Thinest Kitchen Knives

C

cm_bushman

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Oct 22, 2012
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I recently tried out my Spyderco Mule in the kitchen. I was very disappointed with it's performance (when slicing steak, peeling and chopping potatoes, onions, apples and avocados) vs. my very cheap and less-sharpened RADA kitchen knives, notably my "Chef's Utility". Blade length notwithstanding, the two knives are fairly similar in blade height and grind (both are tall and mostly flat), so I am guessing the main difference I'm feeling is because of blade thickness. The Mule isn't all that thick, at 0.118", but the RADA knives are among the thinnest I've ever seen (part of the reason I use them, and why they make such good slicers). Purportedly, these knives are around 3/32" (0.9375") or 1/16"(0.0625") thick (I've never measured).

I am wondering if there are any other kitchen knife brands, possibly made with higher-grade blade steel, that fall withing this thickness (or thinness) range?
 
Rada is the thinnest I've seen. Mine is about 1/32" thick. If you really want to scare yourself, drop the edge angle down to around 7-10°/side, and leave them with a carefully honed and deburred edge from a coarse stone, like a King 220 or a Norton coarse India stone. What was the edge angle on the Mule? Spyderco made a very nice Santoku with a full flat grind on 1/16-3/32 inch stock, but the blade was over 2 inches wide. The primary bevel angle was extremely low. Its the one in the original sharpmaker video, on vhs.
 
I have many of the Spyderco Pro Culinaire knives made by Masahiro out of MBS-26 and they are nice thin slicers. The Santoku is 1/16" (.008" at the edge) and is the same (or very close) thickness as some of the MAC Original Series knives and the Cold Steel K5 Kitchen knife. The Mule Team blades are good slicers compared to most field knives but tough to compare to these guys at half the thickness.

Those Rada's must be amazing slicers.
 
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The only downfall of RADA is they are sometimes too thin. The blade will buckle if you try to cut something thats too thick. Its never happened to me, but on a hard skinned squash or maybe a particularly stubborn turnip or maybe water mellon you canpush hard enough to flex the blade. The steel in the RADAs is better thanexpected too. I covered my dining room table with cardboard pieces about 1 inch deep and it would still clip a few hairs off my hand.

Those Spydir kitchen knives have a good reputation, but I've not seen them for sale in a while.
 
As a professional chef im goinf to say that edge is important and not thickness.

I use a super thin misono and have twice as thick wursof and they both perform great, due to the sharpening I give it.

I only prefer thin because im using them 8-10 hours a day.
 
The Sakai Yasuke "special thin" version are anorexic. The 210mm chef's knife weighs in at ~ 90 grams, 1.3mm thick at the spine, razor thin edge. The thinner the blade is at the edge and spine, the better it will cut through soft to medium textured foods, but at the same time it will flex when cutting denser foods (cheese, squash, beets).

Imho, blades that are super thin at the edge and spine are best reserved for soft targets only. For a chef's knife, ones that are super thin at the edge, yet thick enough at the spine to not flex on dense foods are as good and more versatile.
 
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me2 said:
The only downfall of RADA is they are sometimes too thin. The blade will buckle if you try to cut something thats too thick. Its never happened to me, but on a hard skinned squash or maybe a particularly stubborn turnip or maybe water mellon you canpush hard enough to flex the blade.
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I have RADA blades flex alot on "hard" items; winter squash, melon, potatoes, carrot. I have tried numerous cutting styles and blade grips and it comes back to the blade is too thin. I made a small vegetable cleaver, 1/8"x2.5"x6" blade, about 15 degree total angle, Rc62 hardness, that I use for the harder stuff.
If someone was on a tight budget, you could get 5 or 6 RADA knives backed up with an Old Hickory cleaver and butcher knife and still have change from a $100 bill
 
Thin yes, but edge retention is questionable(I'm pretty certain the only reason it was still cutting is because it's so thin), and definitely not for the hands of abusive coworkers. I've come upon 3 of them permanently deformed with no idea what those guys were cutting with it.
 
I recently reground a guys K390 mule to just under .010" at the shoulder. Have not heard back yet but I bet it will be an awesome slicer. Thinness behind the edge has more to do with cutting ability than spine thickness, within reason of course. Edge geometry is what determines the cutting proficiency of a knife. With a very low angle resharpen on your mule you could get comparable performance to the RADA, but I am talking like around 8 to 10 degrees per side, even less if kitchen duty is main focus.
 
Big Chris said:
I recently reground a guys K390 mule to just under .010" at the shoulder. Have not heard back yet but I bet it will be an awesome slicer. Thinness behind the edge has more to do with cutting ability than spine thickness, within reason of course. Edge geometry is what determines the cutting proficiency of a knife. With a very low angle resharpen on your mule you could get comparable performance to the RADA, but I am talking like around 8 to 10 degrees per side, even less if kitchen duty is main focus.
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I'm guessing FFG > Convex in that regard?

I did a little regrinding too, but with my Worksharp(yes, something it was never designed for, but I'm having fun:D). My Queen Cutlery Maple hunter is nearly a zero edge grind and in fact has a bit of a dip in the edge near the heel where I ground too much off. Cutting performance is improved drastically, but nowhere near the level of my Phil Wilson South Fork, and it's likely no other knife I have will ever slice that well.

So I figure the width of the blade plays a factor in that as well, with a wide reground Manix 2 blade slicing better than say, a reground Benchmade Griptilian. Simply because if you do your regrinds without altering the spine thickness, then spine thickness will determine the overall thickness of the grind.
 
Whuh?:confused: Why would someone use a Spyderco Mule in the kitchen?
 
The Mule had a 15-16dps edge on it, done with a Coarse DMT. The RADA had the factory edge touched up with the same brand's sharpener, which left it with a very coarse and obtuse edge. The Mule would easily slice newsprint and shave with moderate success, but the Rada would do neither.

I would love to have my Mule reground and I may go for it sometime in the future. I may try sharpening my Rada on my Aligner and see if it performs even better. I've seen videos of re-profiled Rada knives push-cutting grapes horizontally. Until I can find a good source for high-quality knives of this thinness (I can't seem to find a souce for the Sakai Yasuke "special thin" knives besides the Bay), I suppose I may try Old Hickory (my family has a few) and see if I can re-profile them.
 
The Sakai Yasuke brand is available from eBay seller is bluewayjapan. I believe Konosuke and Ashi Hamono also have a similar knife and/ or could be making the knife for each other. Others knives that fall into the "laser" class, with slightly thicker spines like the Sakai Yasuke regular version, Konosuke HD, Suisin Honyaki, Ginga, Tatadsuna, etc.

Vintage carbon knives with French not a German shaped blade...Sabatier, really old Henckels (twin works) are also very thin. I have an old Sabatier with very strong distal taper; stiff at the handle, yet the forward portion is as thin as fillet knife. Works really well with a draw stroke, but flexes like crazy with tip only cuts.
 
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HwangJino: I use Dave Loukides knives with full distal tapers, so they have very thin tips and much thicker heels. I can slice just as easily with the heel but it requires more pressure, so I'm usually using the tip or upper-middle area for thin slicing. While I do mincing and cleaving with the heel and lower middle, I'm wondering if I'd be better off with a knife that is consistently thin to allow me to slice thinly or with less pressure along the entire blade length, and save the heavier tasks for a heavier knife. What would you suggest?
 
Rada knives are pretty good. There's little surprise they'll outperform a Mule for lots of kitchen tasks. However, knife nuts are obsessed with thickness, and Rada makes nothing that can be considered thick or heavy. No cleavers or bone choppers. I think Rada knives max out at about 0.052" in blade stock. The smaller paring knives and slicers are even thinner at about 0.030". They all have hollow ground sabre grinds, which is not only an economical way to make a knife, but also keeps such thin steel from exhibiting too much lateral weakness. Rada steel is also soft, which knife nuts dislike on principle, but makes for a very easily maintained knife using the simplest of tools.

Rada knives are very inexpensive, so they can't be good, right? Yeah, sure...

The disadvantage to lots of thicker knives is that they wedge on thicker foods. There's simply no getting around the fact that thin blades are simply better for slicing ability.

Thai-made Kiwi knives are very similar to Rada. I think Kiwi makes an honest to goodness cleaver.
 
Whatever makes you happy :)

Konesuke is known for thin knives (japanese maker):) Some like to spend 10$ on a knife, others use 10000$ on knife. Personally Ive spent way to much on knives :S
 
My Tojiro Flash Paring knife in VG-10 at Rc 61 is pretty thin and cuts well. I've also been eyeing the Richmond Artifex Paring knife in AEB-L at Rc 61, but that one seems to be perpetually out of stock. I also did mention having a flexible Mora which sliced superbly, but I wasn't too impressed with 12C27N.

My best non-custom slicer is a Spyderco Moran with an upswept tip that was reground by me down to somewhat of a zero-edge convex grind. So with about $50-$60 and a careful hand, you can get one too:thumbup:.
 
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