I`ve been cooking since `72 in well over fifty Countries - I cook for the homeless regularly - I don`t weigh, measure or time food - I don`t need to and recipes are useless if one likes 3-4-5 way fusion cooking from 3 Continents simultaneously - I never want the same meal twice.
I`ve cooked with Graham Kerr and Kieth Floyd in Devon and all over France and The Med - we learnt from each other, bonded immediately and were good friends; I really miss him.
My Mother introduced me to Fanny and Johnny Craddock in the seventies and we had a ball - I learnt loads and couldn`t stop laughing - I love eccentrics.
I have quite a few knives and scissors (over 500) but only two bespoke knives - both English; this one and a Michael May O1 carbon utility from Sheffield.
I treated myself to this powdered metallurgy Chinese Chef`s knife - I`ve been offered £8500.00 for it but it`s going to my son in Bordeaux when I die.
It can push-cut cigarette papers and I smashed a medium coconut in three with it to take it on a proper test-drive - RWL-34 is very tough steel from damasteel - Sweden.
the handle is Asian striped ebony - which is harder than black African ebony - but very beautiful - it is an 8 inch - full tang with no rivets - weighs 317 grams, is 2mm thick with no distal taper.
I can cut a 1 inch radish into 40-50 slices and dice 4 med onions a minute with it - I lived in Hong Kong and Macau for 15 years and learnt to do everything with an 8 inch big knife - from skinning & filleting a 200 lb shark on a beach at midnight for a huge barbeque to carving fruit and veg flowers for decoration.
So after a bit of research I found Savernake knives in Wiltshire and commissioned a totally one-off knife.
I discussed my requirements with the fantastic owner Laurie Timpson in Spring 2022 and my request was unusual because most people wanted a European - German/French style chef`s knife or a Japanese gyuto / santoku or a hybrid.I wanted something totally different.
I decided on a mostly rectangle 8" x 4" Chinese chef`s knife with a 50/50 flat 25 degree grind and flat bezel in an unusual steel.
I wanted a blue #2 or white #1 but he didn`t do carbons only Swedish Sandvik stainless 14C28N which wasn`t good enough for me.
I decided on a good all-rounder balanced steel - tough, not bad edge retention and not too hard to sharpen.
I asked the MD for a powdered metallurgy RWL-34 plain blade not damascus but I wanted a full tang handle with no rivets and I loved the look of Asian ebony which is not related to African ebony and is more dark brown than black and it`s an unusual choice for a knife handle but it is tough and beautiful.
It took a lot of attempts to end up with a flat blade because most knives in RWL-34 are thicker and narrower.
I wanted mine 2mm thick but wide and tall with a HRC of 61/62 so it could take a beating doing hard chopping but didn`t need sharpening all the time.I also wanted no bolster, well-balanced and under 350 grams or about 12 ounces.Mine is around 320g or 11oz approximately which is good for the size.
I didn`t get charged for the rejects or the prototype otherwise it would have been $2000 - $3000 only £650 quid or just over $800 which is a total bargain.
The company only charged me for the final production piece because it is an unique tool.
It took six months to arrive but was worth the wait.
I know it`s an extravagance but it is my only bespoke knife - all the rest are reasonably priced Japanese ( less than $150 ) - most of them are cheapies or old or discount Chinese no-name blades.
It is plain but unusual and not bad looking - you guys will have to give me your opinion.
It is definitely a one-off I`ve never seen a big thin cooking knife in RWL-34.
Performance wise it is a dream - it breezes through anything - medium 1" - 2" thick beef, goat, pork and lamb bones or frozen fish don`t bother it because it`s not a fragile little boy like some Japanese artisan knives.I got over 50 slices out of a medium onion so it can do delicate as well and I can carve tomatoes or apples with it.
Don`t laugh but I took it on a test drive in the summer - I used a $800 knife to smash a coconut up - it obliterated it with no dints or curled blade after - nothing.I knew it could take it.
I knew RWL-34 was bomb proof because I`ve seen kitchen knives go through oil drums and big beef cattle bones no problem.
If it can chop a coconut cleanly with no damage ; it can take any normal abuse in the kitchen.
I don`t really know why RWL-34 is so tough; I`m just guessing perhaps it has more tolerance and headroom or the tempering gradient allows it to be more ductile - I`ve no idea.I just know it makes half decent survival and outdoor EDC type knives and I`ve only seen a lot of VG10 used for cutlery.I know it`s quite a balanced steel that can go up to HRC 62-63 max and the sweet spot for toughness is around high fifties/low sixties like a modern Wusthof (58) and really old Wusthof`s were carbon and low sixties.A lot depends on the grind - the overall knife shape plus many many other variables.Apparently Bob Loveless tweaked his RWL-34 for a good overall balance for outside knives.
I have a white #1 Guyto and a blue #2 Santoku that are both brittle being HRC 63 and 64 respectively.I`ve cooked with traditional yellow, white and blue Hitachi paper steels since the mid seventies so I know their quirks.I know little about powdered steel metallurgy because I prefer old-style carbons and personally I can get better edge retention at the expense of toughness compared to mid-tier stainless and semi-stainless steels.I never bothered with PM or decent full stainless knives until fairly recently as I am probably old-fashioned in my steel choice.
I know the bespoke RWL-34 caidao was a dear knife but I wanted to test it`s limits and bones, frozen fish and even coconuts don`t harm it it all.The original steel composition was designed for tough survival / EDC outdoor knives - so in theory kitchens should be easy haha !
I knew that RWL-34 was an offshoot of the American-made Crucible Industries CPM 154.It was tweaked by legendary U.S. bladesmith Robert W Loveless hence the initials.Damasteel in Sweden manufacture it and compared to todays supersteels and superalloys it is nothing that special.
However it offers a good general balance of properties at a not exorbitant price.For some people it is an acceptable compromise being as you say, relatively easy to sharpen, can be mirror-polished, is not a nightmare to machine/anneal/temper etc, holds an edge for a while, doesn`t easily tarnish/rust and discolour and is above an average toughness coefficient if sympathetically heat-treated.
It maxes out at about HRC-62-63 which can be a bit brittle for knives that do hard chopping and are used outside in relatively harsh, environments in the field.
I have two inexpensive no-name 8 inch 340 gram unspecified hand-forged carbon kurouchi finished Chinese Chef`s knives at HRC-60-61.They sharpen to razor sharp in no time in the kitchen but I can hack one inch thick green branches in the garden with no ill effects whatsoever.Obviously they are no match for a fairly modern P.M. stainless like RWL-34 but they are a good pair of workhorses I`ve owned for 4+ years and only cost $10 each.Total bargain.
My chopper is probably HRC-60-61 which traditionally is the sweet spot for both durability and edge-retention.
So to summarise - a upper-midrange stainless that`s a half-decent all-rounder.
It doesn`t look much but it performs quite quite well.
