ZBlog, the blog of zknives.com

I got two new ones today. Busse Nuclear Muskarat and Phil Wilson small Chef's knife. Nuclear Muskarat is a small fixed blade, made of Busse proprietary INFI steel of course. Not a production blade, custom shop. Really thin for Busse. Makes it that much interesting. Fit and finish are just excellent. Phil Wilson's custom kitchen knives are really highly regarded in US, and they are top notch craftsmanship too. This one is made of CPM154 steel, 61HRC, thin, high performance cutter, just like he does it with other knives.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 18:25:11

Finally my custom chef's knife is ready. Relatively small knife, made of CPM154 steel. More like an experimental piece, but safe to let non-knife people for short term use, under supervision :)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 14:37:27

After last two weeks of Busse acquiring/trading operations I've ended up with three(!) new Busse knives. Jerry is my favorite combat knife maker after all. Won Nuclear Muskrat on 02/09 Ganza, got HG55 LE(Limited Edition) and finally the new, Fusion Battle Mistress. That's quite a load for a one week. Next couple weeks will be busy, but good kindda busy ;)

Monday, March 2, 2009 19:51:07

Finally, after few months of waiting got the word from Shigefusa. He started making my Kitaeji (damascus) gyuto! It's been a long time since I have placed that order. Actually little more than 3 months. I hope in a month or two I will get my new beauty. Shigefusa is one of the highest regarded knife makers in Japan. Really hard to get his knives here in US. Can't say it's cheap either, but it is really worth the price and wait. I still have to wait, but they've started making it, that's already a good news :)

Monday, March 2, 2009 19:38:28

Today ordered new, white steel Ikkanshi Tadatsuna(Tadatuna) made Usuba Kamagata, or Kamagata Usuba. Called both ways. Anyway, Takeshi - aframestokyo.com has great respect for that maker and so do other folks on knifeforums.com. Good enough a reason to try the new knife. Why not, always fun. Besides, I don't have usuba, and last year Tadatsuna stopped making knives out of white steel, because one of the blacksmiths left. They may renew production, but for now it's a rarity. I'm hunting for his 270mm white steel gyuto, it's the thinnest I've ever seen. No luck so far. But, this one is a welcomed addition to my collection.

Monday, March 2, 2009 19:27:28

Parties are good, hangovers are bad... Considering that last night's party went till 3am or so, I have a pretty bad hangover today. Oh well, I'll live. Not in the mood to do serious stuff anyway. Just did a few fixes, grammar checks and other updates. That utility hunter is one of the best cutters I've ever seen, and as such, remains in my favorites top list since I've had it.

Sunday, March 1, 2009 21:47:56

Phil Wilson made it few months ago, picked it up on BAKCA show. CPM-125M knife, the only one in my collection. I've used it several times, pretty intensive cuting. Well, it's a superb cutter from a very exotic steel too. Unfortunately, looks like CPM-125V was discontinued. No other makers is willing to work with it either. Too hard and wear resistant, literally eats through the belts. Originally designed for dental equipment, but turned out too hard to make equipment out of it. Makes a very good knife though. Anyway, there will be new steels and there will be new knives :)

Friday, February 27, 2009 20:39:46

This weekend is Aritsugu A-Type gyuto training time. Singe bevel knife, super thin, ~12 deg. edge. Because of the single bevel and concave back side one needs to pay extra attention and use correct grip to make straight cuts. No biggie once you get used to it, but does take some practice in the beginning. I finally got things right this month, and now I don't wanna loose my skillz :) Besides, it's always a joy working with a sharp knife, especially with a superb performer like this Aritsugu.

Friday, February 27, 2009 15:32:32

I don't really watch Top Chef show, not as interesting as Iron Chef and chef's themselves aren't that big yet. Anyway, they are still celebrity chefs. Last night, Stefan Richter made sashimi, the trouble was, he froze it first. Why? Because he couldn't get a nice, thin and even slice with the dull knife. Obviously, that didn't go unnoticed and he lost. For something as stupid as a dull knife. How can a chef show up with a dull knife, especially when he's on competition show, on TV, is hard to comprehend. So, yeah chefs are chefs, but they aren't the best knife users. Still better than Bobby Flay opening the can lid with the Shun chef's knife.

Thursday, February 26, 2009 20:35:58

I figured it was time to give that review a final overhaul. Lots of facts and info in it were clearly outdated. Plus, during those years since I wrote it, I've gained new perspective on kitchen knives and their performance. Well, that's it for that particular review. No more updates, especially that the knife is discontinued and technologies used in it were replaced with modern ones, by Henckel.

Thursday, February 26, 2009 18:17:23