While shopping at a local Japanese market, a knife happened to grab my eye. An unusual occurrence, as they normally stock some fairly unremarkable Japanese kitchen utensils and cutlery. It wasn't a fancy knife, appearing to be made from flat unspecified stainless, a 3/8" wide hollow primary grind, mated to a white plastic handle. However, the single rivet indicated an unusual feature among cooking cutlery: the ability to fold the blade closed, as shown on a photograph of the package. For less than $10, I decided it had to come home with me.
The packaging offered almost no information I could understand, as it was almost entirely in Japanese, other than it's from a line of items called '"make a good" cooking accessories', and it was made in Japan.
Fully open, it measures 8". The blade 3 3/8", with a cutting edge of 3 1/8", approximately 7/8" wide at its mid point, and .045" thick. The handle is 4 3/4" long, 1" wide, and 1/2" thick. It's stamped "PEARL LIFE stainless steel", and has a small nail nick.
The handle is entirely one piece injection molded rigid plastic, with nice sandblasted texture, decent grippyness, and provision for a lanyard or hanging on a hook. Don't know what kind of plastic it is. Doesn't feel like nylon. I'm guessing PVC or ABS.
Folding kitchen knives are a fairly rare breed. Currently, Boker offers some low end models. AG Russell has a nice one. All locking. Lamsonsharp had a slipjoint paring knife. This Pearl Life is a little harder to classify. It's kind of halfway between a slipjoint and a friction folder. It has no actual back spring. The unusual molding around the tang seems to utilize a detente inside the handle, such that it has a bias to either being in the closed or opened position. There isn't as much snap as one might find with a slipjoint. However, it's significantly more hold than a friction folder.
The plastic molding around the tang also functions as a blade stop, and offers the ability for one hand opening. It's not clear if this is an intentional feature.
The blade performs well in the kitchen. Being very thin, with an extremely acute edge bevel, it slices with ease. The santoku-ish shaped blade does well for dicing and slicing. Helped by very good out of the package sharpness. The grind reminds me of a Rada knife. Very clean grind lines, and the primary grind has an additional brushed finish. Blade stiffness is good despite the thin stock, and there is no lateral blade play, despite the nature of the folding mechanism. Manufacturing standards on this knife are quite high. The steel performs well, appears to be decent in hardness, was touched up with ease and no burrs forming.
Being not terribly large, I could see this even getting use as a pocket knife. I'm kinda forever lamenting the dearth of thin bladed edc knives, and favor both slipjoints and friction folders. This knife was an unexpected find right up my alley.
The packaging offered almost no information I could understand, as it was almost entirely in Japanese, other than it's from a line of items called '"make a good" cooking accessories', and it was made in Japan.
Fully open, it measures 8". The blade 3 3/8", with a cutting edge of 3 1/8", approximately 7/8" wide at its mid point, and .045" thick. The handle is 4 3/4" long, 1" wide, and 1/2" thick. It's stamped "PEARL LIFE stainless steel", and has a small nail nick.
The handle is entirely one piece injection molded rigid plastic, with nice sandblasted texture, decent grippyness, and provision for a lanyard or hanging on a hook. Don't know what kind of plastic it is. Doesn't feel like nylon. I'm guessing PVC or ABS.
Folding kitchen knives are a fairly rare breed. Currently, Boker offers some low end models. AG Russell has a nice one. All locking. Lamsonsharp had a slipjoint paring knife. This Pearl Life is a little harder to classify. It's kind of halfway between a slipjoint and a friction folder. It has no actual back spring. The unusual molding around the tang seems to utilize a detente inside the handle, such that it has a bias to either being in the closed or opened position. There isn't as much snap as one might find with a slipjoint. However, it's significantly more hold than a friction folder.
The plastic molding around the tang also functions as a blade stop, and offers the ability for one hand opening. It's not clear if this is an intentional feature.
The blade performs well in the kitchen. Being very thin, with an extremely acute edge bevel, it slices with ease. The santoku-ish shaped blade does well for dicing and slicing. Helped by very good out of the package sharpness. The grind reminds me of a Rada knife. Very clean grind lines, and the primary grind has an additional brushed finish. Blade stiffness is good despite the thin stock, and there is no lateral blade play, despite the nature of the folding mechanism. Manufacturing standards on this knife are quite high. The steel performs well, appears to be decent in hardness, was touched up with ease and no burrs forming.
Being not terribly large, I could see this even getting use as a pocket knife. I'm kinda forever lamenting the dearth of thin bladed edc knives, and favor both slipjoints and friction folders. This knife was an unexpected find right up my alley.
