Workhorse Gyuto for harder vegetables?

[blokey]

Am I understanding that you think it's a finish issue? It's got a fairly (what I would have thought of as) commonplace hairline finish, but most of the lower blade road has been hit at some point by my 1k cerax..

Then it should be fine, another reason might be the edge in other part of the blade are thicker than it seems, tho I can’t be sure.

 

[M1k3]

Would it be ok to hijack this post to ask about a struggle I’m having with hard produce and a laser knife (discussion seems fairly on point) or should I start a new one? Happy to repost outside.

Have had a 210 Wakui rehandled by a KKFer and it’s been the knife I’ve started the journey on from a complete noob. Sharpening has gradually gotten better, but now I’m worried I may have flattened out my bevels in my earlier days of not knowing what I’m doing.

Issue is that the knife sticks on everything, but hard produce in particular. Was going through butternut squash and it sticks to the blade like glue. Knife also seems to wedge when I’m trying to push or pull it - it is particularly bad when I’ve cut the squash into slices and am trying to get stacked slices into sticks - it goes through the first, then the rest under don’t stay in a pile because it sticks to that slice and doesn’t go all the way through. Have the same issue with carrots, which doesn’t make sense because everyone says lasers aren’t meant to wedge and this knife is crazy thin behind the edge (as far as I can tell).

Easiest way for me to cut the squash or carrots is to put my hand on the spine and push the knife through without any horizontal movement, but I’m wondering if that’s bad technique and if I should be able to bisect a squash with a push/pull cut.

So all in all, unsure if the issue is my cutting technique, my poor sharpening or the knife (photos attached and can provide more if helpful!). If it’s a knife profile issue, it doesn’t seem like there’s much behind the edge that I can work with to convex the blade?


View attachment 231517

Check the flatness of the grind. If it's super flat, it'll cause a lot of suction and friction. Making it hard to cut.

 

[nightslayer]

Check the flatness of the grind. If it's super flat, it'll cause a lot of suction and friction. Making it hard to cut.

Cheers! How do I check this?

 

[M1k3]

Cheers! How do I check this?

Ruler, card, any stiff and flat surface.

 

[nightslayer]

Ruler, card, any stiff and flat surface.

Cheers - and if the bottom third of the blade road seems pretty flat, is there any way to fix this?

Edit: How exactly do I introduce convexity to a laser?

 

[Benuser]

Introducing some convexing at the dominant side bevel should benefit.

 

[Delat]

Cheers - and if the bottom third of the blade road seems pretty flat, is there any way to fix this?

Edit: How exactly do I introduce convexity to a laser?

Murray Carter has a video on how to do it. Basically rock the blade as you thin. Not sure there’s enough meat to work with on a laser for meaningful results without losing a lot of height though - you might want to just look for a convex or concave laser if yours is flat and causing too much stiction. My Yoshikane tsuchime is convex and Yu Kurosaki makes concave.

Of if food release with a laser is really your jam, then look for a laser s-grind like a Dalman.

 

[M1k3]

Cheers - and if the bottom third of the blade road seems pretty flat, is there any way to fix this?

Edit: How exactly do I introduce convexity to a laser?

I'd do it by basically cutting a relief bevel on the dominant side, trying to hit around 3-5mm behind the edge.