After some spirited debate on qualities of knives by American and Japanese makers, I have entered in a contest with a fellow knife nut. We are still working out details of how it will run, but in brief, I will provide one of my knives to be tested against a Japanese knife of his choice. It is likely to be a 240mm chefs.
We want this to be a blind test, that is, a tester should have no knowledge of either makers, and the testing to concentrate on five areas: sharpness, food separation, edge holding, edge stability (resistance to chipping) and feel. Feel is something subjective to every person, but typically it covers balance, weight, and how a knife actually feels in one's hand.
I hope that the contenders will be put for a shift (or longer) of cutting in a pro kitchen without touch-ups or sharpening in between, and cutting would cover a variety of things, including dense root vegetables.
I believe the knife provided by the other party will be carbon steel knife, so I will also make a knife in a carbon steel
These are specs of a knife I will make for the contest.
Steel - 52100
Hardness 62-63RC
Length - 240mm on the edge
Thickness -3.4mm at the spine, 3.25 over the heel, 2.25 half way, 1.85mm 50mm from the tip
Weight - ~225g with the handle
Edge thickness - under .127mm at the edge
Thickness 10mm above edge - heel 1mm, halfway .85mm, tip .85mm
Handle - D (if all three testers are right or left handled, otherwise octagonal)
I will start posting pictures in this blog as they become available.
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