- Joined
- May 16, 2006
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The couple next door to me, who are very close friends, have been kitchen cutlery deprived since they moved in awhile ago. When we made dinner together I usually would bring over a kitchen knife or two. So for my Christmas present this year I decided to get them a nice A.G. Russell chef's knife. While I was placing the order I figured what the heck, for $10 I'll throw in this KAI Santoku as well. I've never owned a KAI or Kershaw knife but know that they are an excellent company that somehow is able to deliver high quality at low prices. But still I didn't really know what to expect from such a low priced knife.
When it arrived it was nicely shaving sharp, as was the AG Russell knife, and I resisted the urge to sharpen them to my over-the-top standards, fearing an emergency room visit would dampen the holiday spirit. What was immediately apparent about the KAI Santoku was that it was incredibly thin, extremely light, and the coating surprisingly slick. I didn't get a chance to use it much but did notice that it would melt through everything in an impressively clean way, almost no sticking on anything other than cheese.
Well not surprisingly this turned out to be the woman of the house's favorite knife. She tells me she uses it every day. Today was the first time I got a chance to inspect the edge. Wow, it was still pretty darn sharp. There was about a centimenter or two of blade length close to the handle that had very slight rolling, more like a burr you might get when first learning to sharpen, but other than that was still scrape shaving sharp.
I could easily have left it alone, but that burr bothered me to the point that I had to remove it. I took a DMT extra-fine hone and gave it about 6 - 8 very light strokes per side and the edge was literally hair popping sharp. I didn't try to whittle a hair since I was working on dinner but I'll bet it was pretty close. I also didn't do the calculations to determine the edge angle but from experience would say that it is around 17 degrees per side, which on a knife this thin is practically a micro-bevel.
The steel (which is simply listed as high carbon stainless on the AG Russell website), the heat treat, the geometry and the coating combine to make this an impressive performer. The price just makes it nearly unbelievable.
Now my wife has to have one too
When it arrived it was nicely shaving sharp, as was the AG Russell knife, and I resisted the urge to sharpen them to my over-the-top standards, fearing an emergency room visit would dampen the holiday spirit. What was immediately apparent about the KAI Santoku was that it was incredibly thin, extremely light, and the coating surprisingly slick. I didn't get a chance to use it much but did notice that it would melt through everything in an impressively clean way, almost no sticking on anything other than cheese.
Well not surprisingly this turned out to be the woman of the house's favorite knife. She tells me she uses it every day. Today was the first time I got a chance to inspect the edge. Wow, it was still pretty darn sharp. There was about a centimenter or two of blade length close to the handle that had very slight rolling, more like a burr you might get when first learning to sharpen, but other than that was still scrape shaving sharp.
I could easily have left it alone, but that burr bothered me to the point that I had to remove it. I took a DMT extra-fine hone and gave it about 6 - 8 very light strokes per side and the edge was literally hair popping sharp. I didn't try to whittle a hair since I was working on dinner but I'll bet it was pretty close. I also didn't do the calculations to determine the edge angle but from experience would say that it is around 17 degrees per side, which on a knife this thin is practically a micro-bevel.
The steel (which is simply listed as high carbon stainless on the AG Russell website), the heat treat, the geometry and the coating combine to make this an impressive performer. The price just makes it nearly unbelievable.
Now my wife has to have one too