yogidog98

Solid knife

Pros: very sharp, durable blade, good F&F, did I say sharp?
Cons: price recently went up, tiny flaw in spine
Review on:
Value
Performance
Handle
Blade
yogidog98’s Rating

Purchase Date: August 2010

Purchase Price: $170.00


Community Rating:
(2 reviews)

 

I just received my MAC Pro Mighty Chef's 9.5" knife.  Overall, I think I'll be very happy with the knife.

 

Specs:

 

Blade length: 244mm

Overall length: 369mm

Weight: 225g

Blade thickness: 2.31mm at spine

Balance point: roughly 133mm from back of handle (8mm forward of blade heel).

 

Handle:

 

The MAC USA site shows the knife with a two-rivet handle, but my knife has three.  I was curious, so I contacted them and they said the handle is really best suited to a two rivet design, but they recently changed it to three since the public perceives three-rivet knives to be higher quality.  The handle's F&F is excellent with a near-perfectly smooth transitions between tang, scales, and rivets.

 

Blade:

 

To my untrained eye, the blade looked dull out of the box, but that was definitely not the case.  The blade looked liked it had been buffed to the edge, and there was no perceivable bevel, so it almost appeared rounded over.  But MACs have a reputation for being very sharp out of the box, and a couple quick tests proved this knife was no exception.  It easily sliced a cucumber with two short strokes under its own weight, and it easily slices through a sheet of paper like a razor.  My best guess is that it came from the factory with a convex edge, since I have difficulty seeing any kind of bevel on it.  The blade tapers nicely from the 2.31mm spine to a nice thin blade near the edge.  The taper right at the edge is skewed a little to one side.  I had assumed these were ground 50-50, so I don't know if this is intentional or a flaw. 

 

MAC Pro edge.JPG

 

 

The blade is very stiff, but does flex some given enough pressure.  I think I'm going to go as long as I can without sharpening it because I think anything I do will only make it dull compared to the razor edge it has now.  I'm afraid to even steel it.

 

The left side of the blade has the familiar English "MAC Mighty" logo in it's goofy lettering.  The right side of the blade says "MADE IN JAPAN" and has the Japanese-character version of the company logo.  All lettering is raised printing on the blade, not stamped or engraved.  Note that the pictures below are deceiving.  What looks like a clear bevel in the pictures looks like a buffed frosted finish in person.

 

MAC Pro left.jpg

 

MAC Pro right.jpg

 

Overall:

 

The knife is a little heavier, and the blade a little thicker at the spine, than I expected, but I don't have any other experience with a Chef's knife this long.  I was also considering the Masamoto VG in the same length, and my MAC's measurements are in line (the MAC is .1mm thicker, and 25g lighter) with the Masamoto VG specs on JCK's web site.  

 

The knife does have one minor flaw--a tiny nick in the spine near the bolster.  Other than that, the knife appears flawless.

 

MAC Pro flaw.JPG

 

Value:

Up until a couple of weeks ago, this knife was available online for around $140.  Now, the standard 15% "discount" pricing is $170 no matter where you go.  At $140, this knife is anexcellent value, but at $30 more it blends in with all the other knives in that price range, including Masamoto and Sakai Takayuki Grand Cheff.

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