I have one of those "CWF" AEB-L knives. It is currently my wife's primary kitchen blade, though it is a "hunter" design. She appreciates the length, thinness,
corrosion resistance (a 'must' for her), and also how sharp it stays.
Here are some photos and comparison shots next to a couple other AEB-L blades HT'd by Peters for Tim Johnson (-timos) of blackstone K&T:
A couple of recent observations:
The CWF blade holds its edge MUCH longer in use than the standard HT blades. It also sharpens on my ceramic rods and diamond hones without forming a noticeable burr, very clean apex. Testing the edge today, however, I noticed a few spots would snag slicing phonebook paper, while the rest were whisper smooth ...
Those nicks were snagging. It is hard to know what specific treatment caused the damage, as the knife has been used frequently in the kitchen for all manner of tasks, from de-boning a venison roast to slicing bread. It is possible that it hit against a ceramic dish at some point, as they are common and those using the knife (which includes my in-laws when they visit) are not always very cautious. *shrug* What i found interesting is that the rest of the apex seems almost unused :thumbup:
In comparison, here is the apex of each of those other knives (which I love, btw):
The little one:
The longer one:
Each of these blades has a very thin edge, <0.010". The smaller one was recently used to butcher a couple of deer, wherein it performed admirably. When testing the edge this morning, it cut noisily through the phonebook paper, snagging the whole way - still very sharp, but much degraded from use. The second knife, which was previously used by my wife and others in the same role as the CWF blade was similarly degraded. Neither showed any sign of larger chips, and each will be given a polished microbevel. Experience has shown that they require slightly more care when sharpening to remove the slight but noticeable formation of a burr.
Now I have not done a direct head-to-head comparison of these knives beyond just casual observation as above, but my impression is that the softer standard-HT blades may be slightly more resilient in hard impacts - neither has ever evinced even the tiny chips seen in the CWF blade - but they are also less capable of maintaining that whisper-sharp apex through continual use, they need to be resharpened more often as the edge degrades. By the way, that little blade is the one tested by Jim Ankerson in his edge-retention thread here:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...based-on-Edge-Retention-cutting-5-8-quot-rope
Again, I am not sure what caused the little tiny chips in the CWF blade, but I will restore the edge and see what comes in the following months. If no more chips appear during "normal" operations in our kitchen, then I will try to cause them incidentally. While there are none as large along the edge of the standard HT blades, there seem to be MANY more much tinier chips/tears along the entire length of each. Both of those are, by the way, superior in performance to the Wusthof knives previous employed in our little kitchen. As good as Wusthof products may be, their X50CrMoV15 steel at 58Rc degraded noticeably quicker than the 60Rc AEB-L, exhibiting larger areas of chips and folds.
I do hope others are seizing the chance to try out the CWF protocol of at least knives from bluntcut that feature it.
On another note, bluntcut makes some really pretty knives
Here is actually my favorite made by him - featuring an M2-steel blade that was part of his "super-quench" R&D and featured in a pass-around awhile back. It has a few stains from not-quite optimal care on my part, but is a joy to use. It makes you want to spend more time in the kitchen with it
I may take it to my hobby shop as a leather-cutting knife as well.
