- Joined
- Jun 15, 2015
- Messages
- 894
Some of you may remember a thread I posted back in July, where I had posted pictures of the custom kitchen knives I drew. If not, well...here it is http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ustom-Kitchen-Knives?highlight=custom+kitchen
A couple weeks ago I got an email from Auntie out of the blue saying Your custom knives have arrived, please contact me. Obviously I dropped everything i was doing and shot an email back with shipping info. She replied shortly after, listing the cost for each item, combined shipping, and total. The first thing I looked at was the total, and my heart skipped a beat. Then I looked at the items, and realized she had 2 Cleavers made, plus a set of 3 kitchen BDCs (henceforth referred to as KBDCs that I had mentioned wanting in my original email, but totally forgot about! No problem, I told her I would take them all, despite the unexpected extras, since the money was going to a good place.
She sent me a shipped message on a Thursday morning, so I was expecting them to arrive that Saturday. I waited patiently, or tried to at least. Saturday came; no package. Ok, sometimes it takes an extra day. Still being patient. Waited a week, no package. Tried to email Auntie, but alas, I was having email trouble. Weekend came and went, still no package. Mind you, I had been worried since the first Saturday that it didn't arrive. Got an email to Auntie asking for tracking info if possible, she sent it and told me not to worry, the package was insured and required a signature. Of course, when i tracked the package, it had been delivered...on the Saturday I expected it .but to my parents house! Big laugh and sigh of relief, then I hopped in the car to go retrieve my booty.
So now Ill cut to the fun part: the unboxing!! And of course, the pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Unfortunately my phone camera isn't the best, but y'all will live.
I had a pretty good idea what was what by the feel, so I opened and photographed them one at a time, starting with the the smallest of the BDCs, working my way up to the Chefs Knife.
Dont know where the pic of the 12 went, but it looks the same as the smaller one haha heres the marking though, the only way I can tell which one it is
And then the 15, my favorite of them.
In hand for reference/thickness.
KBDCs were all made by Lachhu. Specs are as follows:
9.25 - 7oz - 3/16 spine
12.25 - 11.75 oz - just over 3/16 spine
15 - 14.5oz - ¼ spine
Heres all 3
By now I had prepared myself enough to open the Cleavers. I was equal parts excited and nervous, after all, these designs had come out of an idea in my head, and you never know how someone else will interpret that idea in their physical rendition. I must say, Anil did a fine job on these.
Since there are 2, I will be referring to them as, yep you guessed it, Cleaver 1 and Cleaver 2. I know I know, Im wicked creative. #1 is going to be the smaller one.
Cleaver 1
Cleaver 2
Cleaver 1 marking and cool grain lines
Cleaver 2 marking
Both together, #2 is on top
Cleaver 2 edge profile
Cleaver 1 edge profile
First impression is that they both feel exactly how I imagined: phenomenal and balanced. The longer handle lets you choke up and use the blade to slice or make precise cuts, but you can still slide your hand back and use the extra length for leverage in chopping. Cleaver 2 has a thinner edge than 1, and I think it will be as good of a general purpose kitchen blade as it will be a cleaver. The only minor critique I have is that the angle that the blade sweeps right by the cho is a bit off from my drawing. It sweeps forward on the knives but backwards on the drawing. I think it would be better the way I drew it, which would have about an inch more usable edge. Super minor though, and still way better than I was expecting on a version 1 of a brand new design.
At this point, I had filled multiple drool buckets and was beginning to make a puddle on the floor. Id been passing around the cleavers, trying to figure out which I like more. My brother and mom vote #1, my dad says #2, and Ive been flip-flopping like a politician. Right now my vote is for #2, with its thinner edge making is slightly better all around, but I like the size of #1 better.
Oh ya, did mention how sharp these were?? Near hair-shaving, and both were slicing paper better than my dads chefs knife.
I decided I better open the Chefs Knife before I cut myself on one of the other knives
So here it is in all its glory!!
Inscription on blade
Edge/Spine profile
All I can say is wow. It came out almost exactly how I drew it, and even closer to what I had in my head. I did laugh when I saw the xs on the spine, just as Steve Tall had predicted, but it also had an awesome inscription, on which Im still waiting the translation. The knife itself is approximately 15.5 and just a bit over 22oz. Heavier and thicker than I pictured, but nonetheless true to spec. I would describe this as a kitchen/camp Bowie, more than a chefs knife, and you can really see elements of the Tamang in the knife, which was one of the inspirations for the knife. I love it, and Im pretty sure it would do just fine against branches, and possibly larger pieces of wood. This knife came almost hair-shaving sharp. Some parts of the blade could in fact take hair off my arm. I was beyond impressed at this point.
I still havent had the chance to do tests with any of these blades, with the exception of cutting some small branches with the 15 KBDC, just to see what it could do. Little on the light side, but it would get the job done. Anyone who has a 15 Reti, it feels very very similar, just with more belly.
There is basically one modification for each design that I would like to see implemented on future versions. On the Cleaver, I think it would benefit from that extra inch of edge which would be created by changing that one angle. I made a note over a picture. On the Chefs Knife, it really needs fullers. Nice big, wide fullers, like on the KBDCs or a Foxy Folly. Took a pic of the 15 KBDC and Chefs Knife next to each other for reference.
The style fullers I would like to see on future versions of the blade:
Heres what I managed to do in MS paint. Not great but gets the point across. Main thing is to make sure the blade extends to/past the yellow vertical line where the handle ends.
And finally, one last picture of my own design blades next to the original pictures I drew and scanned. This one is especially cool to me
Thanks for reading my long-winded post (only 6 pages on word doc..), Im looking forward to updating the thread with pics of these blades in use!!
A couple weeks ago I got an email from Auntie out of the blue saying Your custom knives have arrived, please contact me. Obviously I dropped everything i was doing and shot an email back with shipping info. She replied shortly after, listing the cost for each item, combined shipping, and total. The first thing I looked at was the total, and my heart skipped a beat. Then I looked at the items, and realized she had 2 Cleavers made, plus a set of 3 kitchen BDCs (henceforth referred to as KBDCs that I had mentioned wanting in my original email, but totally forgot about! No problem, I told her I would take them all, despite the unexpected extras, since the money was going to a good place.
She sent me a shipped message on a Thursday morning, so I was expecting them to arrive that Saturday. I waited patiently, or tried to at least. Saturday came; no package. Ok, sometimes it takes an extra day. Still being patient. Waited a week, no package. Tried to email Auntie, but alas, I was having email trouble. Weekend came and went, still no package. Mind you, I had been worried since the first Saturday that it didn't arrive. Got an email to Auntie asking for tracking info if possible, she sent it and told me not to worry, the package was insured and required a signature. Of course, when i tracked the package, it had been delivered...on the Saturday I expected it .but to my parents house! Big laugh and sigh of relief, then I hopped in the car to go retrieve my booty.
So now Ill cut to the fun part: the unboxing!! And of course, the pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Unfortunately my phone camera isn't the best, but y'all will live.
I had a pretty good idea what was what by the feel, so I opened and photographed them one at a time, starting with the the smallest of the BDCs, working my way up to the Chefs Knife.
Dont know where the pic of the 12 went, but it looks the same as the smaller one haha heres the marking though, the only way I can tell which one it is
And then the 15, my favorite of them.
In hand for reference/thickness.
KBDCs were all made by Lachhu. Specs are as follows:
9.25 - 7oz - 3/16 spine
12.25 - 11.75 oz - just over 3/16 spine
15 - 14.5oz - ¼ spine
Heres all 3
By now I had prepared myself enough to open the Cleavers. I was equal parts excited and nervous, after all, these designs had come out of an idea in my head, and you never know how someone else will interpret that idea in their physical rendition. I must say, Anil did a fine job on these.
Since there are 2, I will be referring to them as, yep you guessed it, Cleaver 1 and Cleaver 2. I know I know, Im wicked creative. #1 is going to be the smaller one.
Cleaver 1
Cleaver 2
Cleaver 1 marking and cool grain lines
Cleaver 2 marking
Both together, #2 is on top
Cleaver 2 edge profile
Cleaver 1 edge profile
First impression is that they both feel exactly how I imagined: phenomenal and balanced. The longer handle lets you choke up and use the blade to slice or make precise cuts, but you can still slide your hand back and use the extra length for leverage in chopping. Cleaver 2 has a thinner edge than 1, and I think it will be as good of a general purpose kitchen blade as it will be a cleaver. The only minor critique I have is that the angle that the blade sweeps right by the cho is a bit off from my drawing. It sweeps forward on the knives but backwards on the drawing. I think it would be better the way I drew it, which would have about an inch more usable edge. Super minor though, and still way better than I was expecting on a version 1 of a brand new design.
At this point, I had filled multiple drool buckets and was beginning to make a puddle on the floor. Id been passing around the cleavers, trying to figure out which I like more. My brother and mom vote #1, my dad says #2, and Ive been flip-flopping like a politician. Right now my vote is for #2, with its thinner edge making is slightly better all around, but I like the size of #1 better.
Oh ya, did mention how sharp these were?? Near hair-shaving, and both were slicing paper better than my dads chefs knife.
I decided I better open the Chefs Knife before I cut myself on one of the other knives
So here it is in all its glory!!
Inscription on blade
Edge/Spine profile
All I can say is wow. It came out almost exactly how I drew it, and even closer to what I had in my head. I did laugh when I saw the xs on the spine, just as Steve Tall had predicted, but it also had an awesome inscription, on which Im still waiting the translation. The knife itself is approximately 15.5 and just a bit over 22oz. Heavier and thicker than I pictured, but nonetheless true to spec. I would describe this as a kitchen/camp Bowie, more than a chefs knife, and you can really see elements of the Tamang in the knife, which was one of the inspirations for the knife. I love it, and Im pretty sure it would do just fine against branches, and possibly larger pieces of wood. This knife came almost hair-shaving sharp. Some parts of the blade could in fact take hair off my arm. I was beyond impressed at this point.
I still havent had the chance to do tests with any of these blades, with the exception of cutting some small branches with the 15 KBDC, just to see what it could do. Little on the light side, but it would get the job done. Anyone who has a 15 Reti, it feels very very similar, just with more belly.
There is basically one modification for each design that I would like to see implemented on future versions. On the Cleaver, I think it would benefit from that extra inch of edge which would be created by changing that one angle. I made a note over a picture. On the Chefs Knife, it really needs fullers. Nice big, wide fullers, like on the KBDCs or a Foxy Folly. Took a pic of the 15 KBDC and Chefs Knife next to each other for reference.
The style fullers I would like to see on future versions of the blade:
Heres what I managed to do in MS paint. Not great but gets the point across. Main thing is to make sure the blade extends to/past the yellow vertical line where the handle ends.
And finally, one last picture of my own design blades next to the original pictures I drew and scanned. This one is especially cool to me
Thanks for reading my long-winded post (only 6 pages on word doc..), Im looking forward to updating the thread with pics of these blades in use!!
