This review consists of :
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This review consists of : |
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On the packaging :
On the blade :
A few specifications :
Initial sharpness :
In terms of finish, it is very low :
On 3/8" hemp :
This is an interesting knife personally because it is very similar to a general style of knives used locally. This was (and still is somewhat) a fishing and farming community and thus what was seen in kitchen knives tended not to be commonly a chef's knife but more of a butcher style or utility blade.
Knives were generally not bought in sets and the same knife would be used to :
The knives therefore tended to be quite thick to give them the necessary stiffness The stock thickness on this blade isn't excessive for a kitchen knife at just over 1/16", however it has a very short primary grind and so it is on the stiff/strong side.
In regards to modern knives, there is a tendency, while is encroaching in the US from mainly Japan, to really thin out the profiles on knives to increase the cutting ability. This knife, the Endura Premium is one of the older style knives which doesn't take that approach and retains a very heavy cross section. It can be used to fillet fish, though the style is one which doesn't demand a flexible blade. But in general it has to be kept in mind that this particular knife isn't designed to cut well, but be strong/durable. It is a knife that isn't going to slice up a chicken breast with the same ease as a much thinner ground knife, many of which are not commonly promoted as such, but it easily can be pressed into heavier cutting without fear of damage.
Now this isn't to say that it can't be used for general light cutting such as :
But just that the performance can be obviously seen to be less than a knife such as the Chutoh (shown on the right) which is geared towards an almost different end of the design spectrum as it relates durability to a very low importance level and focused on high cutting ability. Of course there is also a large difference in just comfort and ease of use as the Chutoh having a dropped blade is much more suited to working close to a cutting board and is therefore much more efficient.
Of course the Endura Preimum is again a task specific carving knife. intended mainly for just that, carving, slicing up large pieces of meet, not working to a cutting board hence no dropped blade, but just having a long blade, usually stiff, for cutting up a roast or similar. However as this is again a common blade locally, some time was spent using it for tasks not really well suited to its design. Again this isn't really as a point of evaluation or even some way to look at an interpretation of the knife itself, but more for perspective in general for knife used and how the design is versatile or more focused.
How much difference is really being talked about, after all it is just vegetables and it isn't like it takes reams of force to cut them regardless of the knife used - which it true. As a point of specific comparison, cutting up some medium sized potatoes with the two knives, to make the first cut (which is the heaviest) took :
This force is enough that it readily moves into the awkward role is it is literally 4-5X as much force and for some people that could actually take two handle because the force you need to apply to get that much force on the vegetables depends on hand size and could easily double. It is obvious then once you start talking about 40-50 lbs being exerted with the wrist then a lot of people could start to have trouble with large stiff vegetables.
However while cutting a carrot is a bit less than ideal and will in general cause the carrot to crack, and cutting a potato causes excessive force, moving onto larger frutis and vegetables :
the force can be so large that it is awkward regardless of the user. As well there is a slight asymmetry in the primary grind which when the knife is used with very high force cuts, can cause it to skew in the cut.
Now as for actually using the knife doing carving type work, cutting meat is very easy as meat is soft, it doesn't exert any significant binding forces on the blade and so the performance is mainly one of sharpness. With the blade properly sharpened it works well and the thickness that was obviously an issue on the fruits and vegetables doesn't significantly reduce the performance.
The main point of contention or comparison for this knife tends to be if the knife is going to be used for harder work :
If this isn't necessary then a much slimmer knife with a thinner grind is not only more practical, easier to hold/use, and also generates far less force in cutting.
The grip on the Endura Premium is the common basic three rivet approach to handles with a modern synthetic material which is hard and scratch resistant. On a strong positive, especially considering its relatively low expense, all edges were well rounded so it is is comfortable to hold. This is actually not as common as would be expected even on higher end blades. Even the spine of the knife is nicely broken or chamfered and thus isn't a high pressure point in forward or pinch grips.
The only real negative of the handle is that the working length, inside the guard and rear end hook is limited to just over three inches. This means that anything over a small to medium hand is like to feel cramped.
The knife is marked Inox stainless, which doesn't tell very much at all as Inox is a manufacturers of stainless steel. Aside from being a stainless steel this doesn't say much more about the quality of nature of the blade material.
As a quick initial check, as the only knife used in the kitchen, it was brought into rotation on July 24 2013 and lasted four weeks before it had to be sharpened. 1 However the initial edge retention of knives in general is strong influenced by many factors including simply the quality of the initial factory sharpening and thus not a lot can be said about that aside from that it would expect to be semi-random even on very high priced knives. 2
Now as a general point, steels of this type which are usually 3-5Cr13 grade stainless steels, often ~55 HRC have significantly lower edge retention than a typical ~60 HRC "quality" steel 3. However in kitchen use, it is often the case the the edge gets damaged from an accidental contact versus slowly blunting.
Practically, one of the largest difference between this knife and a steel which much higher apex stability (personallY) is the lower ease of sharpening. This knife is very easy to grind, remove a large amount of steel from the edge, however the apex forms a bit "gummy" and a bit more work is needed to get it to form very clean and achieve a high sharpness.
In short, this is a fairly thick/heavy carving knife with a low sabre-grind. It works well enough on meats, but on fruits and vetables it would take a significant regrind to allow it to cut well. The handle is actually surprisingly decent in comfort and security.
The steel is fairly soft as would be expected given the price point of the knife, so much so that it can be easily filed. There were no issues with corrosion, even when the knife was left wet or covered in fruit acids.
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Most of the pictures in the above are in the PhotoBucket album.
1 : Kitchen edge retention
2 : Factory sharpened edges, edge retention slicing hemp
3
: Edge retention slicing carpet with 3Cr13, O1, K390, S30V and 121REX
| Last updated : | |
| Originally written: | 23/07/2013 |