I've been using this Chicago Cutlery knife as a carving knife for about 40 years. It does the job but sometimes, when we were trying to be a little bit fancy for a dinner party, I've wished for a carver that didn't look so plebeian.
My favorite BBQ shop carries the Hammer Stahl line. They use one in the shop when they're demonstrating, so I bought one after testing it a bit there.
This is it.
Here's how it compares to the old Chicago Cutlery knife.
The review–
Name of ProductHammer Stahl calls it their 14" Slicer.
Purpose of the productThis is a slicing knife only. Like most golf clubs, this device was designed for a single purpose—straight slicing. It's a poor choice for any other knife work. You'll want to use a knife with a rounded and sharp tip (i.e., the above pictured Chicago Cutlery knife or a scimitar blade) for intricate carving such as separating a turkey breast from the ribs.
Pros and cons of product
Pros:This is a forged knife (heated steel pounded into shape), as opposed to stamped (die cut from a steel sheet). Forged knives can be made with a bolster, the wide part where the blade merges with the handle. Bolsters are easier to clean and provide a safe location for placing an index finger ahead of the handle and the thumb on the blade's other side (the pinch grip that chef schools teach).
Forged knives are generally thought of as a better quality than stamped. (This is somewhat because of higher retail pricing. They're more expensive because their manufacturing costs are higher due to the required equipment and labor.)
The German steel alloy is quite stain resistant.
The company provides lifetime free sharpening (regrinding) if you pay the small shipping charge to return it to you.
Cons:See the comments on the steel alloy in the section on Impressions below.
The factory claims to grind a 20° bevel, typical of most U.S. kitchen knives. It's appropriate for a kitchen knife in this steel alloy but a slicing knife is likely to benefit from a 17° bevel as it isn't subjected to rough treatment.
Chef's pinch grip.
Impressions and other thoughts on the productFor those of you who are interested in knife steel composition, this slicer is made of German X50CrMoV15 stainless steel and hardened to 55-57 Rockwell. It's the steel used by Wusthof, Victorinox and others in their high-end knives. The steel naming convention has never made sense to me, so here's the steel composition–
X50 is carbon. The 50 indicates 0.5% to improve hardness, tensile strength, edge retention and resistance to wear and abrasion.
Cr is chromium at 15% to improve rust resistance, hardness and tensile strength.
Mo is molybdenum added at about 0.75% for the ability to resist rust and brittleness and to be machined and sharpened.
V is vanadium at about 0.25% to add hardness and wear resistance.
They're not in the name but there's also–
Manganese at 1% for hardness, strength and wear resistance.
Silicon at 1% to help eliminate unwanted gasses during manufacturing.
Phosphorous in a trace amount.
Sulfur in a negligible amount.
There are knife steels that will hold their edges better, but they are also more difficult to regrind. The minor lack of edge-holding isn't important in a slicing knife as it is likely to always be used on a cutting board and not encounter bones (it's a
slicer).
As noted, the steel is German, but after the blade, bolster and continuous tang are forged, installing the handle and final finishing are done in China.
At 14-inches, this is a long knife. As a result, it's not particularly well balanced. But it's also not particularly important in a slicing knife that's only drawn straight across the material to be sliced. That's when knives cut—when they're drawn across the material to be sliced, not when they're pressed down—and fourteen inches allows for a long effortless slicing stroke that produces thin, even, smooth-sided slices.
The handle is mostly polished metal tang with a bit of some sort of chemically treated wood as accents. I think it's very attractive and looks more expensive than it is. The included instructions specify hand washing and avoiding citrus cleansers.
Would you recommend this product?Yes. I think it's a good dollar value. It's extremely sharp and only requires a few strokes on a glass smooth butcher's steel to true-up the edge. I doubt that I'll ever sharpen it (regrind the bevel) but if I do, I'll probably experiment with a sharper bevel angle, even though it may sacrifice some edge durability.
I am so enamored with this knife that I recently purchased the 7-inch fillet knife to use when trimming fat and silverskin from items that I'm preparing.
Pictures
MSRP of product on date of review$129.00 on the Hammer Stahl web site.
EDIT: Corrected high bit characters, such as °, that were garbled by an update to the forum software.