Sorry, I had the knife last, forgot to write my post.
First, big thanks to
@eddworks for doing this passaround. I believe since the start of this passaround, his books have gotten a lot busier and with good reason.
In terms of performance, I think this knife hangs in there with knives up to twice the price. Thick spine out of the handle with great continuous taper to a very thin tip. Aside from the thick spine though, this thing is basically a laser grind. The thick spine and the thin grind make it feel like a light middleweight in actual use. Being the 9th person on the passaround, I thought by the time the knife got to me, it would be a little thick, but it was still nail flexing thin at the edge. Credit to great geometry as well as the participants before me doing minimal sharpening.
Putting a straightedge up to both sides of the knife, I saw excellent, even convexity down both sides of the knife, as close to 50/50 as a handmade knife can be (which is hard to do a lot of the times). In terms of thinness BTE, I think this knife is even slightly thinner BTE than something like a Myojin or at least on the same level. I don’t really have any k-tip gyutos, but this one works well, feels less fragile than a regular k tip because the “turn” where the tip starts is slightly curved as opposite to straight.
I tested on carrots, onions, celery, apples, sweet and regular potatoes and a bunch of other produce. Flies through soft vegetables and smooth through the carrots and sweet potatoes, no cracking, no wedging. If I could compare this to a more well known knife as a benchmark, I would say it’s like a taller, slightly heavier Yoshikane in cutting feel. Smooth profile, not too flat, does everything you ask of it. Great for slicing and tip draws too.
The 52100 has a nice balance of tooth and carbon keenness, easy to sharpen (in part thanks to how thin BTE it is). I would gauge edge retention as close to a good blue 2.
Some things I noticed that have already been mentioned by other participants: some stiction and edge wear. Because of the thin grind and relatively tall knife, there’s a lot of contact between the surface of the knife and the food being cut, meaning you can get some stiction that slows down the cut, especially through tall, wet things like apples and some carrots and potatoes. I think a little more meat in the midsection of the knife or a more asymmetric grind could help relieve this and improve food release some. There was also some slight edge rolling in the front third of the knife. This is mostly due to the very thin geometry and can be honed out in less than a minute and has very little effect on actual performance IMO.
Also, the handle and leather sheath are killer.
I’ve tried knives from most of the popular Japanese smiths and western makers like Shihan, Milan, The9, HF, Tansu and a couple more and I really think this Eddworks knife fits in with the best of them.