A Comfy Take on an Outdoor Kiritsune
I didn’t expect to like this knife. I shouldn’t have. There are so many red flags in its various vendor descriptions across the internet, but in practice it actually performs pretty well, and has some nice ergonomic touches.
Specifications
| Overall Length: | 12.25” |
| Blade Length: | 7.75” |
| Blade Steel: | High carbon nonstainless |
| Blade Thickness: | 3 mm |
| Blade Shape: | K-tip (modified kiritsune) |
| Blade Grind: | Flat |
| Handle Length: | 4.75” |
| Handle Material: | Pakkawood |
| Weight: | 291 g (10.3 oz) |
| What I Like | What I Don’t Like |
|---|---|
| Crowned spine and big grippy handle | Pretty heavy. |
| Nice edge with decent retention | Mystery steel is definitely not stainless. |
| Balance is okay for a heavy knife | Unpolished portion of the blade makes it harder to clean. |
| High carbon steel can get a good patina going |
Some Red Flags, but Don’t Worry
It touts itself as a rustic, handmade “rare, investment piece” (according to its Amazon listing) like it came out of an ancient blacksmith shop, but it’s more like a cabin in a theme park: it looks quaint enough, and the chairs are comfortable, but there’s something plastic-y about the scene, and you can’t shake the feeling that you might be paying just a little too much for the experience.
It also comes from a company that started with heat resistant gloves. Kitchen Perfection is more about kitchen gadgetry than knives, and companies like that don’t always do the kitchen knife thing well.
But, damn it, it’s a pretty good knife. It feels great in the hand and cuts well.
Overall, it’s a rough chopper with the weight of a cleaver, but it has a kiritsune-inspired blade with an edge that can handle a lot of indoor kitchen work cleanly.
The Blade Is High Carbon and Solid
The blade was plenty sharp out of the box. Cuts through paper were smooth and easy.
I expected this to have soft steel, though, so a razor edge out of the box wasn’t that surprising.
What did surprise me was that it seemed to cut paper just as well after I spent an afternoon dicing up onions, peppers, and a handful of limes and lemons.
Only time will tell just what this blade can really take, but I have to give it points for how well it held up for the first week of testing.
After playing with it, I can definitely attest to it being high carbon steel. This thing picks up a patina quickly.
My first session was citrus heavy, and pretty much right after it developed a nice, subtle rainbow of color along the polished portion of the blade, which, for me, was a nice surprise. The cuts felt nice and the blade developed some extra character. I can vibe with whatever this steel is.
The Handle’s Comfy Details
Everything about this knife feels soft:
- The rounded handle,
- The crowned spine,
- Even the cuts have a level of smoothness I’m tempted to describe as “cushiony” except that doesn’t really portray its sharpness.
It’s nice in a pinch grip, thanks to the tall blade and rounded spine, and despite the fact that it’s a heavy knife (about 2 ounces heavier than your average German chef’s knife) the slightly-blade-forward balance feels manageable.
I also like the thickness of the handle (about ¾ of an inch). It’s in a goldilocks zone for me that provides enough material for an easy grip, and the overall shape is pretty neutral, so there are no weird bumps or swells to interfere as I shift grips for different tasks.
The Knife in Action
This was meant for outdoor cooking, and while I did do a little bit of campsite culinary work with it, most of its testing happened in my home kitchen.
Onions
It’s surprisingly capable for dicing. I had a little trouble getting the thick edge to work as smoothly as I’d like for getting really small pieces for things like salsa. But when I’m cutting larger slices for soups, stews, or burgers, this is as much as I need.
Herbs
It minced herbs well too, although I had a little trouble completing cuts. That’s partly because of the shape of the edge, though.
The extreme curve of the belly means there’s a limited length of cutting edge against the board at any given time. I didn’t contend with this very well at first, and ended up with some mostly-whole cilantro leaves in my guacamole a few times.
Carrots
It’s not my favorite thing for root vegetables like carrots. The thick blade doesn’t play well with that kind of density, and tends to launch pieces when I try to cut too fast. But it’s serviceable for rough chopping since the knife is so comfortable overall.
Meat
This knife feels right at home with thick cuts of meat. It bites in easily, and has that thick-grind effect of pushing slices off to the side rather than the slices sticking (most of the time).
So I’d call this a good camping and barbeque knife.
Slice up some steaks, rough chop your vegetables, and get that fire down to some nice coals.
Comparison and Alternatives
This joins a small group of knives designed for cooking outdoors that I’ve found myself enjoying in the kitchen.
- The Off Grid Grizzley is the obvious alternative here. It’s shorter and maybe closer to a santoku than a kiritsune, but the real difference is in the grind. The Grizzly is thinner and has a taller blade, so the bite is a lot more aggressive and over all it’s a more “refined” cut, if that’s even an appropriate word to use in this context.
- The look of Kitchen Perfection’s chef knife reminds me a lot of the Condor Bush Slicer, which, strictly speaking isn’t designed for cooking. It’s a big capable blade, though, and the high carbon 10995 steel with a convex grind will give you a pretty similar cutting experience. The big upside is the Julio Diez-designed sheath that comes with it, though.
Yeah, Actually, It’s Not Bad
I was so sure this review would end up bursting at the seams with angry rants about slipshod designs from companies more interested in taking a piece of a quickly growing area of the knife market than making anything that’s useful, but there’s a place for this thing in the world.
- The blade handles rough chops on vegetables easily,
- It’s a gem for slicing up cuts of meats,
- It has a crowned spine and rounded handle (details you don’t often see on production knives, even at high prices),
- It’s certainly tough enough to use outdoors (so long as you keep it dry and clean),
- And whatever steel they’re using seems to be some well-treated high carbon stuff that will age well.
The price almost gives me pause. You can pick up something like a Tojiro kiritsune for close to an even $100 and have a respectable blade that will last years. But maybe the heft and look of this Kitchen Perfection chef’s knife is more your thing and worth the extra $20-ish.
It’s big and it works. I’d go so far as to say it’s fun. This would be a perfectly suitable gift for someone who likes to cook outdoors.
Sometimes, if all you really want is a nice place to sit and have some good food, even a cabin in a theme park does the trick.
