Robert's 185mm W2 Ko-Gyuto

I love that page you quoted, and that koa is insanely gorgeous.

Absolutely this. This knife was tempered to 64-65HRC, but the edge should in no way be chippy or fragile. The tip will need a bit of care, but then again, that's the nature of the game with ultra thin knives. For the kind of work Robert has planned for it, it should work like a dream. It also has no issue halving apples or avacado, seeds/pit included. You just need a good edge grain board and whatever you're cutting and it's good to go.

Mark, as Robert stated, an absorber can be any dark surface reflected off the face of what you're photographing, into the camera (in my above pair of examples my dimmed shop roof acted as an absorber). In discussing this concept with another friend, he said 'Well, why don't you just turn the light away if you want it darker?'. The thing is, you absolutely need light for a photograph. If you want clear details, light is a necessity. Robert's koa photographs are a perfect example of how the absorber works, without removing precious light, which is what gives detail and clarity to the image.

By the way, I'm entirely new at this photography game. Robert's just extremely gifted at explaining things in a simple enough manner where a newbie like me can get a firm grasp on it quickly lol. You can absolutely tell from the quality of my best pictures of his knife (taken with a 13mp camera, and a metric boatload of effort and frustration, coupled with no small amount of post editing!), vs a picture he threw together with almost no preparation at all lol.



Robert's images are far, far more true to the actual colors of the knife in hand...and give a much better 'sense' of the knife's overall presence. And, after all...that is what photography is about (vs just taking a picture)...giving a feel to the viewer of something you're trying to express...not just handing them something to look at.

 

Cris, I'm only active on this forum for a month or so. But since then I've gotten hugely impressed by your knives (I didn't know them from other forums). I'm not promising anything, but please don't be surprised if I approach you with a request for a custom knife.

In that respect: I don't know if you know the smaller Carter knives. This is one I got.



What I like a lot about the knife you made for Robert is that is is a scalpel-like knife. That is also how I would describe this Carter knife. Have you got any idea how your knife compares to this Carter, apart from the different profile?

 

Thank you Mark! I appreciate your kind words and would be more than happy to work with you in the future!

As far as finding me elsewhere...I am only on this forum, along with my Instagram and FaceBook as far as kitchen knives go. Jim and the gang here have made me very comfortable, as well as keeping me quite busy . As far as forums go, this is my home, and I'm happy to say so.

As for comparing my knives to Murray's...that is difficult. Even in the same line...Murray's knives can be very different from each other. Some are thinner, some are thicker, and the grind on each one I've handled is slightly different than the others. Understand, I consider Murray a friend, and both his ideology and his methods in making knives are very different than mine. That is not to say mine are any better, or any worse...just different. I can say that my knife I made for Robert is probably thinner than yours down the entire length (I would not be willing to make a thinner knife if asked...as Robert said, this knife pushes the line of 'too thin'...even for me, and that says something lol)...and so is probably more specialized to certain tasks. A more fair comparison would be my general use ko-gyuto, which still represents the laser class of knives, but would probably excel in more average usage...though it would not surpass Robert's by any stretch in the areas it was intended to be used.

Here is a comparison of both types of ko-gyuto.


To the left is a blown up (roughly to scale) choil shot of a general usage ko-gyuto (that was actually the first one I made for Robert). To the right is Robert's ultra laser. To put it into perspective, the knife on the left, at the thickest point in the picture, is right around 1.6mm if I recall.

Anyhow!!! Feel free to PM me, or continue this discussion on Robert's thread? I don't want to derail the Acquisitions thread!!

Actually, Jim or one of the other mods...if you can move these two posts over to the thread on Robert's knife in my area, I would appreciate it!

 

Wow Cris, those pictures are impressive. I'd like to continue to with you the discussion on knife grinds. Sorry I posted in the wrong thread.

 

No worries! I don't know that it's the wrong thread lol, I'm just not sure if it belongs here. I'm happy to let the mods decide! If you like, you could simply quote your post here, copy it, and paste it over there without the quote links. I'll do the same with my reply.

 

Thank you to whichever mods moved the posts!!

Now we can continue the discussion here Mark .

 

damn this is easily one of the best looking / finished knives that i have seen from a non-japanese maker!

 

Thanks!!

 

Hahah! LOL. I was already wondering where I should post... Thanks, mods. (I am a mod on another forum and at least with the software they use there it's pretty hard to move a part of a thread.)

Cris, I can only say that I am extremely impressed by the choil shots you posted. Not just the one of the knife you made for Robert, but also of the ko-gyuto. (What does ko mean, by the way?) It is always nice to imagine how a knife would cut based on a choil shot, in this case I imagine not only wicked cutting, but also great food release. Is this what you would call an S-grind?

 

Both knives are ko-gyuto, which basically just means 'little gyuto'.

Robert's ultra laser ko-gyuto really is more of a special purpose knife. The food release was ok...but unless your technique was right, you could get suction wedging with it as the secondary bevel is relatively tall to keep it thin.

The general use ko-gyuto was made long before I ever heard of anything called an 'S-grind' lol. I just called it a compound grind. It has much better food release, gives up only a little in ease of cutting, and has a bit more forward weight. I'm currently making one for Robert to use in comparison to the ultra laser.

 

I know it's a shameless repost, but the pic belongs here:

The coin is similar to a US penny, a bit over 1.5mm thick. The tip of this knife is just bafflingly thin, so it can be tricky to sharpen compared to a more robust tip.

 

Haha, not shameless at all! It does belong here.

That picture very much illustrates the spirit of your knife Robert.