Mater Kitchen Knife - Passaround !!!

Great pics and review - thanks!

I don't know what to do about the stuff sticking to the blade....that's just teh nature of the tall grind.

One solution I've kicked around would be to do a very, very large radius concave grind instead of flat grind, and do the same on the other side above the hollow grind.

This would ensure no sticking at all....but would be difficult to do in the shop. It is definitely the right idea....but might increase the price too much. Maybe I could make a user version and a dressed up chef's version?

Dan
 
I'm not totally convinced it is the knife that is the problem. I'm sure our technique is far from professional. For what it's worth, your blades cut much cleaner/nicer than any other kitchen knives we've used.
 
Well, I'm still fighting with my camera but I should go ahead and post a review.

I took receipt of the knives and started thinking of what to try them on. After checking the cupboards and hitting the grocery store I selected the following items: red potatoes, yellow potatoes, carrots, zuchinni squash, cucumber, large sweet onion, canatalope, breakfast steak (for stir-fry) and of course - tomatoes!

When I told my wife the knives were called 'Mater's - as in tomater without the tow, she said "yes, I think they would cut off a toe if I dropped one." Her hands are much smaller than mine but she had no trouble with the right-handed knife. She liked that she was able to cut very thin slices on the potatoes and onions. Her son also used the right-handed knife to slice some of the cucumber and squash and found it very easy to use. He must have cooked a little for himself at college because he was getting microtome thin slices on the cucumber.

I used the left-handed knife to do my slicing. I found it sliced everything easily except the meat. But the knife isn't specifically intended to slice meat so no big deal. Even the cantalope was no problem. I wish I'd gotten some cauliflower and brocolli to try.

Paper thin slices of everything - which was really nice for the tomato and onion. Thin enough slices to spread around on my sandwhich without getting too much of any one thing. I sliced the meat in 1/8 strips cross grain for stir fry. Even though that seemed to stick to the knife the most it still worked very well.

Now that they have been passed on I really miss having them. I need to get one of those wooden/magnetic knife boards (so my wife wont leave them sitting in a sink full of water) and order me one. Making lunch just isnt much fun without them.

Thanks, Dan!

I forgot to mention the handles turned out to be very comfortable in my hand. Also the handles maintained their grippyness when wet which was nice because I didn't want to do like the guy on Hell's Kitchen and take off a finger trying to be fancy.
 
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I received the knives this morning. :D The knives look like they've been used but show no damage except for some minor scratches. :thumbup: I will post a review as soon as possible.
 
great review, WA Martin!!! thanks!!

looking forward to your review, jgkelly.

:thumbup:

Dan
 
By the way....I posted a few Maters for sale today...still a couple left!

:thumbup:


Dan
 
Only one left-handed 'Mater. Gee, thanks, Dan...

;)

I'm broke anyway right now so I guess it's ok.
 
I hear ya, bro.

I do have more coming available soon!


Dan
 
Got them today. One is going over to the personal chef next door and the other will get some use here before I head out to a professional kitchen to pass it around a bit. :)

B
 
First impression: Wow!

I grabbed one (don't know how to tell Lefty from Righty on these) and sliced some strawberries paper thin just for giggles. I stropped it just a bit before using as the edge felt like it could use it.

I'm going to get together with Dan and Spen of JRE Industries in the next couple of days to do some prep (either stir fry, fajitas, or maybe even some jerky.)

The ergonomics on this knife are right on and I can hardly wait for Dan to get on my Mater variant. The blade shape is sort of a hybrid santoku and nakkiri (two knives I use in the kitchen) so it really suits me.

Is it wrong to build a week's menu around knife work? :D

Lots more to come...

B
 
I'm back in town now...thanks for the reviews!


If anybody has any questions about these...let me know!

Dan
 
It's been awhile folks, where is this at? Peri Pheral should have this by now, so let's see some posting!;)
 
I've still got them. The chef next door took off for the holiday and she's not back yet.

I should be able to get them in the mail tomorrow.

B
 
Alright guys, an update:

Chef Mom still isn't back from wherever it is she went but I saw her daughter this morning playing in the yard. I hope to get one of the kids to bring me the knife today so I can get them both in the mail ASAP.

I suppose this is what I get for putting one of the pass-around knives in the hands of someone else...

B
 
Sorry for the delay guys. The Maters have finally left the building.

I'm sad to see them go although I never did use the right-handed model. The lefty did quite a bit of work over the 4th and I had lots of folks asking lots of questions about the custom kitchen knife I was using.

What I liked most about the Mater was the edge (nice and sharp plus easy to maintain) and the nice squared spine that made scraping food off the cutting board extremely easy.

I use the pinch-grip almost exclusively with a knife this size and I never noticed any problems with hot spots or discomfort. I could have used a bit more blade length (something I've already taken care of on my custom order) but everything else was spot on.

I am a Santoku user quite a bit of the time so I've learned to do my prep work without a pointy knife and, actually, found the Mater's tip to be more than adequate for some detail work like cutting the top out of a strawberry--not something I would have done with my Santoku.

Even with hands covered in fat I didn't have a problem with the grip on the Mater's bead-blasted handle slabs.

Overall I really liked this knife. One person complained about the handles but she didn't give me any specifics to work with. I suspect it is that she has smallish hands but don't know for sure.

Great stuff.

Thanks,


B
 
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