Hi all
The big European distributor Herbertz offers every month a "knife of the month", which is then available at a reduced price.
This month a rather nice looking Puma TEC series folder with damascus blade was on offer at a nice price (75 euro, not that cheap for American readers, but quite ok over here for what it is). The TEC series groups Puma's "value for money" products.
According to Herbertz & Puma, the blade features 78 layers of stainless Damascus steel at a hardness of 57-60 HRC. The wood inlay is Thuya. On paper this is pretty convincing, but how is it in reality?
Well, it feels good in the hand, it is slightly heavy for the size, it opens smoothly (but not totally frictionless), the liner lock snaps well into place and the general feel is reassuringly sturdy, definitely good enough for my intended gentleman-kind of use. The damascus blade looks nice, but it is not one of those wonderful elegant high end damascus blades. My first worry was that out of the box, it is not shaving sharp.
Pictures:
Here I compare it with a knife that's perhaps the closest to the Puma in my small collection: the excellent and stylish Mcusta Take (one of my faves):
Differences: the Mcusta's layered blade is in my opinion prettier, it opens really smoothly (a more luxurious feel than the Puma), the Mcusta liner is however thinner, but it's still largely decent enough for my use. The Mcusta is lighter as well but on the other hand the Puma's heft is nicely reassuring. In practice, the biggest difference is that the Mcusta, even if it's almost a year old and has seen some use, is still noticeably sharper than the freshly unpacked Puma. This is a bit disappointing for such a famous brand. Anyway, this pushes me to -finally- invest in some kind of sharpening system, because I expect that the Puma can become a lot sharper with some proper care.
As a temporary conclusion, a rather good looking knife that is well put together, offered at a decent price, but that requires extra sharpening before it can really shine.
ps this exact knife is not available anymore, but a very similar model still is.
The big European distributor Herbertz offers every month a "knife of the month", which is then available at a reduced price.
This month a rather nice looking Puma TEC series folder with damascus blade was on offer at a nice price (75 euro, not that cheap for American readers, but quite ok over here for what it is). The TEC series groups Puma's "value for money" products.
According to Herbertz & Puma, the blade features 78 layers of stainless Damascus steel at a hardness of 57-60 HRC. The wood inlay is Thuya. On paper this is pretty convincing, but how is it in reality?
Well, it feels good in the hand, it is slightly heavy for the size, it opens smoothly (but not totally frictionless), the liner lock snaps well into place and the general feel is reassuringly sturdy, definitely good enough for my intended gentleman-kind of use. The damascus blade looks nice, but it is not one of those wonderful elegant high end damascus blades. My first worry was that out of the box, it is not shaving sharp.
Pictures:
Here I compare it with a knife that's perhaps the closest to the Puma in my small collection: the excellent and stylish Mcusta Take (one of my faves):
Differences: the Mcusta's layered blade is in my opinion prettier, it opens really smoothly (a more luxurious feel than the Puma), the Mcusta liner is however thinner, but it's still largely decent enough for my use. The Mcusta is lighter as well but on the other hand the Puma's heft is nicely reassuring. In practice, the biggest difference is that the Mcusta, even if it's almost a year old and has seen some use, is still noticeably sharper than the freshly unpacked Puma. This is a bit disappointing for such a famous brand. Anyway, this pushes me to -finally- invest in some kind of sharpening system, because I expect that the Puma can become a lot sharper with some proper care.
As a temporary conclusion, a rather good looking knife that is well put together, offered at a decent price, but that requires extra sharpening before it can really shine.
ps this exact knife is not available anymore, but a very similar model still is.