp, so I didn't do anything to it. Plenty sharp enough as it was.

I cut a whole lot of stuff with it; various veggies, garlic and ginger finely sliced and rock-chopped, basil chiffonade, tomatoes, chillies, beef, lamb, chicken, bacon, salami, cheese, sous vide bags, and soft bread. It didn't really matter what I was cutting, the knife always did it effortlessly and competently.

As to the food separation, I have mixed feelings. Yes, stuff definitely sticks less and separates from the blade a little easier than with my other knives. So it works better than anything else I have right now in that respect. My concern isn't so much about the performance, but about the huge amount of extra effort required. It's a really complex and labour-intensive grind, and I'm wondering whether something else, such as an s-grind (which I have no first-hand experience with) might not achieve the same thing for less effort.

Here are some videos. With potato, I thought the knife did fine, but not brilliantly.

I thought the hook grind worked considerably better than my other knives when slicing onions. Very little of the cut pieces "walking up" the side of the blade. But, for diced onions, the small pieces seem to effectively eliminate the hook's effectiveness: the individual pieces are so small and light that they will stick to the blade if they find even a small contact area.

With cucumber, I got good separation, better than with any of my knives.

I want to thank Jules for make this pass-around possible. I learned something while using this knife, and I feel privileged getting to try a knife such as this because of all the good will on Jules's part, and on part of this community.
 
I've mailed the knife to @M1k3. Hopefully, it'll show up in CA some time next week, corona gods willing…

I won't repeat what other people have said already, so just some of my impressions here.

When I first picked up the knife, it felt hefty (which I like), even though, at 261 g, it isn't heavy. It has this really solid feel to it that I enjoyed a lot. This isn't some flimsy laser thingy, but it isn't a workhorse either, IMO. It just says "I rule around here", without having to strain.

The taper towards the tip is great, and I like the profile. It reminds me of my KS, but it felt friendlier than the KS. It doesn't stop as abruptly on the heel as the KS, and it's also better suited to rocking.

@Briochy sent it to me really sharp, so I didn't do anything to it. Plenty sharp enough as it was.

I cut a whole lot of stuff with it; various veggies, garlic and ginger finely sliced and rock-chopped, basil chiffonade, tomatoes, chillies, beef, lamb, chicken, bacon, salami, cheese, sous vide bags, and soft bread. It didn't really matter what I was cutting, the knife always did it effortlessly and competently.

As to the food separation, I have mixed feelings. Yes, stuff definitely sticks less and separates from the blade a little easier than with my other knives. So it works better than anything else I have right now in that respect. My concern isn't so much about the performance, but about the huge amount of extra effort required. It's a really complex and labour-intensive grind, and I'm wondering whether something else, such as an s-grind (which I have no first-hand experience with) might not achieve the same thing for less effort.

Here are some videos. With potato, I thought the knife did fine, but not brilliantly.

I thought the hook grind worked considerably better than my other knives when slicing onions. Very little of the cut pieces "walking up" the side of the blade. But, for diced onions, the small pieces seem to effectively eliminate the hook's effectiveness: the individual pieces are so small and light that they will stick to the blade if they find even a small contact area.

With cucumber, I got good separation, better than with any of my knives.

I want to thank Jules for make this pass-around possible. I learned something while using this knife, and I feel privileged getting to try a knife such as this because of all the good will on Jules's part, and on part of this community.

Sorry, I made it too sharp you cut yourself. ;););)
 
Yes, it's your fault!!!

I thought about deleting that last bit of the video, but figured that it was too ironic to cut out :)

Wow, first ever finger slicing test, talk about dedication!

Did the skin fall off the blade? ;)
 
Fascinating, thanks for sharing!
There have been three reviews from home users, looking forward to the opinion of a professional next.

Hey now! Why you talk like that? You're the professional. I'm just a humble student.

The pressure is on you now @M1k3. Let us see those potatoes fly!

Hopefully I don't cut myself. Potatoes and carrots. I think I'll be having some kind of stew or something?

The gloves are definitely off now. (No pressure, @M1k3…)

The cut glove? :LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
Hey now! Why you talk like that? You're the professional. I'm just a humble student.



Hopefully I don't cut myself. Potatoes and carrots. I think I'll be having some kind of stew or something?



The cut glove? :LOL::LOL::LOL:
Seriously, I always get stage fright in front of a camera. Cutting things in front of a camera is like begging for a trip to the emergency. I’m grateful to everyone doing it.
 
When this gets to Europe, can I be added to the list? It would be cool to see a unique idea in the flesh. Thanks!
 
This is the official passaround thread for the Hook grind from the thread here: Food Release: Stiction and the Grind
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This is right-handed only, unfortunately. I will work on a simple handle over the next few days.
Please add your name and location to this thread if you'd like to be involved! :D
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------------------------------

The following is where I will keep the itinerary updated:

AUSTRALIA
@Geigs ............ Adelaide, South Australia
@Nemo ............. Albury, New South Wales <---CURRENT LOCATION
@Briochy .......... Sydney, New South Wales
@Michi ............ Brisbane, Queensland
@benhendy ......... Brisbane, Queensland

USA
@M1k3 ............. Los Angeles, California
@Barmoley ......... Los Angeles, California
@Neville Lin ...... San Diego, California
@slickmamba ....... San Diego, California
@mc2442 ........... San Diego, California
@Ivang............. San Diego, California
@mfishsauce ........Los Gatos, California
@soigne_west ...... Sacramento, California
@crockerculinary .. Sacramento, California
@captaincaed ...... Seattle, Washington
@VICTOR J CREAZZI . Denver, Colorado
@AT5760 ........... ?, Nebraska
@Chuckles ......... Minneapolis, Minnesota
@McMan ............ Chicago, Illinois
@Gjackson98 ....... Cincinnati, Ohio
@marc4pt0 ......... Washington, DC
@ian .............. Boston, Massachusetts
@BJE1 ............. New York City, New York

EUROPE
@TRPV4 ............ Cambridge, UK
@minibatataman .... Maastricht, Netherlands
@Matus ............ Aalen, Germany
@Carl Kotte ....... Stockholm, Sweden
@F-Flash .......... Joensuu, Finland
Where do I sign up? i'd love to try
 
I forgot how pretty she looks.

I'll be interested to know what you think, both in terms of sharpening and use in a professional setting.
My professional setting is very scaled back right now, in terms of volume. I'll still run it through the paces though. Wonder how it does portioning swordfish 🤔 and wasn't there some water thing I was supposed to do with it? 🤷‍♂️
 
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