What can I say about this gorgeous knife. The second I laid eyes on it I immediately thought “that’s a mini Tank.” You know the one I’m talking about, the oh so sought after Tank cleaver by Tinker that I watched fly off the shelves soon after we’d be unboxing them, having only just ended their long journey from the motherland of all things beautiful.
I myself have never been a cleaver cook, an absolute prep beast that never seemed to feel good in my hand regardless of any size. But this? This is the best of all worlds, a bit of everything I love hammered together to create one of the widest santokus I’ve ever seen. And boy, does it get the job done. Funny enough, despite all my years in the knife world, I’ve never bought myself a carbon steel knife. I’ll be honest, even though most of my working background was in kitchens, I’ve always been too afraid to use one. I know how I am in a chaotic rushed environment, and more importantly how other people are…and maybe I have trust issues. I’ve seen many a damaged knife in my time and I didn’t want to be that person, can you blame me?
Now that I’ve hung up my apron for the time being, I get to enjoy my time cooking at home, where I have the time and patience to look after carbon steel. Who was going to tell me I’d been missing out all these years? Light as a feather, this knife glides through everything like butter and would make anyone feel like they have the best knife skills in the world. Even if I wanted to take my time prepping, I wouldn’t be able to with how fast I can chop through an onion or cucumber.
I’ve been very on top of keeping it clean and dry and after only a few weeks I’ve already got a beautiful patina forming under the hamon line. I can’t wait to see how that develops over the years. I suspect I won’t need to sharpen it for some time, but I cannot wait to see how razor sharp it can be once I do. I never thought I’d fall in love with another knife that wasn’t made by Takeshi Saji (yes I said it); but this one has made me rethink my go-to knife, for now anyways.
Thanks for reading - B