Ironstone-Solo Titan

J

James Mattis

Joined
Oct 3, 1998
Messages
3,264
Here's a knife that's on its way out - a discontinued Ironstone exclusive, but it's interesting, so I thought I'd post a scan:

TelltaleTitanium.jpg


A very lightweight santoku style, with a titanium alloy blade. The blue anodized surface really lets you know if it's clean. If it's just slightly oily, it changes color. There was some mention of the same phenomenon on in the Chris Reeve forum on the cleaning of decorated Sebenzas.

Titanium is tough, but not nearly as hard as steel. Has anybody had any experience with how well these perform with food on a kitchen cutting board?


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
James - Nice scan. They don't make potatoes brown...I understand that when cuting onons, they don't make you cry (no personal experience on this).

Need to be sharpened more often. Cuts well when sharp.

sal
 
James-Are these still available ans what is the price range?


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Tim

 
James,

Guess owns WHO else has one of these knives now?!
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This kitchen knife is phenomenally light weight for the size - a mere 85 grams/3 oz. ! I ordered it thru the SFO. The knives are IN STOCK.
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I was planning on cooking a stir fry tonight anyway, so I will post how it cuts/slices.

Ray 'md2020'
 
timdennis - oops, I didn't thought you had found out the cost answer. It was $39.95 (free shipping) from the SFO (Spyderco Factory Outlet).


James,

The Titan Santok is a strange beast! Here are some of my observations:

1) items that normally stick to the blade when you are slicing didn't (items over 3/16" thick didn't stick, things less than 1/16" did). The course bead finish makes it harder for items to stick. I did some comparison cuts with a Wusthof Chefs nice of similar length (everything sticks to the smooth sides).

2) the onions that I sliced up - didn't make my eyes tear up!? (this test for for Sal ...lol). Sorry, I didn't have any potatoes to try.
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3) when I was slicing up carrots in 1/16" rounds, the pieces didn't cut perpendicular to the board. The thicker 3/16" slices were fine.

The blade is very thin, about 1/2 the thickness of a standard chef knife. Despite the thinness of the blade, it is still very rigid. There appears to be more drag on the blade - could be due to the textured finish.
Blade out of the box was plenty sharp. I touched it up today to see if it made any difference.....not really. FYI - the cool blue anodizing on the titanium blade came off on the sharpened edge - I just used the course stones on my 204.

The grip is a good size, and doesn't twist in your handes.
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Since the knife is so light in weight, I found myself having to push harder on the cuts/slices than I did with my Wusthof chef knife. A heavier kitchen knife has its merits when it comes to cutting.
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My wife hasn't noticed it yet (she goes for the knives in the knife block 1st). I will give her a week to discover it and try it out. I will post what she thinks a bit later. My feeling is you can never have enough knives in the kitchen.
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The merits of the no tear onion, and non-stick vegetables to the side of the blade is a BIG plus. The Titan Santok is worth buying. It would make a nice gift for some one who enjoys cooking.
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Thanks for posting the pic, and putting the bug in my head, James. How about MORE kitchen cutlery, Sal?
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Ray 'md2020'
 
Ray - thanx for the nice write up. It was an experiment for us as well, although I must say Gail and I have enjoyed having one in the kithchen just for the experience of using titan.

As far as more kitchen knives go, don't know too much yet. Chris Reeve designed some kitchen knives for us. He's been working on them for some time but I think we're ready for protos. He knows quite a bit about the work of chefs. I'll let you know more when we make some decisions.

sal
 
Sal,

Any way of me getting to do some kitchen knife testing for you folks?
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I love using kitchen cutlery. My wife and I love to eat, and we spend most weekends cooking.
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I am sure LOTS of folks here would love to field test any kitchen cutlery...lol.

Glad to hear that Spyderco has interests in the kitchen knives.
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Ray 'md2020'
 
Ray - Email me your shipping address. I'll let you play with some our test pieces in trade for your opinions. But you'll have to ship them back as we usually have only one of each test piece. Say about two weeks at a shot?

I'm currently enjoying playing with a sashimi style knife. Very thin flat grind both sides. Steel is AUS-8W. Very good maker. Gets very sharp.

One of those I'd love to make a batch of 500 or so pieces so others could enjoy playing too, but don't want to take a chance on having to sit on inventory that ties up cash flow.

sal
 
Sal,

WOW!!!! So, what are the designs going to be? As a former chef, I would have been in Heaven with a set of kitchen knives from Chris!
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Definitely, count me in if you will be taking advance orders on them. I think you will get a VERY healthy response to these.

Take care,
John Johnson
 
Sal,

I've DIED and have gone to HEAVEN (or is it the other place....LOL?!)! I promiss that we will give you all of the likes/dislikes we can find. My wife isn't gonna believe me when I tell her THIS!
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I am truely HONORED. DAMN....it doesn't get any better than THIS!
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My mailing address on the way! Wooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooo!!

Ray 'md2020'

 
I just received mine yesterday, however my friends liked the looks of the Titan so much that they ordered 5 more.

lbwheat
 
Sal-
You know this is something I'm going to be very interested in
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What style of knives are you experimenting with (chef......sashimi.....boning....filet.....carving)? What kind of retail price are we looking at? Glad to hear that you are continuing on with the culinary line.
Patti
 
I wanted to try one of these Titan Santokus, but put it off, in an effort to be fiscally responsible. With all this interest in it I decided I better get one while still available, and ordered one last week. So much for my effort
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.

I imagine that I will, however, enjoy using it very much.
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I understand that there is currently still a reasonable supply, but since it is finite who knows when it will end. With threads like this it may be sooner, rather than later.

One thing that no one has commented on is the Rockwell hardness of the knife. I understand that it is quite hard at around 62 Rc. The trade-off is that it is fairly brittle. In other words it is different than most other titanium knives discussed on BladeForums. I do not have mine yet, so I have no personal knowledge. Does anyone know if I understood correctly?

Maddog2020, Did it seem this hard when you sharpened it? Does it hold an edge better than you expected of titanium.?

If it is this hard, thereby losing some toughness, this might affect how it should be used. For instance, great for slicing onions and potatoes, but stay away from frozen food or you might suddenly have tears
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Donald,

I used the brown course ceramic stones on the Spyderco 204 sharpener to touch up the edge to see if it made much of a difference when it came to slicing. The Santoku came with a pretty decent edge - some of the blue anodized finish came off the edge where I had sharpened it. It wasn't any more diffult to sharpened than any other blade material. I have never used, or owned a blade that was Ti before so I have no comparison. I haven't touch up the blade since that initial time.

When you get yours in, and you use it: let me know about the onions. I was using my Santuku with the blade WET from water, and notice my eye tearing up a little. Last time I cut the onions with a dry blade (where is the metallugury head when you need them......LOL).

Still a cool kitchen knife.
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Ray 'md2020'



[This message has been edited by maddog2020 (edited 24 November 1999).]
 
The titanium knives cut from sheet will usually be Rc50 or less. The cast titanium blades are a little harder, up to Rc52, but are more brittle.

We made these cut from sheet because while testing cast blades, we ended up breaking a few, in our opinion, too easily.

hope that helps.

sal
 
Sal, Thank you for the info on hardness. That is more in line with what I would expect of titanium.

MadDog2020, I'll be interested in seeing if there is any affect on potatoes or perhaps I should say lack of effect
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It is my understanding that they darken from exposure to air.

Regarding the onions, I know there are those metal bars that help do away with garlic and onion odors, but I do not see how the material of the knife could totally prevent ones eyes from tearing. As I understand it, your eyes tear when cutting onions because as you cut you are breaking cell walls. This sprays a chemical into the air that when in combines with the fluid in your eye turns into a mild sulphoric acid, thus tearing. There have been various techniques promulgated to reduce this, cutting under water, colder onion, the direction of cut...I remember something about leaving the root on until last....which I do not do, who needs the dirt,...or was that just a slicing technique and they meant stem....??Hmmm.....just saw a new one...hold two kitchen matches in teeth with sulphur tips held out under your nose. Another: cut under exhaust fan of stove.

I do believe that it helps to have a sharp knife as you do not cause as much pressure, thus less spraying. Perhaps the material of the knife might have a limited effect.

Maybe someone wants to research this on the Internet....those trivia winners....I'm too busy reading BladeForums....
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