# Roselli Knives?



## jonhaber (Oct 3, 2012)

I was in a knife shop in toronto today and the owner raved about roselli knives. I came in looking for a high end hand made japanese knife but he said these were much more durable, flexible, and over all better for work in the kitchen.






http://www.ragweedforge.com/RoselliCatalog.html
#R755; The UHC Cook's Knife has a blade a bit over 8" long and only .060" thick. The handle is about 5" long. The knife weighs only 6 1/4 ounces, and wouldn't be tiring to use for long periods. This would be a good all around kitchen knife for the particular chef. It's supplied with a wood storage block for $189.

I can't seem to find much information online about these kitchen knives.


How would these compare to something like a shun classic (vg-10) which I already have or Masakage Mizu (like http://www.knifewear.com/knife-family.asp?family=19)?





Thanks!

Jon


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## chinacats (Oct 3, 2012)

Much more flexible may not be the best thing...and $200 can get you a pretty nice J-blade.

:2cents:


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## Noodle Soup (Oct 4, 2012)

I bought a Roselli santuko style knife a number of years ago that came with one of the worst ground blades I've ever seen on a commercial product. Not sure if the mail order company sent me a second or what but I have stayed away from that brand since then.


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## Justin0505 (Oct 4, 2012)

The handle looks clunky, as does the profile and blade shape. The way that the handle extends over the blade may also impede sharpening and certainly thinning behind the edge.
It might just be the low res image or the lighting, but the grind looks weird by the heel and for a blade that's probably just a full flat grind, the bevel looks pretty wide, indicating it may be pretty pudgy behind the edge. 

Also, it sounds like the company primarily has a background in traditional outdoor knives. It's a pretty common cliche for a company or smith that has experience making non-kitchen knives to think that it's "no big deal" to start making kitchen knives, so they start banging out kitchen knives using the same methods and materials as for their bush craft of tactical knives... and they usually fail in a pretty epic fashion. Some learn quickly, some keep banging away with out ever paying attention to what actually makes a good kitchen knife. 
Small details that may not even be noticeable to someone not familiar with kitchen knives have a HUGE impact on how a knife performs in the kitchen. 

The fact that he's saying that the blade is flexible is also not a good sign. IMO blade flex is NOT a virtue in chef's knife and truly experience knife makers have figured out how to make a blade both thin where it counts, but still strong and rigid... it's tickey and requires some high-level conceptual understanding and serious forging and/or grinder ninja-ing, but those are all things that you should expect / demand when getting into that price range. 

If it where $60-$80 I'd say it might be a kinda quirky alternative to the classic Forshnner (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M5U1C2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20), but at $200 I'd be pretty suspicious that someone is making quite a markup. 

The steel MAY take a finer edge and hold it longer than the VG10 in your Shun, but it's hard to tell as HRc doesn't tell the whole story and a heat treatment that's good for whacking trees in Finland will not necessarily be good for taking and holding a fine edge in the kitchen. 

Fortunately, for $200 you have a lot of better options for knives to buy and places to shop.


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## Eamon Burke (Oct 4, 2012)

I have no personal experience using a Masakage, but I'm willing to put some cash that it out-performs every other knife mentioned in your post for cutting ability.

I want so badly for that UHC cook's knife to be a contender, but I doubt it. Nothing important to a kitchen knife is mentioned in it's description.


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## SpikeC (Oct 4, 2012)

At 1.5 mm thick this thing has no grind. It probably took a half an hour to make.


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## clayton (Oct 4, 2012)

I was gifted a roselli woodworking/shop knife a while back (carpenter model). It was the standard steel model. It was very underwhelming and easily outperformed by my $10 Mora red handle knife. The tip kept snapping off (I was being gentle), the fit and finish was "very rustic", and the grind mediocre at best. I eventually lost it (the only knife I ever lost) and never missed it.


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## Justin0505 (Oct 4, 2012)

SpikeC said:


> At 1.5 mm thick this thing has no grind. It probably took a half an hour to make.



from the linked catalog page: 
"...The blades are forged to shape in dies, then finished by hand. The upper sides of the blades still have the forge scale, and the bevels are ground cleanly to the edge with little or no secondary bevel. "

So they start with a chunk of steel, smash it into a thin, rough shape using a big hydraulic hammer / press then " hand finish it" by roughly grinding an edge on it? What takes a the rest of the half-hour in this "traditional technique?" the traditional coffee and cig break? :scratchhead:


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## SpikeC (Oct 4, 2012)

The making of the handle, of course!


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## eaglerock (Oct 7, 2012)

And the scary thing that it cost $189 lol


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