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Fully agree. A regrind is tempting, but I'd hate to lose the lovely stonewash finish.

I'd love to check one out, but my knife budget is a bit tapped at the moment.

Both were a hair duller than a brand new, double-edged razor blade.

No, that's not what I said at all. What I said is that the s390 edge wasn't hard to sharpen and honed up beautifully, *as compared to* a few other steels like s90v and 15v that gave me some problems.

No problem! It's occurred to me that the CBN wheels with plastic hubs are quite light relative to factory wheel and all-metal wheels. I think those would be a great choice for a two-wheel setup, to reduce stress on the machine.

It's my pleasure, and thanks for subscribing! I would choose the Gringo over the Padre, mostly because s390 has much better edge retention than Vanax. s390 is proving to be quite amazing. I also prefer a blade that has a straight section, which is better for slicing through wide material. The Padre's edge is a continuous curve. In the Padre's favor, I prefer its front flipper and it's a bit lighter. Of course Vanax is also way more corrosion resistant, and probably tougher too. You really can't go wrong either way. They're both excellent knives.

@@BladeLabMiami Thank you for the detailed reply! I was thinking something very similar. I would rather have DLC coated s390 than Vanax, and I think I'll like the contoured handle + the harpoon jimping more as well. I do wish it had a hollow grind, but this has the potential to be one of my favorite knives ever (currently a custom Manix 2 XL)

@@BladeLabMiami I can confirm that the Gringo is incredible and I prefer it over the padre. Thanks again

@@cdog5760 My pleasure! Might be my knife of the year ... stay tuned. 😀

Two different skill sets, eh? Most of the chefs I deal with are lousy knife sharpers.

@ True, most chefs lack knive sharping and seem not to bother.

It's a shame, because it's so close to being very recommendable. If they just got the hrc up to 63-64 I'd be all in. Given that they're doing this in small batches, that shouldn't be hard to do.

Me too! I really appreciate their interest in using unusual and high quality steels, and their attention to proper heat treat. Add in cool design and reasonable prices, and you have a winner.

De gustibus non est disputandum Edit: To me, it looks like the first Kunwu that's gonna be comfortable to use for more than 30 seconds.

It's definitely ... different! I didn't like it at first, but it's growing on me. And most importantly, it's a VERY good cutter.

@@CNYKnifeNut Definitely the best ergos of any Kunwu I've handled.

Design is a matter of taste, I really like the Gringo. I like all of Kunwu's knives so far, my favorite is the S Tao II Honeydew full DLC. The quality of the knives is very good, none of my Kunwu knives show any weakness in terms of quality.

Amazon or cliff curry site

Well, Bud, I did say that it was on sale at Knifecenter, but you would have had to slog through a full 1 minute and 8 seconds to get that information. Also mentioned that it was a Black Friday sale, and I believe it ended yesterday. On the other hand, it's still a good deal at $142.

It runs around $830 US and they're exclusively available from the maker on his Facebook page (by lotto).

I think all of the machines are essentially the same, but sold under different names. I didn't make any alterations to mine, other than adding the magnetic plate to the platen.

Hmm, I don't know about that. I think it's pretty soulful.

I used the original formula. It's always worked well for me. If you haven't used it, be aware that it expands as it dries, so you generally want to use it sparingly.

A burr is produced either way, but it's minimized with edge leading, which makes it easier to deburr. Edge trailing tends to produce a feather burr.

@BladeLabMiami , I imagine that makes sense. If you are not pushing light enough you can push material to the other side rather than removing it. I had to think about that for a bit. I tend to use my Wicked Edge for sharpening, while shaping I will sharpen with edge trailing to create the burr. But when getting past 800 or 1000 grit I will sharpen edge leading with ever lighter strokes. And with the nature of the Wicked Edge it’s almost always switching sides with each stroke. In this manner sharpening edge leading only on the finer grits, and always switching sides, with ever lighter pressure, I never detect a burr.

@@profesonalantagonist You're always pushing some material to the other side. It's just that, at a certain point, it's too small to feel or detect without serious microscopy. If you haven't seen it, you should check out scienceofsharp.com. The author has access to a scanning electron microscope and provides lots of amazing images at micron scale.

I disagree on the edge angle. Even on lower-end knives, a lower edge angle generally provides better edge retention, provided it's not so low that the edge rolls easily. I think most kitchen knives dull from wear, rather than rolling or chipping, although chipping obviously happens. The edge bevel is basically a triangle. The narrower the triangle is, the less blunt it becomes when you abrade material from the apex. Vadim, of Knife Grinders AU, had a regular business sharpening for a poultry processing plant. They used Victorinox knives. After much experimentation, they actually concluded that they were getting the longest service from knives sharpened at TWELVE degrees per side.

@ I have tried many of the things Vadim preached for years and can say he did things that many others couldn’t replicate including myself. He definitely knew a lot but I do not worship at the church of Dr Vadim and don’t really want to be disrespectful since he’s no longer with us but having spoken to many people in the Tormek Groups I found out the hard way after spending money on things that did not give me better results (For example Rock Hard Felt ) I have had inexpensive knives roll their edge at under 15 and having serviced many restaurants for years I would never give one an angle any where between 12-16. On a western knife that’s really low the blade would be dull in 1 week.In my experience western knives for restaurants if its prep cooks 18-19 degrees is great. When I gave them 17 they would come back in horrible condition and super dull so I upped the angle till I saw knives returning after a month that were still a little sharp. Now the head chef’s and others who often have nicer knives those I would do at lower angles depending on the knife. That’s just what I do and I’ve been doing this professionally since 2019 and we all kind of find our own way and what works for us in the crazy world of sharpening so if that works for you and your customers then that’s great but it’s outside of the norm from what I know and have taught others who get into the sharpening game.

@@ALXSHARPEN Yes, agree that some of Vadim's methods are difficult to replicate, but I definitely learned a lot from him and have improved my results with some of his advice. In particular, I think his deburring method is excellent, and I also think it accounts for getting good results with low angles and lesser steels, since he recommended deburring those steels at 2+° higher than the sharpening angle, which in effect creates a steeper micro-bevel. So, when I'm sharpening Victorinox knives, I'm doing them at 15 dps, but then the first deburring step is on a leather belt with 1 micron diamond at a little under 17°. That's creating a bit of convexity and changing the abolute edge angle to closer to 17, even if edge bevel itself is 15°.

Unfortunately I lost half of the video I already shot ... the part where I actually figured out how to put it back together. 😂 I'll try to redo it soon.

I guess it depends on how you intend to use it, and how comfortable you are with stropping and sharpening. If it's a work knife where it's going to get heavy use, I'd personally go with the s35vn. On the other hand, if it's just EDC carry, with the occasional package opening and whatnot, you'd be fine with the Damascus.

Ended up going with the Damascus version, went ahead and put a hair whittling edge on it. Definitely more of an edc showing off knife, especially because it's my first Damascus blade.

Totally agree. As it stands, it just feels flimsy and unbalanced.