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Post by Adrian Jordan on Mar 4, 2016 7:15:35 GMT
This thread is to show the 2nd prelim round blades. These blades are the smiths efforts at creating eating blades, and are being reviewed by mikeeman. Please enjoy.
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Mar 4, 2016 7:16:02 GMT
FiSBG Preliminary Round 2Ok, so just like last time, I'm going to do this in sections so I don't lose my work. I'd like to do it on my PC first, but I don't have MS Word and the Notepad thing sucks. Please also note that there was a time limit for these knives. Flaws are absolutely expected when you force someone to finish a knife in 6 hours, so when I point them out, don't think I'm just ragging on them. Sacrifices have to be made, it's just up the the smith on where to make them. Anyway, let's get to it.Initial ImpressionsFallen's KnifeFallen's knife has the best finish of the three. The scales are sealed well and look very nice. Also has a spot where you can choke up on the knife if. Not sure why you'd need to on an eating knife, but it's there if you want to use it. Although that spot does seem to make the handle unnecessarily long. It feels very nice in the hand and the blade tapers very well. Just like his fillet knife, the bevel grind wasn't perfectly even on both sides, but it came decently sharp and I expect it to do well.
Specs: 9 1/4" OAL 4 1/8" cutting edge 1" Ricasso 1/8" thick at spine of blade tapers to 1/16" at tip right at the secondary bevel Marc's KnifeMarc's knife comes second in the finish, but only on the blade. His handle scales are also very well done and made with some neat wood that has stripes in it. I'm not sure exactly what kind of wood it is, but I like it. Unlike on his fillet knife, this one is sealed. Has a rather unusual "step" up to the blade as protection from cutting yourself, but it's effective and I had no problems with my finger touching the cutting edge. It is clearly forged from an old file, because the file finish is still on the blade. It's quite a bit thicker and heavier that Fallen's.
Specs: 7 7/8" OAL 4 1/8" cutting edge 7/16" thick Taper too hard to measure because of the clip point, but it doesn't appear to have any Freq's KnifeFreq's knife is made from what I understand to be titanium. The handle appears to be some kind of laminated woods of different types with a brass bolster type of thing. Of the three, it was the least sharp. Even so, it feels very light and easy to use.Specs:8 1/8" OAL4 1/8" cutting edgeRoughly 3/32 thick throughout. No taper.TestingWhile none of these knives were specifically designed to be food prep knives, I also can't eat a butt-load of steak just to thoroughly test each knife. So I turned to using them to prep the food to help judge their ability to, ya know, cut food. So $52 at Kroger's later...
The MatersTomatoes are a pretty classic test medium for knives, since they so easily "squish" instead of cutting. I started with Fallen's knife. Being the sharpest of the three, it did the best. However, it still had a little bit of trouble. The first cut and the last cut were both a little difficult. You can see where it put a dent in the last piece, but didn't cut through it.Marc's knife, being thicker, had a bit of a harder time. It wasn't THAT much harder, but noticeable. I think the only reason it didn't fare as well was because it was thicker. Which isn't good for cutting tomatoes. I forced it on the last cut, but it just kind of ripped it instead of cutting.Freq's knife, while thinner overall, has the least steep secondary bevel angle. So it did about on par with Marc's knife on the tomatoes. Ripping the last piece as well.The BaconI specifically chose bacon because it's actually pretty difficult to cut. It just wants to wiggle around instead of cutting straight through. So it seemed like the perfect candidate for seeing which knife would cut through, and which would just do the "wiggle"Fallen's knife did WAY better than expected. Went all the way through each piece in one swipe. I think this was due to being the sharpest and having the best taper. Either way, it made short work of the fairly difficult medium.Marc's knife, being thicker and less sharp, took more of a sawing action to cut through, as it wouldn't cut all the way in one swipe like Fallen's, but it still actually cut through fairly well. It still managed to slice instead of just move the bacon around.Freq's knife took more sawing than Marc's, and made the bacon dance a little, but it certainly still got the job done.The ShroomsCutting mushrooms probably isn't any kind of testament to a knife's quality to most people, but I find that if you have a dull knife, it tends to just pop them apart instead of cutting them. Plus, I wanted mushrooms. Deal with it. Like the bacon, Fallen's knife flew through the mushrooms, leaving a nice looking pile of slices behind. And so did Marc's. And so did Freq's. They all did about the same, here.The Onion (not the satirical news site)Cutting onions can be a pain. If a knife isn't sharp enough or too thick, it just seems to kind of pop the layers apart instead of cutting through them. And again, I wanted onions. So I cut onions.Fallen's knife, yet again, had no problem with the onions. Whipped through no problem and left some good looking slices behind.Marc's actually surprised me a bit, here. While it was slightly more difficult than Fallen's, it actually did pretty well. I had expected the thickness of the knife to pose problems, and while it did, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.Freq's knife also did well. his knife, being fairly thin, was also able to make some clean little onion slices.The Peppers (not the band)Peppers also just kind of squish if a knife isn't sharp enough. And.... I wanted peppers. Again, Fallen's did the best. Not to say the others did bad, because they didn't, but both Freq's and Marc's were just slightly more difficult to use on the peppers. All did just fine, though.My side medley is now complete. While the tomatoes weren't put in there, they made for a nice little snack while I was waiting for everything else to cook. Turned out pretty good, I think.And cooked down to a perfect steak side/topping.Everything is at Steak, Here.Can somebody cue The Final Countdown?... Thanks. So I talked my friend's younger brother in to cooking up the steaks I bought. Because he does a damn good job. Way better than I can. Angus sirloin, baby. Let's get it. All knives were properly washed and dried after cutting up the raw ingredients in preparation for my amazing lunch.Fallen's knife did exactly what it was supposed to. Cut steak. There isn't really much else to say.Marc's knife, despite being so thick, actually did way better than I thought it would. I had expected it be be a lot more difficult, but it really wasn't bad at all. I guess the weight of the knife had something to do with it? I dunno. But it got the job done.Freq's knife also fared well. Just being thin, it went through fairly easily.All knives were, again, washed and dried. Plus, I put a light layer of oil on each of them.
Potential Health Risks While some may not mind, I thought I needed to mention the potential risks involved with using these knives for eating. Fallen's knife seems to pose no potential threat, but the other two have qualities worth mentioning.Marc's knife has that rough finish with some lines still in it from the file that it was forged out of. That, in and of it's self, isn't a problem, but I did notice as I was oiling the blade that I was getting some black residue from the blade on the cloth I was using. Plus, it might be hard to scrub food out of the little pits.Freq's knife is the one I'm mostly worried about. There is a slice in the blade toward the tip that appears to go all the way through the blade. Plus, there is a hole in the bolster/handle where the blade passes through that isn't filled with epoxy. These two things could allow for food to become lodged in there, and go bad. While the risk of food poisoning from this may be low, I still think it is worth bringing up, and should be a factor in the judgement.Final ResultsWhile all three knives were perfectly acceptable, I think I'm gonna have to give a clear first place to Fallen with Marc's in a very close second. I think had his blade been finished just a tad better and a little thinner, it would have been very hard to call. Freq's gets a very easy, but still not shameful, last place. Though his knife performs acceptably as an eating knife, the performance and health risks about it put in where it is.
Thank you to everyone who turned in knives this round, and to everyone who will read this. All knives perform the duties they were assigned and will be given away, free of charge, as soon as the other rounds are judged and Adrian organizes the next give-away deal thing. Please share this with your friends, as more publicity for this will push it along and make it easier to move faster. We hope you stay tuned, and keep up with the competition as it moves forward.
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Post by L Driggers (fallen) on Mar 4, 2016 9:59:56 GMT
Just get it freaking did already, get busy peel somethings, cut some meat. We've been at this 7 months now.
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Post by freq on Mar 5, 2016 10:55:28 GMT
been hanging to see reviews for these seems like forever ago i sent em off
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Mar 5, 2016 17:40:55 GMT
Getting ready to start cooking. Results will be up by the end of the day.
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Post by DigsFossils-n-Knives on Mar 5, 2016 22:06:45 GMT
Getting ready to start cooking. Results will be up by the end of the day. Now I get the "start cooking" instead of "start cutting". Good job with the review. Congrats to the three smiths, and big congrats to Fallen!
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Post by chrisperoni on Mar 5, 2016 23:50:33 GMT
Nice work!
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Post by randomnobody on Mar 6, 2016 0:08:34 GMT
I don't know what you just made, but I want some. (This is why I couldn't do these rounds, myself; I don't cook. )
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Post by chrisperoni on Mar 6, 2016 0:19:41 GMT
I couldn't do the rounds because life is a b***h.
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Post by randomnobody on Mar 6, 2016 0:48:21 GMT
That, too. Figures I had all this free time before I got the knives... Anyway, what's the word on the other seven knives, Mike?
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Mar 6, 2016 1:10:43 GMT
Well, I've got my fishing trip planned in the morning, so hopefully the fillet knives will get final judgement tomorrow. The results for the rest will be posted probably next Sunday.
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Post by freq on Mar 6, 2016 1:41:35 GMT
nice review, not surprised on place in this round basically threw the blade together lol
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SanMarc
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Post by SanMarc on Mar 6, 2016 6:00:40 GMT
Nice Job Man!! I might say mine has flame maple scales... and the first blade I made cracked in quench... Sooooo.. this knife was done with the four hours I had left... :P///
Other wise I completely agree with you that Fallens is the best of the lot... and as to health concerns... before Stainless.... a "Greenlee knife was pretty much it..... No one got sick from any thing if there knives were properly cared for.... Even then... People were pretty tuff... ;)
SanMarc.
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Post by L Driggers (fallen) on Mar 6, 2016 6:49:15 GMT
I've just been going with ash most of the time on these first round knives. But I have came up with a real good supply of other woods. So if we ever get to the elite round I will use one of them.
Found a cabinet maker who uses extoic hard wood. Got a lot of walnut, zebra, bulgina, purple heart, tiger stripe maple and a few other woods from him.
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Post by Croccifixio on Mar 6, 2016 11:27:25 GMT
Oh God that steak looks so good
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Mar 6, 2016 19:48:01 GMT
Oh God that steak looks so good Dude, you don't even know. You can't comprehend how good it was. He's ultra good at cooking them.
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Mar 7, 2016 1:52:27 GMT
nice review, not surprised on place in this round basically threw the blade together lol Hey, man. You turned a knife it. Which is more than I can say for myself. Plus, even though it didn't win, it still cuts steak. I'll put a better edge one it before it goes out to whoever wins it, if you're ok with that.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Mar 7, 2016 1:56:07 GMT
I don't know what you just made, but I want some. (This is why I couldn't do these rounds, myself; I don't cook. ) I would have added the tomatoes to the pan and perhaps not cooked the result as long
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Mikeeman
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Post by Mikeeman on Mar 7, 2016 4:07:09 GMT
I would agree with that if it were going on to some pasta dish with Alfredo sauce.
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Post by freq on Mar 7, 2016 9:16:02 GMT
nice review, not surprised on place in this round basically threw the blade together lol Hey, man. You turned a knife it. Which is more than I can say for myself. Plus, even though it didn't win, it still cuts steak. I'll put a better edge one it before it goes out to whoever wins it, if you're ok with that. go for it but bear in mind its a b*itch to sharpen titanium, might be better option to give it away as the booby prize lol
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