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need Help.

Discussion in 'Bryan Raquin' started by cassca, Aug 17, 2016.

  1. nice ;).. ok i will!
     
  2. Hiii!! ohh one more impression about the sharpness!

    So the knife is actually brutally sharp!
    i just waved on my arm and hair was removed gently without skin irritations ;))
    I thought "ohhh shh... its super sharp" ;))

    then i cut a pepper and disassembled it with no problems.. that was cool with the knife and very fine cuts and the skin fileting went super!

    I will nevertheless give it a careful touchup with my 2 Ohira Suitas and then test it with different stuff as commanded ;) ( it feels mega robust!)

    So I like it a lot...... but the geometry is completely hell for carrots and thicker vegetables .. therefore it seemed to me so dull, since it simply stuck in that monster carrots.
    So I make some Wok complete menu and I see how well it handles. Corners Rounding and polishing I may also .. this is just as life-threatening as on my Fujiwara Nashi knife;))

    So great knife from Sc145 with nice Finish .. which is cool with cutting and has good Foodrelease ..

    ok ill try to make a video and photos and stuff ;)
    LG Daniel!
     
  3. Wait WAT?! I wonder if we are talking about the same knife :)
    Can you elaborate more on the way you hold a knife? Cause I can't imagine how the edges on that knife could cause any troubles
     
  4. i am holding the knife in strangling super pinch grip 3000.. well they are no trouble.. but as soon as they are a touch smoother, the knife feels better in the hand.

    ill send pictures later.. for example on my fujiwara were i did this with the edges.
    soo so gotta work work a lot now and seeya later ;)
     
  5. in you opinion, is it global geometry problem , or it's what we have above the edge ?
     
  6. well i will try it more tonight.. with big carrots the tip and first 1/3 are ok but its not going trough them with zero friction like most of my laser knifes (i mostly got super thin lasers thats why the "carrottest" is my typical benchmark).
    for me its a bit too much above the edge but as mentioned its only if i use hard vegetable stuff.. slicing a pepper or other stuff is excellent with this geometry.

    soo before i say anything wrong, ill make a video and photos ;)
     
  7. nothing new over here ?
     
  8. Picked the knife up from krassi today and will testdrive it for a few days before I'll pass it back to zetium.
    We have planed for a gathering, the three of us and will do pictures and text on this occasion. Hope that's fine with you, Bryan?
     
  9. yes, it's perfect ;-)
    thank you .
     
  10. Hi all,

    the knife is with me for three days now and Bryan asked me for my initial impressions.

    Here is what I wrote to Bryan:
    (In the meantime I realized, that zetieum already wrote some remarks on the flat spot at the tip and also took some brilliant pictures thereof.)


    Hello Bryan,

    I understand the knife as a passaround knife to test for performance and cutting abilities. So fit and finish is not relevant, here.
    Anyways, Daniel already stated, that the spine was too sharp for his liking. I wouldn't call it sharp, but I can see what his argument tends to.
    Though the choil is nicely rounded and polished, the spine seems somewhat neglected to that point. It would certainly add to the comfort when using it, if you could ease or round it a little bit. Just so much, that it doesn't contrast with the otherwise very nice rustic look.

    The knife feels very nimble and robust at the same time. It's sturdy with no to very little flex. In this size I think it would be the role model of a line knife for me.

    But now about performance: I received the knife with a screaming edge from Daniel. I've been cutting carrots first and there is some light wedging noticeable. Due to the geometry of the knife (no laser to me) this was no surprise and nothing to complain about. Cutting onions with the very thin tip is a pure joy, the edge went through it like through butter. Acidity seems not to be a big problem. There was almost no reaction on the blade and very little discoloration on the onions. Same with ginger and tomatos. I also used it to trim some meat (onglet). Also no discoloration and the pointy tip was very useful. Tonight I will prepare the meat and will cut it up, so I'll see how the metal will react to warm meat (usually creates a bluish patina easily). As I'm no professional (not any more) I only use it in a home kitchen. So the knife only receives moderate use. To really test it's edge holding abilities, someone should try it in a professional kitchen with a whole day usage.

    One thing I noticed as something unusual: the edge towards the tip seems to have a second low spot of a few centimeters. This leads to a little wobbling effect when rock choping and the advantage isn't quite clear to me.I can try to take some pictures to better make clear.

    All in all the knife is a pure pleasure to use and if I wasn't on your list already, I'd immedialtly jump on it, now.
    Please let me know, if you have a specific interest/question, that I haven't covered. I'd be happy to further look into details, myself.

    Best regards
    Jürgen
     
  11. I still have to add my observation from cutting roasted beef: there was literally no reaction in terms of patina building or discoloration.
    I've let the knife sit on the counter for the length of the meal (say around half an hour) without wiping off the residue on the blade.
    That's when rust formation set's in.
     
  12. thank you zoze ;-)
     
  13. I grabbed the knife back and I am testing it. We will meet soon with @zoze and @Krassi to share our opinion on this knife. After that I will send it to the next on the list (middle of next week at the latest).

    A pic after some onions cutting and with the sourdough bread I bake this morning. There is really something special that I love in term of aesthetics with Bryan's knives.

    [​IMG]
     
  14. thanks Zetium ,

    did you cook together with @zoze and @Krassi ?
     
  15. @cassca Not yet, it is programmed for this week-end
     
  16. review of Bryan Raquin test guyto

    First, I would like to thank Bryan (@cassca) for letting me try this knife. I will be fully honest in my review and say as much the thing I liked and the things I disliked. I already spoke to Bryan this week-end to give him my thoughts.

    1. Pluses
    Style, handle
    As I previously wrote, I like very much the rustic yet delicate style of the knife. The handle is simple but perfectly executed and it fits perfectly the knife. The general look of the knife is very pleasing to my eye. But that is personal taste. In hand the knife looks better than in pic IMO.

    F&F
    F&F is simple, but good and sufficient. It fits the rustic look. Spine etc are rounded where it should be rounded.

    [​IMG]

    Ease of sharpening
    I sharpen this knife twice. Once when I got it back from @zoze. It was not needed, but I wanted to feel the steel on the stones. I just made a touch up on my Khao Men followed by a Suita. Fantastic. It is super super easy to sharpen, it gets a super scary sharp edge in no time.
    Second sharpening happened after I had few micro-chips from cutting some bread with hard crust. I took it to synthetic 2000, followed by natural stones blue Aizu, and a Suita renge. Once again, amazing. I few passes the chip were gone and edge after 2000 grit was already scary. The rest was pure pleasure. Really it is among the most pleasing knife I ever sharpen. From far.
    Knowing that the goal of the pass around was to test the HT, this is very positive.

    Edge retention
    I am a home cook. Still I used this knife exclusively for one week and I also spend two evening cutting things just for the fun and to asses the knife. Edge rendition is very good for a steel that is comparable to shirogami #1. I compared it to my Carter and to my Teryasu Fujiwara (both white 1, so close enough). Edge retention is clearly better than the Carter and at least equivalent than the TF. Of course, this is subjective, but still. Once again, keeping in mind that the goal was the assessment of HT, this is very positive. As previously mentioned I had microchip that averred likely from the hard crispy crust of my sourdough bread. After resharpening and extensive use, I did not notice any chip what so ever.

    Below is a pic of the micro-chips.
    [​IMG]


    2. Neither plus, neither minus

    Reactivity
    I found the core steel almost not reactive. If it reacted in some way, it just got a bit of patina in the grey/ dark blue tones. So very good. The cladding was more reactive, but it was what one could expect for a carbon steel knife. No problem here. The only issue is that the cladding when used takes a layer of orange that is not very pleasing. This layer is not sticky: just taking the blade to a towel remove it completely. In short, this is not a big deal at all, but it worths mentioning it. Note that it did not affect the cutting or performance in any way and did not stain the food.

    Here is a pic of some patina on the tip together with what I believe is the maker mark.

    [​IMG]


    And below a not very nice pic but it shows the yellow/orange layer that is fortunately not stable
    [​IMG]



    3. Minuses

    Profile
    This has been already discussed. There are basically 2 flat spots in the hell area and in the tip area. The transition in the middle is too hard to my taste. This is certainly the main issue I have with this knife. It is not pleasing to the eye and it is not nice on the board. It makes rock cuts no nice at all. For instance I tried to cross chop parsley, basically not doable because of that. The curvature should be more regular and smoothed.


    Geometry
    After some chat with Bryan, the philosophy of this knife is the following: the first 2 third of the blade (from heel) are rather thicker for power cutting etc. The last third (tip area) is thinner for precision cut. This helped me a lot to better enjoy the knife. However, to my taste, this knife is wedging too much, especially in the first 2/3. It cracks carrots (see the video at the end). I could not determine if the wedging comes either from thickness above the cutting edge or from the transition between the « bladeoroad » and rest. My two cents: it is a bit of both. This issue is logically less marked in the tip area.

    [​IMG]

    4. Conclusions

    Altogether, it was a lot of fun to play with this knife. Except the few things I mentioned in the negative points, it went through all ingredients very nicely . I like it a lot.

    The goal of this pass around was to evaluate the new HT of Bryan. The only way, I think I could humbly evaluate it is based on sharpenability and edge retention. In both area I found it excellent. So I hope it helps.

    Along that, it was the opportunity to test other aspects. Clearly the transition between the heel and the tip is THE major issue. This is easy to correct.
    For the thickness / wedging. Some of it comes from the philosophy of the knife. I am not a big fan of the 2/3 from the heel area, but the tip area is very nice (draw cuts, tip chop etc). However, this clearly could be designed and discussed with Bryan in the context of a custom making. I may suggest to do 1/2 for power cut and 2/3 thinner.

    Thank you again Bryan for letting me test drive your knife, I felt honoured. And please keep me on your scrolls for one, or even two, custom orders!


    Below some videos if you can stand my poor technique. while cutting, I tried to test different things and different part of the knife to illustrate.



    Tis last video is all about carrots.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2016
  17. thank you !!

    I want the knife passes by my house to change the " 2 flat spots" , it is clearly a default, and it's not very hard to fix it . ( i am not realy confortable with that ...)

    i understand the wedgy part, and i don't want to change it in this knife , not fair for the futur membre in this passaround .
    are you ok with that ?

    who the next ? someone in europe ?
     
  18. that's it ? i keep the knife or .... ?
     
  19. XooMG

    XooMG Founding Member

    I think some folks who are interested are still recovering from recent events and might need some time. Don't worry.
     
  20. MattS

    MattS Founding Member

    I think the knife is US bound, right? To me?
     

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