Knife review : Everyday Basics Santoku

Knives :

This review consists of :

Introduction and Specifications

Copy :

Specs :

A few disappointing issues :

As noted in the image at the right (50X magnification), sections of the edge are heavily rolled and dented leaving two inches of the blade just under the tip undamaged.

Stock testing : main

In the section of blade which was undamaged, the initial sharpness was moderate to high :

Some stock cutting :

However in the areas outside of that one small section the sharpness is extremely low to nonexistent (5+ cm on the spinning thread) and the force required to cut the hemp doubles. This is pretty ironic considering the "hand inspected" on the back.

Initial Use

The Santoku handles the easy to cut foods with no issues :

This cutting is so basic however that it doesn't demand much out of a knife in regards to sharpness or geometry. The blade heavy balance however tends to be a bit awkward at first use but that just depends on the knives recently used.

It also easily slices up breads which can be demanding on a plain edge and can easily show lack of sharpness and this is the case here because only the first section of the edge under the tip cuts the bread well. Once the outer layer of bread is cut then the entire blade can be used so it is a bit awkward to start but again this is mainly just due to the issues with initial sharpness and the damaged edge nothing to do with the steel itself.

Of course with very crusty bread a much lower grit (rougher) finish is required as the Santoku will just skip across the hardened skin but that is the same with any plan edged knife - hence the popularity of serrated knives for cutting breads to allow very thin slices without any crushing or tearing or the bread. This is especially important if the crust is very hard and the inside is very light and airy.

On thicker fruits :

The santoku does well as the blade is fairly thin and the edge decently thin and acute. It can not match the performance of some of the more acute ground blades though and starts to show signs that it is geared towards more durability than pure cutting ability.

Moving onto foods which were a bit more demanding on sharpness then the

started to showcase some problems. In order to cut through the skin of the sausage the Santoku requires back/forth and/or repeated rocking to cut through the skin. Nothing dramatic, but it is obviously behind a well sharpened blade which does the same work much faster and more efficiently with cleaner cuts. Similar working on a chicken it doesn't easily cut the skin off and slips - however it easily has the edge durability to cut the knuckles off the legs.

Similar influence of the lack of high initial sharpness can be seen on a tomato as repeated back and forth motions are required in order to cut through the skin without squashing the tomato. Only the small initial section at the start of the blade under the tip is sharp enough to cut the tomato with a clean cut immediately. This is why people often resort to using a serrated knife to cut a tomato however all that it requires is a proper sharpening on a plain edge blade.

There is no problem in making thin slices, which is often used as a demonstration of cutting ability or sharpness but in reality is more of a measure of user control and/or skill. It takes an extremely awkward blade which is beyond very thick to make it difficult to cut a thin slice of a tomato. It can be a bit difficult with a chisel ground blade without experience in controlling the drift however.

However when more force has to be applied then there are ergonomic issues with forward / pinch grips

These issues would only takes a little work to fix, some sandpaper or a coarse stone to break the edges and then round them over which would greatly increase the comfort in such grips.

In short :

Stock Evaluations Round II

Extended use

Grip

Ergonomics : The comfort in hand of the Santoku is one of the strong points.

As with most inexpensive knives it does have the common problems :

However even in these respects it would not be called poor, only that it doesn't excel here and could use room for improvement.

Security : With the dropped blade there is no issue in general with the hand moving forward on the blade and in general this isn't a knife likely to be used on heavy fish cutting which does make the hand very slippery. There is however a bit of a concern when working on chickens and such as there is no traction on the handle directly so care would need to be taken to keep the primary hand very clean and and off hand out of the way to ensure there is little risk of being cut in a twist.

Durability : The durability of the Everyday Basics grip is the weakest of its aspects but that generally will come with trying to make a grip very comfortable and using a material which as a cushioning effect. However while the grip is easily cut if it comes in contact with a sharp edge and it easily abraded the types of environments which generally put stresses on an edge (thrown in a drawer, sink, etc.) also tend to shorten the life of the blade as well.

Aside from the low cut/abrasion resistance, the heat resistance is also far less than a solid wood handle, and even after 2-3 seconds exposure to open flame the grip material starts to melt and smoke. The only real practical issue here is accidental exposure to heat, too close to a burner and in those cases the solid wood grips are much more durable.

Miscellaneous : There is no issue with cleaning, and the handle also tend to not absorb fluids or odours.

Sharpening

The Everyday Basics Santoku grinds very easily and only requires a very inexpensive stone and is even capable of bring filed. Based on that combination is

However the first time the edge was set the sharpness was a little low (about 50% of optimal) and the burr formation was a bit high and the removal was a bit difficult. This could indicate :

Or it could be that the edge was just burnt in the initial forming and thus what is being seen is just the effect of heat damaged steel. The simplest way to tell if this is the case is just to repeat the sharpening and see if the same pattern happens and shows no improvement with future work.

As expected, the next time the edge was sharpened it formed clean, no burr formation and achieved a high sharpness with no problems indicating that the initial problem was just likely due to an over heated / damaged edge.

Edge Retention

The Everyday Basics Santoku lasted five weeks in kitchen use with it being the only knife used. This puts it in among the lowest performance knives in regards to initial edge retention however that would be expected given that the majority of the edge was significant damaged as-boxed.

After sharpening, as a very basic check on edge retention, through 500 slices through pine and cedar :

Basically then it can be seen there are no significant issues with the steel in regards to edge retention.

Corrosion Resistance

In normal kitchen use, no rinsing and drying, there was no spotting or visible sign of corrosion even after extended use cutting vegetables and acidic fruits. As a stock test on corrosion resistance the knife was also exposed to a 24 hour soak in general white vinegar, with a regular tissue pinned to the blade and saturated. There was no effect on the blade.

Steel

Based on use it appears that this is a 3Cr13 to 5Cr13 class steel with a hardness of 50-55 HRC as it is

Overview

Overview :

Comments and references

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Most of the pictures in the above are in the PhotoBucket album.

Last updated : 04/02/2013
Originally written: 01/01/2013
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