This review consists of :
Ad copy :
Basic specifications :
A quick check on 3/8" hemp, big problem, 50 lbs only makes a partial cut and with that force applied the blade gets very floppy and the cut was aborted. Checking the edge under 50X magnification shows one side is clean however one side has a significant burr. Note in the image on the right, the significant dark ridge, that is the steel folded over on that side.
It is unlikely this knife will have decent initial edge retention.
It is unfortunate that the Carving knife came with :
As this gives rather poor performance on peeling stiffer vegetables and fruits so much so it :
However on deeper cuts such as :
The thin blade stock and high flat grind are of importance and compensate for the sharpness and edge angle issues and thus the Carving knife does well and shows solid performance for its class and the ErgoSlice can no longer produce better performance (less force more control).
In terms of raw cutting ability, as a benchmark slicing up a pineapple :
The Henckel's has an approximate 70% advantage due to the :
Not everything of course is deep cuts and the Endura Carving knife easily outperforms the Henckels on kitchen work such as preparing large melons because :
The major difference comes down to the ability of the very narrow blade on the Carving knife to turn easily and cut the hard rind off of the soft inner fruit which it does very well. Similar ability is seen on watermelon, squash and other comparable fruits and vegetables.
In regards to durability it easily took a small chicken apart :
In short it easily handled the cutting without having to be extremely careful and making sure the cuts were through the joints.
On some heavier roasts it also did well and it was here that most of the issues were not and some of the problems turned around. As the roasts are often carved by friends and family, many of whom are not always that particular about knives then the rather high edge angle was useful in minimizing the edge damage from the often hard contacts off of the bone.
Now again the lack of sharpness was an issue as there was too much slipping on the meat, especially near the skin and fat. However again with all the heavy bone contacts it would not have been practical to have a very high sharpness in any case as the edge was constantly grated across the bone. There were some concerns though about the handle as the meat was a bit greasy and even minor contact with the handle did make many who used it a bit nervous as it gets quite slick quite fast.
Ergonomics : the only concern with the handle comfort wise is that it is bare steel aside from that it has none of the problems often found on inexpensive and even higher end blade and even the spine in lightly chamfered.
Security : while the handle is fairly slick the security is actually moderate because of the shape sensitivity. The only reason concern would be rapid processing of fish or similar slippery food as that would require a more secure grip texture.
Durability : the handle and blade are of integral construction so there is little concern about durability aside from minor scratches to the blade from contacts with other metal utensils.
As the only knife used in the kitchen, it was brought into rotation on March 17, 2013 and lasted 4 weeks before it had to be sharpened.
In the standard Cardboard trials :
More details :
| Sharpness | # runs | 15% | 10% | 5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cardboard cut (m) | ||||
| 43+20(11) | 3 | 0.6+0.5(0.1) | 2.2+1.2(0.5) | 13+ 7( 3) |
The results of the first two runs are seen in the graph at the right which shows the normal blunting curve. Like many of the inexpensive knives the initial performance is often very low which is mostly likely either due to :
In either case usually it is a good idea to do a few sharpening runs before any particular judgment is made on the steel. Based on the behavior seen to date it is likely that by the time 3-5 runs are made the performance is expected to stabilize as a Type I steel in regards to long term edge retention on abrasive materials with moderate to high ease of sharpening.
After the four weeks in the kitchen then a light honing on a steel from cKc knives brought the edge back to being able to slice newsprint and a few more passes on a 600 grit DMT rod raised the performance up to the point where it was easily cutting the same paper. However giving the blade a full sharpening a few problems were soon evident :
Note how the edge near the handle is significantly wider. All of the blade was sharpened at the same angle however in that region the edge is actually warped and grinding out this warp produced the much wider edge. This has no significant effect on performance however the aesthetics could be a concern.
During the sharpening a few other modifications were made :
In general though, with repeated sharpening while the steel ground easily it was not easy to sharpen, in particular :
To be more specific, off of a cheap stone the edge would easily slice newsprint but at best just approached shaving and was not close to push cutting paper. Even switching to a 1000 grit King waterstone didn't allow the apex to be refined further.
This is usually a sign that the edge is fracturing. It can be resolved by using a diamond stone, very light force or similar on a very soft cutting natural stone.
Based on the observed :
And of course the fact that this is very inexpensive knife this is likely a 3-5Cr13-15 class steel. However the problems with sharpening indicate that it also suffers from some combination of :
Overview :
Comments can be emailed to Endura : Carving Knife
and/or the YouTube Playlist for Kitchen Knives.
Most of the pictures in the above are in the PhotoBucket album.
| Last updated : | |
| Originally written: | 30/03/2013 |