# Andrei Markin Gyuto and Petty Review - M390



## Ruso (Apr 23, 2020)

A quick, but comprehensive (I hope) review of the 2 beautiful knives I got about a year and a half ago from Andrei Markin; these knives are partially responsible for my nonattendance of KKF.
240mm Guyto and 150mm Petty both in M390 and with Karelian Birch wa handles.



Spoiler: Knives - Picture












*Ordering and transaction:*
This was a semi-custom order. The communication was easy, Andrei was very responsive and willing to work on minor changes I asked him. Handle material as well as the final blade profiles were sent to me for the final approval.
Andrei shipped on time and there were no issues with shipping. The parcel was well packaged and protected.



Spoiler: Packaging - Picture











*Gyuto:*
Full disclosure, my purchase was mainly driven by M390 steel option and not the profile per se. I always wanted to try this steel on a kitchen knife despite the general opinion on this topic.
This Gyuto is a laser, and to be honest I did not think I will enjoy it too much. At that time my preference was towards more thicker blades with some authority. Lasers like Ginga, HD2, Takamura red handle, Masakage Shimo were collecting dust on the rack. Oh boy was I istaken.
Markin gyuto is asymmetrically concaved, it has thin spine at the handle (2.89mm) with slick distal taper – 1.15mm before the curve and 0.46mm at the tip. The grind towards the edge is phenomenal. All this combined makes this gyuto the best cutter I ever had. After using this knife for a month, I pretty much stopped looking for anything else and by this virtue and some other factors I took a break from KKF. I cook almost every day and this gyuto became my daily driver ever since. Of course I would take some other blades for a spin from time to time and for some jobs the laser is not the best choice, but I always come back to Markin gyuto. This is a laser, but it is not a FFG, so the food sticks at times but not others. I would call the food release to be average and great for a laser. Blade profile ended up to be a perfect fit for my technique. Predominantly, I use chop cuts and push cuts, very seldom a rocking motion. The least accordioning I ever had. Even the tricky scallions separate like butter. It’s just a phenomenal knife.
Fit and finish is great, rounded spine, rounded choil, handle is smooth and fits well. I was not expecting less. All the pictures of Andrei knives suggest that F&F is top notch. I also like that the choil part of the blade is almost the same width as the handle. It makes it much more comfortable in the hand and looks better.



Spoiler: Asymmetry - Picture













Spoiler: Gyuto Choil - Picture













Spoiler: Gyuto Profile - Picture













Spoiler: Gyuto PoB - Picture











*Petty:*
Well, its a petty and it’s a great one. I asked Andrei to minimize the choil gap, since I find it pretty useless on a petty and he agreed on this change. Since I do not want to repeat myself, everything I said about gyuto is true for the petty as well. I do not use petties that much in my daily cooking and I find that it performs very similar to Takamura Blazen petty. Markin’s piece is just little bit bigger and nicer – it also matches the gyuto.



Spoiler: Petty Choil - Picture











*Steel:*
Andrei’s M390 did not disappoint. Without a doubt best edge retention and surprisingly easy to sharpen. I guess this is because the knife is so thin behind the edge that there is not much steel to remove. Some folks were saying that M390 wont be able to hold an acute edge – well let me tell you that this is not the case. The sharpness out of the box was great – and I estimate the angle was about 15 degrees per side. When I put the knife on to the stones I decided to try my usual angle for gyutos which is about 10 degrees per side. The knife took it just fine and the edge retention stayed top notch. Overall it’s a great kitchen knife steel. I know that on paper it does not appear to be the case but my first hand experience says otherwise.



Spoiler: Logo - Picture











*Negatives:*
There are some negatives of course. It’s a laser, so cutting a lot of hard vegetables like carrots, beets or a kilo of onions will create a hot spot on the index finger where the pinch grip is.
The gyuto is 240mm from handle to tip and this is strange given that there is no machi gap. I would prefer the blade to be 240 from heel to tip. To be fair, we did not discuss this -> lesson to me, discuss this aspect with the maker.
I would like if Andrei either completely removed the steel label from the blade or would relocate it to a different spot, but he was not willing to make this change.
The tips of both gyuto and petty was incredible thin, to a degree of too thin. This is the first time I broke a knife tip without noticing when or how. It was half a millimeter that broke off hence it was easy to fix, but still. And I am generally pretty careful with my knives.
Here we come to the main negative point, the logo is on a damn wrong side!!! It’s like Andrei thought that Kono HD2 logo placement is perfect.... GRRRRRR.


*Some other thoughts and suggestions:*
Little bit thicker stock to minimize the hot spot on the pinch grip with the same sick distal taper.
I can’t believe I am saying this but just a tad thicker tip.
Keep it up Andrei and move the logo to the other side please. 

*Conclusion:*
Good communication
No issues with postage or packing
Goods as described/agreed upon
The best gyuto I tried and almost a perfect specimen for me. The petty is just a cherry on top of the cake. I definitely recommend to try Markin (Andrei) knives

Ruso.


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## soigne_west (Apr 23, 2020)

I was also blown away on the first couple of cuts with my Markin (gone now). Mine wasn’t quite a laser and the grind was convexed, but it just seemed to me like he had put a tremendous amount of thought into the geometry. He’s got something going. Nice write up.


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## TSF415 (Apr 23, 2020)

+1 for all things Markin. I really love the knives I've got from him. At some point I plan on circling back and getting one with more specific specs from me. I think his grinds are perfect right along with Kippington and Martell.


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## Starik (Jun 3, 2020)

Hello, 
How can I contact Andrei Markin?


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## madelinez (Jun 3, 2020)

You can message him @Andrei 

Can vouch for his knives, they're insanely good if not a little extreme sometimes.


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## Andrei (Jun 3, 2020)

Many thanks to Ruso for such a detailed review, I am always pleased to know that my knives are not idle. Probably for this I’m doing them


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