Large Santuko

Jason Cutter · May 8, 2005

This large Santuko is for a paediatrician who is also an avid chef. He wanted something different from all his German-made chef's knives and surprisingly had never seen a Santuko before. He also wanted an Aussie timber with lots of figure, but it had to be tough enough for kitchen work. Its a simple no-frills working piece.

Specs - 8.25inch blade, 3/32inch thick ATS34 full height ground to a convex edge. handle of Australian Beefwood with a Birchwood Casey Truoil finish. (Gonna give it a couple more coats before shipping it.) Heat treat by Hills Heat Treatment with cryo and triple temper at 60Rockwell. The finish is a simple Scotchbrite finish as per the customer's request.

What do you all think ? Jason.

Chiro75 · May 9, 2005

I think you just made one pediatrician much happier!

Cliff Stamp · May 9, 2005

Where does it balance? It is hard to tell from shots, but it looks a little sharp at the back of the blade which is a finger contact point, that is problematic for thin steels even when fully rounded and usually benefits from a bolster. What is the edge geometry? Have you ever tried grinding in those hollow flutes that you sometimes see on large chef's knives.

-Cliff

Jason Cutter · May 9, 2005

Cliff Stamp said:
Where does it balance? It is hard to tell from shots, but it looks a little sharp at the back of the blade which is a finger contact point, that is problematic for thin steels even when fully rounded and usually benefits from a bolster. What is the edge geometry? Have you ever tried grinding in those hollow flutes that you sometimes see on large chef's knives.

-Cliff

Cliff, it balances just in front of the end of the handle slabs.

Point taken about the sharp edges, just checked it and its less comfortable than I originally thought. The teardrop handle shape actually palms in the hand and tends to stop the hand from "choking" forward against the blade drop, but I'll do some more work to round off the edges nicely.

My "flat grind" is actually a very shallow full height convex grind, especially if I finish with a Scothbrite belt. The edge itself is also a shallow convex, ground on a slack belt edge down, and quite acute. This is supposed to be a vege and soft foods knife...

Never tried the scalloped flutes - are they called Granton edges, or something like that ? Haven't seen it up close in real life yet - it sounds like an interesting concept, particularly from the way they advertise it.

As always, thanks for the feedback. Always something useful. Jason.

Cliff Stamp · May 9, 2005

Jason Cutter said:
Cliff, it balances just in front of the end of the handle slabs.

That is right where most people tend to want it.

The teardrop handle shape actually palms in the hand and tends to stop the hand from "choking" forward against the blade drop...

This issue depends a lot on the grip, some users work against this readily, some use very full almost hammer like grips and it isn't a factor at all if the handle is well shaped, and that one looks like it is well contoured.

Never tried the scalloped flutes - are they called Granton edges, or something like that ?

Yeah, they are supposed to make cuts easier by reducing side friction, never tried them either myself.

-Cliff

ExamonLyf · May 9, 2005

Nice job Jason.., looks darn good to me...

Stumpy · May 10, 2005

Looks like it wood make a fantastic chopper in the kitchen.Really nice work Jason.

AJ · May 11, 2005

That's one VERY nice looking piece of kitchen equipment! Beautiful work!

AJ

Tom Krein · May 11, 2005

Jason,
Very nice looking blade!! I would skip out on trying the Granton edge. Once you sharpen up to them it would poorly affect the cutting and ease of sharpening in my opinion.

Tom

Chiro75 · May 11, 2005

I agree with Tom. I don't think the Granton treatment comes all the way to the actual edge, if I recall, but isn't it just to break the surface tension of foods like cucumbers and potatoes so they don't stick to the blade? At Wusthof I'm sure they have a fixture that grinds it in within a few seconds, but to do it by hand would be difficult, time-consuming, and really tough to space, make looks right, etc. I think it would add a lot of $$$ to the knife without really affecting performance. Trying to replicate things that look like good ideas on factory knives can turn into a nightmare when you're doing it by hand, as I'm sure you know.

Cliff Stamp · May 11, 2005

Tom Krein said:
Once you sharpen up to them it would poorly affect the cutting and ease of sharpening in my opinion.

Most of them run in the mid-lines or well away from the edge in any case, you would never reach them on a ATS-34 class blade. I have kitchen knives which are worn this far, but they are really aggressively sharpened, as in filed practically every day, and they are soft carbon steels and it still takes about a generation to move steel significantly back.

If you did cut into the Grantons it would not make sharpening harder it would make it easier as there would be less metal to remove. As for the cutting performance it would be essentially wide chisel tipped serrations, not what you would want on that style of knife, but these are not the real concerns.

If you actually move that much steel from the edge the balance of the knife would be long since effected to the point where the function of the knife would be influenced. Buy another knife from the custom maker and turn that one into something else, have it reground into a fillet blade, that is what everyone does here to worn out chef's knives.

Fred recently commented on granton dished blades of the above type and he noted there was a difference in cutting ability. As I noted, I had never tried them and was curious if Jason had. I'd get them on a custom just to check, at worse they would make no difference and just be a conversation piece.

-Cliff