From top to bottom :
From top to bottom :
This review consists of :
Description from manufacturer :
The all-rounder for professional and hobby chefs, also called a cook's knife, is a versatile kitchen knife available in various lengths of 6, 8, 10, and 12 inches. The heft, weight and balance of this knife allow it to be used for both heavy duty work with thicker cuts of vegetables, fruits and meats or mincing and chopping herbs. The curved blade enables a rocking cut and wide surface enables knuckle clearance and gathering of cut materials.
- Size: 9.5" / 240 mm
- Precision stamped from our high performance "NO STAIN" stainless steel
- FRIODUR� ice-hardened blades
- 57� Rockwell Hardness
- Enclosed tang
- Ergonomic non-slip synthetic resin yellow handles
- FDA & NSF approved
- Made in Spain
The steel description is interesting. The trademark Friodur refers to the heat treatment :
Hardening of the steel (at 1060� - 1080�C = 1940� - 1976�F) dissolves chromium carbide molecules, resulting in optimum no-stain properties. In 1939 Zwilling J.A. Henckels was granted a patent for a new hardenign process: "Ice-hardening" of cutlery has ever since added a new dimension to the manufacturing of quality knives with no-stain properties, under the registered Zwilling J.A. Henckels trademark FRIODUR.
The high austenization temperature and the extended quench to below room temperatures explains the significantly above average hardness of 57 HRC.
Some specifics :
The image at the right shows the finish of the blade grind under 50X magnification. The finish is so coarse that the grind lines can easily be seen with the naked eye. The finish is smooth to the touch, however there are some immediate concern about likely sticking due to surface tension and similar adhesion to that very uniform surface texture and that in general there may be issues with friction reducing cutting performance.
As an odd point of comparison :
While the Twinmaster has almost the opposite set of features for makes a decent peeling knife :
it easily outperforms the small folding knife as it has a much thinner edge :
and it is usually kept at a fairly high finish (MXF DMT - 6 micron). The Chicago it usually ran with a much more coarse finish (F DMT - 25 micron) as it tends to get used for more utility work slicing harder materials.
As a general utility knife it works very well :
The only real downside is that the spine is very square, so much so it can work as a scraper, but it makes it fairly uncomfortable for a secondary grip point.
As a bread knife it works well :
And so sees occasional use on slicing fresh breads.
It is normally sharpened with a MXF DMT (6-micron) which works well for most use and will slice fresh breads well when freshly sharpened. However it is one of the most sensitive cutting tasks to slicing sharpness and thus one of the first things to show the blade needs to be sharpened.
For a more thick crust bread, or a bread with a much softer dough, the ideal edge finish is much more coarse compared to what works well for chopping and dicing and that kind of coarse edge has low edge retention the typical push cuts used for a chef's knife.
There is however a fairly significant issue with the Henckels Twinmaster and it is on a very common use :
As noted in the image on the right, there is a frequent and significant issue with binding where a potato will stick so heavily to the blade that it not only won't slide off it takes a little force to actually remove it, or a light pop to knock it off.
While the initial cutting ability is high due to the thin edge, low angle, and high flat grind, the knife quickly becomes fairly inefficient to the point of frustration having to either constantly cut using the next slice to knock off the potato or having to stop and keep taking it off on every cut.
With a little detail, these are the initial forces for a few knives :
Note the Yanagiba has a much thicker grind and the edge has some damage from heavy (ab)use which increases the force significantly. It is used here just as a specific point of comparison.
At this point it doesn't look like there is any issue, however that is on the first cut, with the cuts repeated it changes to :
The potato sticks severe enough to the Twinmaster that the force required increases significantly. It either has to be taken off after each cut, or use the next cuts to take if off, using 5X as much force. As the potato sticks strong enough, it can't be easily tapped off and has to be picked off and thus from a point of view of time/effort efficiency, the Twinmaster is actually a lot less efficient even compared to some much thicker/heavier knives.
In fact the issue with sticking is so severe that from a point of view of efficiency, it is far easier/faster to use a paring knife with a different grip such as noted to the right which shows an IVO paring knife:
a grip commonly seen in japanese cooking.
In this application, the potatoes are cut not by a rocking chop but by a draw cut with the point against the cutting board. This however only tends to work when the vegetables are easy to cut. It isn't functional to cut thicker turnips or something like squash.
The resin handle is easy to clean, very stable in regards to heat, chemicals and abrasion and impacts. It is very durable and extremely low maintenance. It also has an extremely ergonomic design :
There are a few issues though, the spine is only lightly chamfered, it isn't fully rounded and the heel of the blade is left very sharp and is a harsh contact point. The grip also while lightly textured tends to get very slick even when wet.
The very coarse finish on the blade does have a few issues in regards to degrading the properties of the steel. As noted in the picture on the right :
In that picture the blade is wiped clean, however as the grind lines from from the spine to the edge, and the knife (as most are) is normally cleaned from tip to heel, the grind lines tend to prohibit ease of cleaning. Now to be frank, aside from some bacterial concerns, the main issue with the cleaning is more aesthetics than practicality, but again, the knife almost always looks like it was never cleaned, even when freshly wiped down.
Similar, the water spotting isn't enough of an effect to see the kind of reaction on foods which can be seen with carbon steel blades. There is no visible heavy oxidization and no staining of foods or any apparent taste issues. But again, from an aesthetic viewpoint, the finish on the knife rapidly degrades. However for those that like the kind of patina that forms on carbon blades, this actually might be of interest.
The Twinmaster large Chef's knife from Henckels is a classic French style chef's knife and a solid execution of such :
However it does have a few significant problems :
The blade grind causes a number of issues :
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Most of the pictures in the above are in the album at
PhotoBucket.
| Last updated : | 18/02/2015 |
| Originally written: | 11:29:2011 |