Photo Egg said:

NPHuskerFL said:

@theyolksonyou Yes Jason they're 15% off right now. They're entire lineup are beautiful well thought out knives. They're extremely durable and they each hold their edge quite well for hardcore chefs.  

Strange there is no option for blade length. Nor do they even give dimension at all...

gdenby said:

stompbox said:

What exactly is special about these knives?  Knives have been studied for centuries.  How can a newcomer come on the scene and say they have a superior product in 2015?

I am knife uneducated,  but I have a strong understanding of materials properties being an engineer.

Short answer, promised high performance at an unusually low price, and probably available to a mass market.

A bit of historical kitchen knife history. With the introduction of "stainless" chromium low carbon steel steel knives about 100 years ago, cooks and butchers had a choice to make.  Did one's needs only call for a knife that would be reasonably sharp, and require little maintenance, or a keener blade that was prone to corrosion. (From what I gather, the 1st stainless knives in production were probably no harder than Rockwell 52.) The standard for most home cooks became stainless. Lots of butchering was done w. stainless also, with the blade being sharpened away in the course of use. Cooks who needed an edge that would give more precise cuts, and which could be used for hours without fatigue often used high carbon, and remained careful to keep the blades clean and dry.

Along the way, various alloys were devised to improve the shortcomings of both types. Still, most sales could be made with knives that were mediocre. Better knives remained expensive because they were better made, and sold to people who made a living off them. And they had lots of caché and were sold through exclusive vendors.

For a number of reasons, over the past 15 years or so, the market for higher performance knives increased. There has been lots of competition at the high end among the makers, and sometimes the product became even more expensive. But more buyers wanted at least some of the performance of the best knives, but w/o paying much more than usual.

If I'm recalling correctly, I've read that many, if not most home kitchen knives were a Rockwell hardness of around 54. When I started looking at better knives, 440C tempered to about Rockwell 56 was considered fine quality. More people are realizing the advantage of steels that rate around 60. The kickstarter project is one of several recent offering that aim at this market. There are several makers who offer 8" chef knives between &75 - $100 that rate around 62 - 62 Rockwell.

understood. I am gathering people are going ga-ga over the low cost then.

I can recall my Engineering Materials prof telling us we can provide a sharp knife that will hold an edge virtually indefinitely, but the hardness is such that it will chip the first time you drop it...

Again, I am not an educated knife person, but I keep remembering this every time a knife salesman or knife commercial comes on (remember the huge banzaii knife commercial campaigns?) promising a lasting sharp knife like they are reinventing the wheel.

You can't change the limitations of the physical properties, unless they are using a new material,

HeavyG said:

Thatgrimguy said:

HeavyG said:

I didn't really need another chef knife but I went in for one knife mainly because in Kenji's post he seemed excited about them and the price point.

Another project that may be of interest to some folks here is this rig for dry aging meat:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1890209291/the-steakager-dry-age-steaks-right-in-your-fridge?ref=nav_search

and their website:http://www.thesteakager.com/

Umai dry bags already do this affordably. 

Are UMAi dry bags reusable?

Why no, no they are not.

At $10+/- per bag I guess if one only very infrequently ages a steak they are fine but it appears to me that if this is something one might want to do routinely I don't see how the bags work out to be more affordable.