Usage
- Now, technically and practically, I have very little use for a nessmuk or any other fixed blade of this size. I don't do camping or bushcrafting, being a software engineer in Bay Area and not being too interested in those activities. On the other hand, I can always do few tests here and there, chop few branches and slice things up in my backyard. Besides, there's always the kitchen, where there's always something interesting to cut. The tests were done in mixed order, some were outdoors and others in the kitchen. For the purpose or clarity I'll group the results in two sections, outdoor/utility and kitchen use.Utility Use
- Unlike the original nessmuk design, Watanabe/Martell nessmuk is much better suited for chopping, and that was the first thing I've done with it. There was a tree that needed its branches trimmed, too close to the house wall, and I've picked the large nessmuk to tackle the job. Considering that it was my first chopping session and the fact that the knife hagane is hardened to 63-65HRC range, with rather acute edge, I was being extra cautious in the beginning. If a human hand was perfectly steady, which it isn't unfortunately, then thin edges for chopping and any other use for that matter wouldn't be a problem, but lateral loads induced on the edge are the cause of the severe edge degradation. That happens during light cutting, so you can imagine how that effect would be magnified during chopping, forces are much greater and control is decreased, plus the effect of twisting when the edge gets stuck in the medium.Basically, that's what I was cautious about, trying to keep my hand as steady as I could and avoid twisting the knife. I've started out with smaller branches, up to 10mm in diameter, and all of them were chopped off with a single blow, about couple dozen or so, I've stopped to examine the edge, using 10x magnifying glass. One of the advantages of testing a knife at home, vs. being in the wilderness where most likely I won't be having magnifying glass and other stuff with me. Back to the test, there was no visible damage to the edge, and sharpness test revealed no degradation either. During this part I didn't have to worry about twisting the knife, as the branches were small enough to be removed with a single swing.
However, when I have switched to thicker wood, I couldn't chop through those with just a single swing, and at that time I had to pay attention not to twist the knife, at least initially, because eventually twisting out the wedged knife was part of the test. Anyway, thicker branches, even though requiring multiple blows were successfully defeated :) After that I've examined the edge again. I suppose both, me and the nessmuk knife did well, there were no deformations on the edge, no chips, ripples or any other damage. I've had to clean up the knife for examining and in order to proceed to other testing. Chopping wood was obviously quite adequate work with Watanabe nessmuk, and even though I've spent about an hour on this work, my right palm didn't feel neither sore nor irritated, which was a solid testament to Dave's handle ergonomics.
Just to have complete set of tests, I've also tried batonning. I had couple pieces of 2x4 laying in the garage, and that was pretty good for testing. Overall, the knife performed well, 5mm thick blade spine might be too much for a high performance slicer, but for chopping and batonning it is actually on the thinner side. Kuro-Uchi finish is simple and quite durable, and the blade is long enough to provide sufficient leverage and space for batonning. Not my favorite use of the knife, but when necessary, nessmuk will do just fine.
I went on with chopping the wires, which served mainly edge stability testing purposes. Normally, during testing any other knife, I do cut wires, but as usual that's done more carefully, using push cutting. This time, I wanted to see how it'd work for chopping, although I didn't expect any problems, knife is quite heavy, the edge was about 30° included angle, and I have pretty good experience with Aogami series steels at high hardness. Started out with copper wiring, then another cable, which was twisted steel/copper and ended with RG-6 coaxial cable, none of which posed any problem, and the edge suffered no visible damage, again.
I've diligently examined the edge after all the wire cutting. All of the wire cutting(chopping to be precise) was done with the sweet spot of the belly section, which would be the edge section about an inch long, somewhere under the angular bump on the back of the knife. Compared to the rest of the edge, that section did suffer some degradation in terms of sharpness. I could tell that much when testing sharpness. However, 5 strokes per side on the borosilicate steeling rod did restore the edge.
Next part was purely cutting tests. Considering the geometry, the knife is a good slicer, the only problem being its 5mm thickness, and to some extent, its weight, when dealing with delicate cutting tasks. On the other hand, if the cutting medium isn't too thick, then the knife's thick spine never comes in contact with the medium, so the thick spine isn't always the problem. I've started testing with the plastic tubing, made about 2 dozen cuts, although, it was mainly push cutting, not slicing. Examined the edge again, no damage.
Then I've moved on to the rubber sheaths, about 5mm thick, which also posed no challenge. After that I've proceeded with cardboard cutting, which was alright, although compared to other high performance knives nessmuk performed less efficiently, mainly because of its thickness. Although, when I say less efficient, you'd have to consider that I am comparing Watanabe nessmuk with extremely high performance cutters such as Phil Wilson CPM 10V Utility hunter, or Phil Wilson CPM 3V Utility Scalpel. On its own, compared to average knives out there, it is a very high performance cutter. Just as a more of an universal knife, large nessmuk is not as efficient on certain tasks as are more specialized blades mentioned above.
Overall, Aogami 2 steel at 63-65HRC holds an edge pretty good on cardboard, I have that experience from other knives as well, and Nessmuk just repeated the results. Main purpose of the test was to evaluate the knife itself. Even though I've cut enough wood already, I've figured that wood whittling was still a valid test, to evaluate the knife itself for wood whittling. Obviously, the knife of that size and weight isn't exactly a good fit for wood whittling, it does much better hacking and chopping though.
Kitchen use - Watanabe nessmuk is really far from a general use kitchen knife, although come to think of it, I do have quite a few Deba knives, which are comparable with nessmuk in thickness, length and consequently weight as well. Still, as "field" tests showed(not that I didn't expect it) nessmuk was a very good slicer, so I've decided to commence some vegetable cutting. During the following weekend, when I was chopping up my mega salad, I've picked up Watanabe nessmuk along with the gyuto.
I wasn't planning on chopping up 15lbs of veggies with the nessmuk, but I did cut very substantial amount of veggies with it. Test started with the broccoli. Stems are rather harsh, but nessmuk handled the job easily. Mincing the tops and thinly sliced stems on the board was a breeze too. Same goes for mincing the Brussels Sprouts, which can be hard on softer edges, but Aogami 2 steel at high hardness handles job real easy. Mincing large bunches of the Italian parsley and green onion also worked out well. However, mincing red radish wasn't as easy as with the gyuto. Thick blade, very forward heavy blade, didn't help much slicing the radish thin. I was inclined to use the belly section, because it is wider and I had better support for my guiding hand claw grip or position or whatever that is called. Although, to be honest, the rest of the blade doesn't really have sufficient width to be as good as a gyuto. Still, the blade is more than manageable for slicing and provides enough support for the guiding hand. As I've stated above, being a more universal knife it isn't as good in all areas as the specialized knives are.
Another set of vegetable tests started with bell pepper, which is on the softer side, but when cutting from the skin side you'd need a very sharp knife to cut it easily. Normally, there is no reason to mince bell pepper from the skin size, but for the test sake I've cut it using nessmuk, from the skin side, and razor sharp blade just glided through. Next was asparagus, which also was to be minced, or to be precise, sliced thinly. Even though I'd prefer a lighter knife, still nessmuk was quite good for the job. Another test I was curious about was cherry tomatoes, to be precise, slicing them thinly. I knew the knife was sharp enough to slice them using its own weight, but I was interested in how easy or efficient the nessmuk would be, being thicker and heavier compared with thinner and lighter kitchen knives I typically use for the same task. The end result was the same, translucent slices of the tomatoes, but I was slower with the nessmuk compared with a gyuto. No wonder though, heavier knife for a delicate task. If it wasn't as sharp, I'm sure it'd result in a squashed pieces, but it was a sharp knife.
I've diligently used the nessmuk to sample cut the rest of the vegies, but there were no new revelations. It cut well, thick blade made few things problematic compared with gyuto, but then again, I've had western chef's knives just as thick as Watanabe nessmuk - 5mm, so when I say things didn't work as well as gyutos, keep in mind gyutos are Japanese version of western chef's knife, one of the main distinguishing features being much thinner blade. In other words, nessmuk is about as thick as some western chef's knives and as far as cutting performance goes, it still will out cut western chef's knives by a large margin, I won't even talk about edge holding ability.
As far as non-vegetable ingredients and food goes, one of the more important tests was the lamb ribs I've had to prep for one of the parties. Lucky me I didn't have to cook, but cutting the whole side into individual ribs was my part of the preparation. Slicing thin layer of the meat between the ribs is easy enough for almost any knife, unless it's a really dull knife. However, separating the ribs which are connected by cartilage and ligaments isn't as easy.
Although it is more of a technique of hitting the right spot and handling the knife correctly, still the knife needs to be strong enough as the job does involve considerable lateral loads, or some sort of twisting and prying. Normally, I do that job with Takeda Kuro-Uchi Ryodeba. It's a bit longer than the nessmuk and thicker too, but debas are supposed to be thick and heavy. Anyway, nessmuk did perform very well for this particular job. After that I have had to clean the large piece of meat for the barbeque. Basically, I've used the nessmuk in the role of the sujihiki.
Frankly speaking, that is not a great idea, using the knife almost twice as short and twice as thick than the designated piece, but then again, length and thickness are not cared in stone, and I was testing a nessmuk anyway. Overall, thanks to very sharp edge, I was able to remove fat, tendons etc, quite efficiently, but obviously, longer knife would've done better. Same goes slicing the meat, longer knife will do better, but all in all, after all the cutting I did, I am very happy with its performance.Conclusions
- Well, as you might've guessed I am very fond of this knife :) I've designed it, well most of it anyway. It looks just gorgeous to me. Other than that, personally I think larger version of the nessmuk knife is quite a versatile piece. Works well for chopping, slicing and whatever else I had come up with during the tests. Sure, in many areas it gets outperformed by highly specialized knives, e.g. sujihikis for slicing the meat, or Phil Wilson's ultra high performance cutters, but as a one knife do it all type of thing, it works very well.Aogami 2 steel is a better choice for the knife designed to be used for harsher cutting chores and holds edge very well. In short, I wouldn't hesitate to take it with me on a camping trip as a primary knife. It will work for chopping, batonning, opening packages and other small chores. When is comes to food prep, again, nessmuk will be or is up to the challenge. I suppose, wilderness and camping trips are not the places to cook the most elaborate dishes requiring very exotic style knives, and for the rest nessmuk does superb job, veggies, meat, bread, fruits whatever. Well, that's about it for now. If you are contemplating custom or made large nessmuk style knife, I think you won't be disappointed.
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Specifications:
- Blade - 172.00mm(6.77")
- Thickness - 5.11mm
- Width - 48.50mm
- OAL - 307.00mm(12.09")
- Steel - Aogami 2 steel at 63-65HRC
- Handle - Hawaiian Signature
- Weight - 329.10g(11.13oz)
- Acquired - 10/2011 Price - 504.00$
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Last updated - 05/19/19