Francisco Vaz
fvazknives.com
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2017
- Messages
- 284
Hey guys!
****************************
THIS KNIFE IS NOW SOLD - CONTACT ME FOR GETTING A CUSTOM ONE WITH MANY AVAILABLE MATERIALS TO CHOOSE.
****************************
This post will have A LOT OF INFORMATION so please dont miss anything
First of all, you might have read the title and wondered "who in the hell would list its knife as ugly?"
Most of us at least one single time got excited about something strange and weird. Something that we couldnt explain exactly why, but got our attention in a positive way. Knives and women are similar, they're beautiful, and deadly. Have you ever saw a women that for some reason you couldnt tell, got your attention even if she was weird? I did, and so i thought in this knife.
For doing it, i picked the most ugly shape of knife i think: which is the santoku! We must be true: santokus are ugly, oh god!
That being said, santoku shape is insanely functional and in my opinion the perfect combo for CPM magnacut steel.
Why perfect combo? You take the smooth drop point of the santoku, which is very sturdy, and mixes it with the magnacut toughness at 62hrc, you get really close of an indestructible knife in the kitchen. You will need to be a hero to break this in daily use. Or a villain maybe.
Any day any time i would pick a gyuto instead a santoku, they are much more aesthetic and most people are better familiared to the gyuto shape. But at 170mm, a gyuto would barely work as a smaller utility blade. Since santoku are wider and have a "flatter" edge than gyutos, 170mm is in my opinion the sweetspot of it. You can confirm this by my picture below showing the balance spot of it, right in the pinch grip area.
NOW WHY UGLY/WEIRD?
I took the most modern knife stainless steel and did a forge finish on it, making it looks like a regular carbon steel forged chef knife. WHY? I dont know, i love it. Actually to be honest, stainless steel forge finish is pretty much indestructible and even when using fresh new belts on my belt grinder, it is really scratch resistant, as well it wont rust too. Thats a good feature and the mainly reason why i LOVE forge finish on stainless steel
Then, some people could argue that, wow, that "old vintage" look may have been perfectly matched with some old bourbon burnt oak scales as some of the shou sugi ban knives that i listed previously or some sort of burl. Why take one of the most moderns state-of-the-art composites that is "dark matter marbled carbon fiber" and use in this knife? Because i wanted it to look weird and ugly.
It literally does not makes sense, but it is DEFINITELY functional. I mean, zero maintenance expected. Magnacut is one of the most stainless steel out there and this composite handle wont warp, crack or anything. Just use and forget.
And when you need to resharpen it, relax, the thickness behind the bevel is really thin so the grind will treat you nice.
WEIGHT & BALANCE: This knife has in my opinion the perfect weight for serving its purpose of a daily workhorse. It has an aggressive but sturdy grind while having a rigid spine that wont flex. This is something i really like to go deep when using magnacut. Pinch grip in this knife is a dream, both for its balance and shape. It will feel like a natural part of your body and dance in the cutting board.
GRIND:
Its slightly convex and almost zero in the edge, it will allow you to use as a daily fearless of cracking the edge or anything. It will slice a tomato in the board on its own weight. This grind is my favorite go-to when doing workhorses and can see why in the picture below
HANDLE
For this weird knife i picked the "Dark matter Gold" from fatcarbon, which is based on Lithuania. This one came from USA, from material makers supply (which i strongly recommend).
This material has 1,5g/cm³ of density (about 15% heavier than average ironwood or ebony) and is completely waterproof. Has a nice warm feel in hand and will last a lifetime with ease.
As a composite material, ZERO maintenance expected.
Fatcarbon composites are barely seem on kitchen knives. Most of the time you will see these composites being used in high-end folder knives, i honestly dont know why, this feels like the perfect material for a functional, artistic kitchen knife. Depending the angle you look at it, it will look like marble.
It is carefully oval shaped to fit all hands and have that perfectly rounded pinch grip facet matching the radius of the carbon fiber pin.
Makers mark hand forged near the handle, Its pure poetry.
HOW YOU WILL RECEIVE THE KNIFE:
This frankenstein will be delivered in a nice zipped pouch that is meant to kept the knife safe and locked during transportation in your car or anything. The zipped pouch has my name and dragon laser etched on its outside.
VIDEO:
While pictures are cool, i realized you guys would enjoy a video of the knife performing.
I thought in slicing food and such, but that wouldnt show much, i would need to cut some few kilograms of food and veggies to see any minor wear to the edge.
So, to save time and showing how functional/sturdy this knife is, i sliced many times 3mm genuine leather and tested the blade on its own weight slicing fine paper. Fine paper really do not forgives a coarse edge.
Leather is MUCH more abrasive to a knife than pretty much any food, as well i used a kingwood board to chop it. Kingwood is one of the hardest woods in the planet, next to ebony and ironwood. This says a lot about the edge retention of the knife.
Please do enjoy the video
GRAIN AND FORGING:
Forging high alloy steel is no joke. It is really time consuming and tricky. I did not forged to shape this blade obviously but i thinned the bevels as this can save a lot time in the belt grinder as well making the forge finish on the flats. While this process may increase the steel grain and make a mess in the quality, i broke the tip of the knife after quenching to make sure and to certify the grain is perfect and as fine as silk.
Out of curiosity too, the holes in the tang are carefully placed to improve the blades balance, this is by itself an art since the position of them changes in every knife due length, width, thickness and shape. This is one important detail for making the balance perfectly centered in the pinch grip area for your better experience of use.
Blade is hand sharpened to 2000 grit.
SOLD Pay me 700$ and this freak show will be delivered to you in 7~9 days worldwide most of the time . Zipped pouch included.
While being new to the forums, i can provide tons of references (mostly based on US).
As the video shows, this is a very high performance blade and im sure it will meet its owner expectations. But weird as fk!
****************************
THIS KNIFE IS NOW SOLD - CONTACT ME FOR GETTING A CUSTOM ONE WITH MANY AVAILABLE MATERIALS TO CHOOSE.
****************************
This post will have A LOT OF INFORMATION so please dont miss anything
First of all, you might have read the title and wondered "who in the hell would list its knife as ugly?"
Most of us at least one single time got excited about something strange and weird. Something that we couldnt explain exactly why, but got our attention in a positive way. Knives and women are similar, they're beautiful, and deadly. Have you ever saw a women that for some reason you couldnt tell, got your attention even if she was weird? I did, and so i thought in this knife.
For doing it, i picked the most ugly shape of knife i think: which is the santoku! We must be true: santokus are ugly, oh god!
That being said, santoku shape is insanely functional and in my opinion the perfect combo for CPM magnacut steel.
Why perfect combo? You take the smooth drop point of the santoku, which is very sturdy, and mixes it with the magnacut toughness at 62hrc, you get really close of an indestructible knife in the kitchen. You will need to be a hero to break this in daily use. Or a villain maybe.
Any day any time i would pick a gyuto instead a santoku, they are much more aesthetic and most people are better familiared to the gyuto shape. But at 170mm, a gyuto would barely work as a smaller utility blade. Since santoku are wider and have a "flatter" edge than gyutos, 170mm is in my opinion the sweetspot of it. You can confirm this by my picture below showing the balance spot of it, right in the pinch grip area.
NOW WHY UGLY/WEIRD?
I took the most modern knife stainless steel and did a forge finish on it, making it looks like a regular carbon steel forged chef knife. WHY? I dont know, i love it. Actually to be honest, stainless steel forge finish is pretty much indestructible and even when using fresh new belts on my belt grinder, it is really scratch resistant, as well it wont rust too. Thats a good feature and the mainly reason why i LOVE forge finish on stainless steel
Then, some people could argue that, wow, that "old vintage" look may have been perfectly matched with some old bourbon burnt oak scales as some of the shou sugi ban knives that i listed previously or some sort of burl. Why take one of the most moderns state-of-the-art composites that is "dark matter marbled carbon fiber" and use in this knife? Because i wanted it to look weird and ugly.
It literally does not makes sense, but it is DEFINITELY functional. I mean, zero maintenance expected. Magnacut is one of the most stainless steel out there and this composite handle wont warp, crack or anything. Just use and forget.
And when you need to resharpen it, relax, the thickness behind the bevel is really thin so the grind will treat you nice.
WEIGHT & BALANCE: This knife has in my opinion the perfect weight for serving its purpose of a daily workhorse. It has an aggressive but sturdy grind while having a rigid spine that wont flex. This is something i really like to go deep when using magnacut. Pinch grip in this knife is a dream, both for its balance and shape. It will feel like a natural part of your body and dance in the cutting board.
GRIND:
Its slightly convex and almost zero in the edge, it will allow you to use as a daily fearless of cracking the edge or anything. It will slice a tomato in the board on its own weight. This grind is my favorite go-to when doing workhorses and can see why in the picture below
HANDLE
For this weird knife i picked the "Dark matter Gold" from fatcarbon, which is based on Lithuania. This one came from USA, from material makers supply (which i strongly recommend).
This material has 1,5g/cm³ of density (about 15% heavier than average ironwood or ebony) and is completely waterproof. Has a nice warm feel in hand and will last a lifetime with ease.
As a composite material, ZERO maintenance expected.
Fatcarbon composites are barely seem on kitchen knives. Most of the time you will see these composites being used in high-end folder knives, i honestly dont know why, this feels like the perfect material for a functional, artistic kitchen knife. Depending the angle you look at it, it will look like marble.
It is carefully oval shaped to fit all hands and have that perfectly rounded pinch grip facet matching the radius of the carbon fiber pin.
Makers mark hand forged near the handle, Its pure poetry.
HOW YOU WILL RECEIVE THE KNIFE:
This frankenstein will be delivered in a nice zipped pouch that is meant to kept the knife safe and locked during transportation in your car or anything. The zipped pouch has my name and dragon laser etched on its outside.
VIDEO:
While pictures are cool, i realized you guys would enjoy a video of the knife performing.
I thought in slicing food and such, but that wouldnt show much, i would need to cut some few kilograms of food and veggies to see any minor wear to the edge.
So, to save time and showing how functional/sturdy this knife is, i sliced many times 3mm genuine leather and tested the blade on its own weight slicing fine paper. Fine paper really do not forgives a coarse edge.
Leather is MUCH more abrasive to a knife than pretty much any food, as well i used a kingwood board to chop it. Kingwood is one of the hardest woods in the planet, next to ebony and ironwood. This says a lot about the edge retention of the knife.
Please do enjoy the video
GRAIN AND FORGING:
Forging high alloy steel is no joke. It is really time consuming and tricky. I did not forged to shape this blade obviously but i thinned the bevels as this can save a lot time in the belt grinder as well making the forge finish on the flats. While this process may increase the steel grain and make a mess in the quality, i broke the tip of the knife after quenching to make sure and to certify the grain is perfect and as fine as silk.
Out of curiosity too, the holes in the tang are carefully placed to improve the blades balance, this is by itself an art since the position of them changes in every knife due length, width, thickness and shape. This is one important detail for making the balance perfectly centered in the pinch grip area for your better experience of use.
Blade is hand sharpened to 2000 grit.
SOLD Pay me 700$ and this freak show will be delivered to you in 7~9 days worldwide most of the time . Zipped pouch included.
While being new to the forums, i can provide tons of references (mostly based on US).
As the video shows, this is a very high performance blade and im sure it will meet its owner expectations. But weird as fk!
Last edited:
