hey andrew / matt / ross / blake, thank you so much for hunting this and the support. this is a very personal project for me, so the reaction it has received by the Kickstarter community has been incredible and humbling.
@matthartman > short answer is both, plus a lot more. had to learn from everyone involved in the process, end-to-end, to have a complete picture. this meant starting at steel/knife manufacturers and going all the way to not just professional chefs but also avid home cooks (who i suspect comprise majority of our backers). very long process, but tons of fun.
the only thing i'd add is that our intention here was never to make "the best chef's knife ever." there's no such thing. the goal was always to make an amazing product at a reasonable price, and it's been really great to see this resonate with people.
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@omarremy that's awesome. I just ordered one. Wish they were available sooner though.
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Hunter
I'm pretty pumped about this knife and I'm not the only one. Check out this quote from J. Kenji López-Alt (Serious Eats and Food Lab):
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to call it: This is the holy grail of inexpensive chef's knives. Incredible quality and design, high-end materials, perfect balance and a razor-sharp edge. That's right, $65 for a knife that can go head to head with my $180 Misono UX-10 or my $120 Wüsthof and come out the other end barely breaking a sweat."
I just bought two of these. An interesting thing here is that @omarremy is basically making @everlane for your kitchen with @misenkitchen, with this chef's knife as the flagship product.
I also think it's fascinating (and somewhat surprising) that knives are differentiated enough that if you build a great product, it's possible to get recognized at a high level in the industry. It kind of reminds me of tshirts -- they all seemed similar until I tried American Apparel. They were consistently better quality at a good price. I get the same sense with the Misen Knife.
Question for @omarremy - how did you source the materials/learn about what makes great knives? Was it more on the engineering/manufacturing side, or was it customer research with chefs?
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These look nice. I wonder how they compare to MAC knives?
Aren't ceramic knives a better "bang for buck" in production and in real life use?
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@johnnyquachy They're very sharp, but have a lot of problems. Ceramic is brittle and tends to crack and break, making them not a very good choice for anyone concerned with value.
Stainless steel is probably the best bang for the buck, as its strong and gets pretty sharp. Carbon steel is preferred by pro chefs and more serious cooks as it gets sharper than stainless, but is more of a pain to maintain.
@blake@johnnyquachy I think they only break if you drop them. If you are dropping knives you should worry about other problems hehe. Something that would break a ceramic knife would damage your steel one (I think?). Just a guess.
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