Sharpening
- Well, sharpening was one of the reasons I got this puppy at first place. Knowing it was 440A steel clone, and not having any faith in western style kitchen knives hardness levels I put the same 40° angle on it. Given the state of the edge, or to be precise the absence of such, I've started with Beston 500 grit synthetic Japanese waterstone. Because the steel was so soft, I was done raising the burr on both sides in less than 10 minutes. That's real fast for 207mm long blade. Second step was the Bester 700 grit waterstone. After that I've switched to 2000-3000(around 15µm) grit Aoto Japanese natural waterstone, which was followed by Naniwa 5000 grit synthetic waterstone, which in turn was followed by Naniwa Chosera 10000 grit Japanese whetstone. Next was the leather strops loaded with diamond crystals. First the 0.5µm diamond loaded strop, then 0.25µm diamond crystal loaded strop. Finished with a few passes on the smooth leather strop and the knife was blazing sharp. Total time was approximately 30 mins. Later when I've dulled the knife after using it, the edge restoration was faster. I started with 5000 grit Naniwa Chosera, few passes on that, then 10000 grit Naniwa superstone and the same 3 step leather strop procedure, 0.5µm, 0.25µm and plain leather. All in all, 10 minutes tops.Usage
- It wasn't as comprehensive as with my own knives, obviously I was under time constraint here. Besides, truth be told, it's not that much of fun to use low end knives when you are used to better cutlery. Even if I sharpened it myself, and it was really sharp in the beginning, the knife still felt different. One reason for that, which is pretty clear is that the knife was new to me. Another is that, like I said I am used to different knives. 207mm slicer is really short for my taste. 100mm is very significant difference with knife blades, especially for the slicers. Other than that, the knife performed ok for slicing meat and for testing purposes some vegetables as well. The biggest problem to me was the edge retention. I can adapt to different blade styles, handle styles and other peculiarities, but edge retention isn't really something you adapt to. You just sharpen more often and that's all there is to it. I don't mind sharpening, but I do want my knives to be sharp and last that way few cutting sessions at least. Even at 40° total edge angle, shaving ability was gone after several cuts. I'm referring to the belly which was in contact with the cutting board, Even though I am using high quality, end grain cutting board, it still lost shaving ability very quickly to my taste. The rest of the blade which was mostly in contact with soft meat was shaving for a few days, but even that started fading after second cutting session. After slicing a single broccoli steam, shaving ability was complately gone. For comparison, Japanese kitchen knives I use, have edge angles much lower than 40°, but can handle a dozen 1.5-2hr veggie cutting sessions before they loose sharp edge and need sharpening.So, what do I have to say in the end? If you are looking for a low budget knife, Calphalon might be the one. It doesn't make much sense to compare it to the high end Japanese kitchen knives, those are way out of its league, but it is pretty much the same performer as most of the Henckels, Wusthofs, Forschners and such. If you can snag it at a cheaper price and it looks and feels ok to you, go for it. If you are on the market for the high quality kitchen knives, then skip it, even if it boasts full tang and a bolster :)
Specifications:
- Blade - 207.00mm(8.15")
- Thickness - 3.00mm
- Width - 30.00mm
- OAL - 341.00mm(13.43")
- Steel - X45CrMoV15 steel at 54-56HRC
- Handle - Fiberglass Polyresin
- Weight - 224.00g(7.57oz)
- Acquired - 06/2008 Price - 45.00$
Related reading:
- Watanabe 300mm Sujihiki Knife Review
- Watanabe 300mm Kintaro-Ame Sujihiki Knife Review
- Watanabe 330mm Kintaro-Ame Kensaki Yanagiba Knife Review
- Aritsugu 300mm Yanagiba Knife Review
- Aritsugu 300mm Wood Pattern Yanagiba Knife Review
- Sekizo 200mm Yanagiba Knife Review
- Henckels Twin Select 200mm Carving Knife Review
Last updated - 05/19/19