jdee Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 G'day my first post and it's a long one. I should introduce myself although some of you may know of me from other Forums. I am a Knifemaker although currently inactive due to a debilitating shoulder injury and I was a full member of the Australian Knifemakers Guild and I am also a Knife Dealer and we produce a monthly free newsletter "Knife Knews" for which I have done many knife reviews. My spare time seems to be taken up with testing knives as I believe there is a lack of knife reviews available in Australia. Most knife reviews come out of the US where conditions and the availability of good knives is different to here and many of the reviews are either written for Knife Magazines where there is a vested advertising interest or the knives are supplied free to the reviewers. Also many such reviews are a bit "over the hill" where reviewers are into destructive testing such as chopping concrete blocks. Firstly, I buy all the knives I review and I test them for what they are designed for and not in any destructive way. Okay enough of that here is a review I have just completed. We recently began stocking the Tramontina (Brazil) line of knives so I decided to test them out. Firstly, Tramontina is one of the few Knife Manufacturers of butcher type knives to be up front about their steel and heat treatment. They say they use Krupp 1.4110 and Sandvik 12C27 Stainless Steels which on paper are not dissimilar. A lot of European manufacturers use these 2 steels and 12C27 in particular is used by Frosts of Sweden and Opinel. The US company Bark River have had good success with 12C27 with a special heat treatment and bringing out knives at 58hrc. Tramontina also say they heat treat their knives to 55-56hrc, which is about the norm for this type of knife, using an ice-hardening process or cryogenics. I decided to test the Tramontina against 2 other popular brands of butcher knives they being: F-####; and Victorinox. I chose a 6" skinning knife for the test given that this is probably the most popular amongst hunters, farmers and home butchers. The first thing to note is that neither F-#### or Victorinox are forthcoming about the steel or the heat treatment involved in their knives. The second is that both the European knives were highly polished whilst the Tramontina was satin finished. All 3 knives had plastic handles and were accredited to the NSF standard for hygiene and of the 3 I found the Tramontina most comfortable mainly as I have hands on the small side and the Tramontina handle was not as bulky as the others esp., the F-####. All knives appeared sharp out of the box with similar sized bevels. Prior to testing I did not sharpen the 3 blades but during the course of testing I gave each knife an equal number of strokes on a smooth steel after each individual test. Rope (3/8" manila rope) - the Tramontina was the only knife to cleanly cut the rope the other 2 stopped half-way. Leather (1/8" x 1" new vegetable tanned) - the F-#### cut the cleanest followed by the V'nox and then the Tramontina. Wood (1/2" hardwood dowel) - the F-#### cut off the largest piece followed by the V'nox and then the Tramontina. Carrots (new and crisp) - all knives easily sliced the carrot at the thick end and no difference was found. Tomatos (very ripe) - the Tramontina performed the best here by easily cutting through the other 2 knives were hard to start but once through the skin they performed well. Meat (stewing steak) - the Tramontina was just in front of the F-#### and the V'nox appeared to be tiring. The Tramontina was the better performer in trimming off fat etc. Cardboard (corrugated packing) - cutting with the grooves all 3 knives performed equally. Cutting against the grooves the Tramontina performed best. Cardboard (manilla folders cut into 4" strips) - this was my edge retention test (remember these knives have not been sharpened). Using a pull stroke I kept slicing until the blade started to hesitate. Here the Tramontina was in front of the F-#### and the V'nox was last. From the above it appears that the Tramontina was the best performed and I put this down to the fact that the other 2 knives were highly polished and presumed that their edges were also polished whereas the Tramontina had an aggressive edge. It is a fact that an aggressive edge works better on some mediums EG rope than a polished edge but the latter will work better on push cuts EG wood than the former. I then sharpened all 3 knives on a 2 x 36" belt sander using a used 240 grit slack belt. Each knife was sharpened at a 30 degree angle IE 15 degrees each side and then given 20 strokes on each side on the Spyderco Sharpmaker at 30 degrees using the white or fine rods. All 3 knives should have now been equal as far as sharpness and edge profile was concerned so I conducted the rope test again and the results were as follows: Tramontina = 10 cuts; F-#### = 9 cuts; V'nox = 7 cuts. From this you can assume that the Tramontina and the F-#### had about equal edge retention and the V'nox the worst. Not knowing the steel and hardness of the F-#### and the V'nox it is hard to make any firm analysis but certain assumptions can be made. The Tramontina and the F-#### may have similar steel and/or similar hardness whereas the Victorinox had inferior steel and/or lesser hardness. But when it comes to looking for a knife for working in the field it appears to me that you cant go past the Tramontina based on the above and based on the fact that it costs significantly less then the 2 European knives. I have based costs on wholesale prices as this negates the various markups that abound and the cost of a Tramontina 6" Skinner is approximately half the cost of the European Knives. Without extensive testing I could not recommend the Tramontina as a professional knife although I understand they are being used in some meatworks but for hunting or on the farm or for the home butcher they should be an excellent alternative to the higher cost European knives. They also perform well in the kitchen I bought an 8" straight butchers knife for meat only and a 7" flexible boner which has proven a worth alternative to your traditional ham slicer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gryphon Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Gday JDee i`m sure you will be able to impart some knife knowlege/experience here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wharf Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 I have been using a tramontina for nearly 10 years now as my fishing knife.Its a beauty.Its got a small knob of metal hangin out of the handle just for donging fish on the melon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 Welcome to the site mate. Good little review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rono Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Welcome Jdee will be looking forward to all your Knife reviews keep up the good work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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