Another Thin Nakiri

[MTBob]

The Nakiri has turned out to be one of my favorite kitchen knives. It's like cutting with a razor blade, the perfect "machine" for slicing vegetables & other soft stuff.
52100 steel, .080 spine, .010 edge before sharpening, full flat freehand grind. I don't try to get a precise finish on the blade since 52100 takes on a solid patina that covers up small grind imperfections - and it's a tool, not a show piece.

 

[REK Knives]

Nice work! So do you do any sort of s grind for food release or do you find it's not needed?

 

[MTBob]

Nice work! So do you do any sort of s grind for food release or do you find it's not needed?

Josh: Timely question. I'm tempted to do an S grind on the next blade, I've got 2 more Nakiri blades post HT waiting to be ground. My only hesitancy is I'm not too sure how well my 10" wheel will work for that, and I"m unsure about how much depth I should have in the S grind relief. The blade spine is .080. The blade is so thin to start with, it would seem that any grind relief on the face of the blade would weaken it.
Yes, the full flat Nakiri knives I have now do not release veggies very well, perhaps a bit of a relief about a 1/2-3/4" above the cutting edge would help. But, the thickness at 1/2" above the cutting edge is really narrow, about .030-.040".