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reswright
3850
Jun 13, 2019
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The ad copy says the knife has a stainless steel bolster. The knife in the picture does not appear to even have a bolster. It doesn't say whether the knife was forged or cut. It says some things about the steel being impact welded, but that's different from knife forging -- impact welding is how you join two dissimilar alloys together. Forging is when the steel stock is actually hammered and then ground into the shape of the blade, milling is when an ingot of steel is machined down into the shape of the blade, but die cut steel is just punched out from sheets of stock metal on a press. It says it's got an AUS-10 steel blade at a few points, and at others acknowledges that it's only AUS-10 at the core, w/ inexpensive stainless and nickel steel layers on the outside. The grind angle isn't that aggressive for a nakiri. And it says the blade has a hardness of 61 but that's also only the core. If you Rockwell test the entire knife you will get a lower hardness determined partially by the outer layers of inexpensive stainless. If the impact weld was done well it might be decent, but not 61. The bit about the sides of the knife being irregular and that helping food not to stick, that's yes and no. It will keep bigger things from sticking but it will also be harder to clean than a flat ground, non-etched edge. As a guy who uses his kitchen knives often, I think I'll stick with hollow ground nakiris like my Wusthof classic. Nakiris are useful knives in the kitchen. They got that part right.
Jun 13, 2019
Benjabooly
373
Jun 17, 2019
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reswrightThe bolster is on the back of the handle for balance, and most high end knives that arnt Wusthof or zwilling (and even their nicer stuff) is a harder steel clad with softer steel, it makes the knife less fragile and more stain resistant, no need to have anything BUT the core at 61HRC what so ever. The knife is also just as easy to clean, its not etched but polished.
Jun 17, 2019
reswright
3850
Jun 17, 2019
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BenjaboolyNo, it doesn't have a reverse bolster either (which is what you're describing). https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-x-apogee-vital-8-inch-chefs-knife See that knife? See the thick stainless between the blade and the handle, and again at the end of the handle? That is the bolster and the reverse bolster, respectively. On a kitchen knife, that's how they look. When a flat kitchen blade just goes straight into the handle that's what we call 'not having a bolster'. The metal that you're talking about that's visible in the handle and at the end of it is the tang. That is also something that is perhaps most usefully defined as 'also not a bolster'. Now, if you want to have a discussion about knife steels that people use in the kitchen and on high end knives and whether or not 'most' of them are multiple layer constructions, we can definitely have that. It's going to be an extremely easy discussion because it's going to consist of opening up a few knife store pages and looking at the available distribution of steel on those knives. Takes maybe ten seconds. Fast like a bunny! Then we can zip on over to a couple of webpages that talk about what sort of Rockwell hardness most premier kitchen knife makers go for and we can see it's typically in the middle 50s, because if you try and have high hardness kitchen knives they chip. You need special serrations to really keep that from happening, that act as standoffs from the cutting edge. Otherwise the edge gets chewed up with regular use. Little chips of steel in the food are kinda a no bueno, and so are difficult regrinds. A multipurpose kitchen knife with a hardness above 60 is a contradiction in terms. It only sounds good. In reality knives like that are very special purpose and the only people who are good with them are very good with knives and using them carefully. Here they are being sold to people who go 'hey, that sounds awesome'. And it does, if you don't know better. Kitchen steel knives are meant to deform before they chip. If the edge rolls over, you work it back with the honing steel. They're meant to be sharpened a lot more often than a pocket knife with high value PM steel. And you want them to be easy to sharpen as a result. Not with a hard grind, but a honing steel to realign the edge. This is a knife that's meant for someone who wants to be seen cooking food, but I'll warn you: it is not a knife that is meant for a cook. Finally, the design -- if you want a nakiri with texture on it, get one that's got hammermarks on it. People who have bought this knife are reporting in the discussion that it's comparatively hard to keep clean, which doesn't seem surprising as it's the first thing I thought of. It really only takes one good case of food poisoning before you start caring as to whether or not your chef knife is easy to clean. Hammer marks will be much easier to clean than this -- very old school, very cool and effective, this is just a stamped pattern that's meant to catch some of the 'damascus' sales juice before it runs out. Real damascus kitchen knives, even good ones, even real wootz knives when used in the kitchen, are known for just one thing if you leave them in the kitchen long enough: rust. How many cooking shows have you seen where the chef is using a pretty luxed up set of cookware, or really good knives, or top end gear. Probably a few, right? Well, how many times have you seen them using something that even looked like damascus? Yeah, there's a reason you don't see that much and have to hunt for it, and find it mostly from really questionable brands. It's not a good fit for the kitchen at the end of the day, even though it's gorgeous. If people have these and love them, it's really no skin off my nose. (I mean, I'd hate to think they were buying knives that no one liked anything about, right?) De gustibus non disputandum est. I only know what they look like to me -- I cooked professionally for years which is my primary point of reference for kitchen knives, and these knives don't have bolsters, and are kinda made out of geek bait if you ask me. I'd never buy one. Some of the other Apogee knives in stock here don't look as bad - best of luck with them! I'll be sticking with my Wusthof classics.
(Edited)
Jun 17, 2019
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