245mm Gyuto S35VN 61HRC

So here we are gents, the passaround list for Australia, after which I will send it to the US. If anyone has a pre formatted set of guidelines to attach to the passaround as a set of "rules" that would be good so everyone knows the deal that would be good. If anyone else wants to get on the Australia list I'll give you until the 10th of December before I send it out. First person on the list is Kev. Phillips sydney.

Kev. Phillips - Sydney
Marc4pt0 - Maryland, Sydney
Alex Armstrong - ACT
FinnEdge - QLD
V1P Australia - WA

Cheers,
Chadd.

 

Err... I do not think that Marc4pt0 is in Australia at all? He is in the US of A.

 

Well in that case... He is out for the first round. Maryland is also a place in NSW, why does this world have so many similar named towns, le sigh.

 

Don't have a standard set of rules but i would suggest a week or two of use. Only sharpen if you are confident you wont damage or affect the performance. And post should be registered (tracked????) And insured for whatever value you suggest the knife is worth.

 

Just noticed the update to this thread, been a bit lax on the forums the last week or two.

I've just PM'd Chadd my postage details, so hopefully we can kick this off.

Thanks Chadd, appreciate the opportunity.

Kev

 

Knife is going to be sent to Kev Phillips during the week. All parcels to be tracked and insured for $760.00AUD. Feel free to sharpen or strop the blade if you are competent, the idea here is for people to get a feeling of S35VN as a steel, which can only be done some times by sharpening. Two weeks of use max per person.

Regards,

Chadd.

 

Awesome. Can't wait to have a play with this.

 

Folks,
The knife arrived this morning.
I had a few minutes with it before I had to go to work, beautiful f&f, I will start cutting tonight and report back in a week or so.
Kev

 

You beat me to it kev, I was going to say I had sent it but it is redundant now.

Happy cutting Kev.

 

Awesome.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts Kev and to give this a go

 

Alex you are up next on the list, so five it a week or two and you should be up

 

ump:cool1:cool1:cool1

 

Ok, so some thoughts.

First impression was that the handle was a bit small. Having said that, I really haven't noticed it in use.
The f&f is as good as anything I've seen.
I like the weight and balance, a little lighter than my other 240s, but not too light. I think Chadd said it was ~180 grams.

It's an incredibly good cutter, I've been very impressed with it.
I must admit that I was worried before I received as I've not heard much about Chadds knives.
That concern was dispelled halfway through the first carrot

It has cut everything incredibly well, carrots and salami were no problem, and everything else - well, no effort at all.
It has genuinely been a joy to cut with this knife.

I will not comment on striction as it's not something I'm overly fussed about.
I'll leave that to others. I'm not saying it's good or bad, I just don't have a view.

I sharpened it at my usual 12ish degrees, on Sunday, to see how the steel handles this.
Alex, let me know if you want a more conservative edge on it before I post it on to you next week.
Chadd expressed an interest in how the steel reacts to this angle.

I have been impressed with this knife and look forward to the views of others on the passaround as I have relatively limited experience with knives.

Kev

 

*Slips Kev some cash* Thanks for the comments Kev, and for all lending me the other two knives to test. I really appreciate the gesture, your interest and appraisal of my work. Also for sharpening the knife at a finer angle, I'm interested in the effects of the extreme angle on high carbide PM steel.

Chadd.

 

Kev that angle is fine by me. I'll just keep it at that angle if i need to sharpen it. I'll likely just strop it a little.

And great to hear the review Kev. Can't wait to get this in my hands.

 

FYI,

It was my plan to post this onto Alex next week.
However, when I contacted Alex about a postal address he informed me that he was away next week and to post it the week after.

Kev

 

As Alex was away, I took the opportunity to loan the knife to James (Knives and Stones).
Here's his feedback:




Have thoroughly enjoyed Chadd's knife over the week. It's a truly great knife. I was initially thinking maybe it was a bit too thick behind but it turns out it performed much better than what I previously thought. The blade is extremely well finished, with no wavy pattern on the surface, and the edge is dead straight. F&F is extremely good and the handle is awesome! Great stuff!

I gave it my usual edge, starting with Shapton kuromaku 1000, and followed by a Hideriyama Jnat to finish. The steel is sharp and not hard to sharpen at all. I sharped a Kurosaki AS at the same time, this steel feels easier to deal with.

I cut with potato, apple and a few other things, the tristone glides through with ease, probably easier on a few occasions than the Kurosaki. I have to say it was very impressive. My only suggestion is that the blade is finished to very high grit, close to mirror from certain angle and finished very flat. This means the food release is less than optimal. I was going through potato very fast and the drag was too strong to be comfortable. I took a photo of a big chunk of potato actually got suck to the blade. I would say give the blade a bit convexity below the spine would definitely help the food release.

 

I was going to start another thread, but I don't think I can inside Chadd's forum. I haven't used the passaround, but I owned the Ringed Gidgee Gyuto + Saya.

Process/Customer Service -> Friend

I have been working with Chadd since August and have to say he is an ABSOLUTE pleasure working with Chadd. He really really cares about making the best possible product and is someone I definitely consider a friend now. We probably exchanged 50+ emails, skyped 4-5 times, and constantly messaged throughout the process. Beyond just receiving a knife and making a friend I have also learned a lot through this process.

Even after I received the blade Chadd messages me regularly to check-in to see if I am pleased with the blade and its performance. He also truly wants to improve, so he asked me to do comparison of other knives and also to give him very honest feedback.

I would recommend Chadd to anyone and I have actually already recommend Chadd to a couple of my friends!

F&F

This is definitely something Chadd excels at. He really puts in the extra effort to make it perfect. The spine and choil are rounded better than any other knife I have seen or handled. He spent numerous hours making sure (3+ attempts) that the handle fitment was perfect. The saya is also unbelievable and the friction fit is a pure bliss.

Performance

Carrots
Today I started my rigorous 4-way knife comparison between Tristone, Shigefusa, Wakui, Kato (petty so not a fair comparison, will compare to the Gyuto when I get it), and Masakage Yuki. I pounded through probably 15 carrots today alone and I have to say the Tristone cuts better than all of the previously mentioned blades besides the Wakui (@Anton will be happy to hear this).

More to come....Onions/Potatoes/Tomatoes. Will evaluate food release on the potatoes =)

 

Continued

Went through some potatoes and tomatoes today. The geometry of the Tristone lends itself very well to the tomatoes though I would agree with James that with potatoes their is some drag, this is due to the lasesr-like profile. I talked with Chadd about this and he has a couple really good ideas on how to improve this in the future.

On tomatoes Tristone is only every so slightly behind the Shigefusa. On the potatoes the Tristone blade perform significantly better than the Yuki but behind the Shig and Wakui due to the drag. This is only the case when working on a full potato, if I was working on a half-split potato the Tristone is as good as the Shig/Wakui.

Cheers,
Michael

 

Continued v2...

Just went through some onions and the Tristone beat out the Shig though was a little bit behind the Wakui (which I think really boxes above its weight/$$ class). Yuki was quite a bit behind here as the tip is a bit chunkier has has some wedgeing inside the onion.

Conclusions

The Tristone beat out the Shigefusa on the carrots (decent margin) and the onion (small margin)
The Tristone was behind the Shigefusa on the potatoes (decent margin) and tomatoes (very small margin)

Highly recommend Chadd, his F&F is top notch, his customer service and passion is impeccable, and performance is very good.

Cheers,
Michael