Today’s Review is of a custom Martell 300mm (or 12inch blade) Sujihiki… basically a Japanese styled slicer. This is one of my personal favorite knife designs. Not too tall, not too short.

This knife was made COMPLETELY Custom by Dave Martell of

www.japaneseknifesharpening.com

I’ve had this knife for quite some time now and like a beautiful woman can adequately relate if, how much, and what, I love about her.

Mr. Dave Martell is a talented sharpener specializing in hand sharpening, among other things, with Japanese water stones. This is a venture into knife making for him. It is a 300mm or 12inch blade made out of O-1 steel. Which is a carbon tool steel. What does this mean? Well, carbon means it is not stainless. It will patina. Carbon steel takes a very keen edge, in the culinary pro circuit it’s commonly agreed, more so than most stainless steels. Many times is considered a bit easier to sharpen and longer lasting to hold an edge. The trade off is a little more care is required, but if you are serious about your tools we will treat all our knives stainless or carbon with the same common care. Tool steel are steels normally designated for tools. Very tough and durable. Makers knowing a knife is a Chef’s most prize “tool” put two and two together and so we have it.

Below is a shot of the blade after some use and patina of the blade.

There are a couple different shots with different lighting so you can see the different color prisms that are apparent with the handle. Very nice. Some people are unaware that different colors present different power and feeling. Red is a prism of positive, aggressive, direct force. So I asked Dave for a Red handle … that and Red and Black look pretty cool! The grip is comfortable. Dave has definitely honed in his Western Handle making (the style found in Western or European/American knives). The material provides a soft but stable grip. Even when wet it’s pretty solid in hand with little slippage. The length and balance of the handle is simply a pleasure. I actually thought and expected this knife to be heavier than it is.

It is really quite thin at the edge, tapering down. This meaning that the spine is thicker and the steel thins in measurement as it gets to the edge of the blade. This provides strong foundation while giving more precise slicing ability, with smoother, more enjoyable cutting. This style of knife as eluded to earlier is specially designed for slicing. The length of the blade provides for a longer draw through whatever you are slicing … be it a 12 inch carrot (WOW!) or a large beef roast. Right now I have possibly bored my fellow chefs to sleep and thrown more novice readers off track. So lets get down to what I like about this blade. First, the spine and choil are rounded. The spine is the top of the knife blade. Go to your local store and grab a commercially sold knife and check out the sharp boxed/squared spine and imagine gripping that hours on end. The choil is the groove in the blade where it meets the handle. Again rounded and smooth means more comfort. Custom knife makers are catching on to this and it’s becoming a stock feature.

The greatness that is sometimes a downfall of this type of blade, the Sujihiki, is that is is more narrow than a Gyuto or Chef Knife. Meaning the length/width from spine to edge is less. So I asked Dave to grind the choil a little further up than his stock grinding. This allows for fingers to be tucked up and in a little higher and tighter. As well Dave’s profile is a bit taller at the heel or beginning of the edge. What does this mean? More knuckle clearance for increased efficiency in chopping. No banging your knuckles on the board. This is usually where a typical Sujihiki lacks in performance… while this design works quite well. You can see it has a nice flat spot, or in laymen terms … flat spot. The edge is flat towards the heel making chopping and push cutting a joy. With a gradual curve up to the tip making slicing and rock chopping just as nice. The tip design allows for detail work to be done but providing plenty of metal behind it to do a little more “tough” work as well. The design and blade is made to be very versatile and tough. And the only thing that concerned me was the length. I work in a professional kitchen for a living … I’m used to having the big knife … but 300mm is rather large for day to day work. But because of the balance mentioned earlier being so terrific, I was surprised at the ease of different tasks I encountered in the kitchen. It does have some flex, meaning some bend to it. Which is needed at times … but is very sturdy on the lower half at the heal where the blade is thicker. Again just a great all around combination. And we didn’t even talk about Dave’s edge it came with? Well, he still sharpens for a living, so the bevels he placed on it were quite noticeable if not by eye when I cut with it. For me it’s simple looking handle scheme, blade design, and patina’d steel is pretty much what I’m all about. No over the top frills or marketing gimmicks…. just comfortable, solid, durable, outstanding performance. I told Dave when I ordered it what I was looking for and he proceeded to ask me 20 additional questions to which I responded in similar phrasing…

I gave you my requests on choil and color … I trust you to choose from there …

Like any great artist, Chef, Knife Maker, or other title we want to use… you’d be surprised what you get when you let go and let the creative power of another take over … and if you give your confidence it only multiplies their own … certainly in this case… it DID! Kindest Regards