New Knife - Satake Kuro Mori

Time for the presentation of another new kitchen knife and a rather unique one at that. No, it is not specifically geared towards fish or meat, not vegetables or fruit. In this case, it is instead a knife that is expressly made to be aimed at "Outdoor cooking" in all its forms. Whether it happens at the barbecue, out in the woods, or at a campsite. The series is called "Kuro" and this knife has been named Mori and comes from Satake.

Here, however, it feels like an explanation is in order. Namely, "Satake" gives quite a lot of hits if you search for the name. Especially as Google has now ruined all searches with loads of ads and shops on the front page. In this case, lots of pages selling kitchen equipment. One of the hits that pop up is Satake Cutlery based in Seki, Japan. However, this knife is not from them!

The knife is delivered in an elegant wooden box

Since the knife is aimed at outdoor use, it comes with a sheath

What is relevant instead is Swedish Vikingsun's own house brand, which is also called Satake. They say on their website that the design department is located in Stockholm. But the influences are obviously Japanese, something they also state. However, this is where it becomes a bit unclear to me where this knife actually comes from. Let me explain.

I have a somewhat older knife from this brand, a Santoku from their "No Vac" series with a wooden handle. It is stamped "High Carbon Stainless Steel" and "Japan". Then it can be assumed that it was manufactured there. For a long time, I actually thought the knife was (entirely) Japanese.

However, this new knife is not stamped with anything other than the name but on an accompanying note, it says that the steel is "Chrome, carbon steel, and VG 10 steel" (Sic!). It brings to mind the land of the rising sun. I will return to why. To confuse a knife enthusiast, it is further stated that the knife has a "butt cap and bolster of 18/8 steel". However, the knife looks to be fully forged and it is not only stated to be so but also made by hand if the sales texts are to be believed.

In order to then completely mix the cards, it says on the website that the material in the knife is 5Cr15MoV steel, (wrongly written as 5CR15MOV) and "also called 1.4116 steel".

Now no less than 6 different designations for steel have been mentioned! In addition, the steels are from different countries and with different properties. 

The accompanying information leaves a knife enthusiast like me confused

"Chrome" may possibly have been misunderstood by the person who wrote the text to mean that it is included in the 5Cr15 steel. However, that steel is not mentioned on the note and it is in fact NOT carbon steel which is mentioned in the same sentence. On the contrary, it is a steel that is extremely resistant to rust but does not hold its sharpness very well because it cannot be hardened to any higher heights. As most readers know, carbon steel is anything but stainless but can be made very hard if desired. Now the first ambiguities may begin to be resolved.

The next mention of steel, however, is trickier to interpret, but that's what led the mind to Japan. The G in VG 10 stands for "Gold" by the way. It aims for the properties of being both as hard as carbon steel yet stainless. Properties worth their weight in gold when this steel was invented about sixty years ago by the Japanese company Takefu Special Steel. It is stainless steel with a slightly higher carbon content than many others and also elements of vanadium, which the V stands for.

So, the material could be VG10* which can be counted as a "high carbon" steel as it has closer to 1% carbon which is above the minimum requirement to be viewed as high carbon among stainless steels. However, it should not be confused with "carbon steel".

But in that case, the bolster and end button cannot be made of 18/8 steel. If so, this knife must have a laminated blade because the knife is said to be fully forged. But it doesn't say anything about that. This steel type belongs to the most used group of all stainless steels, so-called austenitic steels. In the kitchen world, they are usually found in pots, one might add. It is steel with very very low carbon content, below 0.05%. In other words, the exact opposite of a "high carbon".

Above all, there are very few similarities between VG10 and 5Cr15MoV which is Chinese steel! Apart from it coming from another country, Japanese companies would NEVER deal with material from China for several reasons. Most have to do with pride.

Then I don't understand why they say that it is also called 1.4116. It is not at all! Although both are steels with approximately the same carbon content, 0.45-0.55%, and similar chemical composition, they are not identical and 1.4116 is manufactured by, among others, Krupp and is thus German steel. However, it is sometimes called X50CrMoV (DIN standard) when it is found in knives from e.g. Victorinox. It is also used by many famous German chef knives brands such as Zwilling and Wüsthof. There they generally prefer slightly softer steel than they do in Japan.

Satake Kuri Mori

In Satake Kuro Mori, however, the similarity is found with the Swiss and German knives as the website states that the hardness is as low as 54-56 HRC. It's really soft no matter what material it's made of. If you don't believe the accompanying label, which instead states the hardness to 58HRC. In that case, it would be at the limit of what can be achieved with the simpler steels mentioned. Even that is a bit confusing.

It should also be pointed out that these are not exclusive steels but are simple and thus fairly cheap materials that are mainly used for three reasons. For manufacturers, they are low in price and easy to process, which saves time and therefore money. For the user, they are damn resistant to rust. Ok steel for the home cook but nothing for finer knives to be honest. So they are nothing to brag about for that reason.

Now I can forgive Satake for that if it is chosen based on the intended use of the knife, outdoors under varying conditions where it may be exposed to a lot of moisture. In addition, it can be imagined that you are not as careful handling it as you are with a Japanese sashimi knife and that it will perhaps bump into bones when you, for example, split a chicken. Due to its properties, 5Cr steel should, for example, have less tendency to chip compared to harder steel. But all that remains to be seen. However, I predict a lot of grinding. That in turn should be easy.

Kuro Mori comes in an exclusive wooden box with a sooty look and a saia or rather sheath that can be worn on the belt. It is made of faux leather but with a decent finish.

The knife itself feels somewhat strange as it is a hybrid between a Chinese chef's knife, a meat cleaver, and a Japanese Santoku. An expression that is enhanced by the extended handle. You could possibly call it a "Western Deba" because it is also heavy. With this height of the blade, the knife weighs in at around 318 grams, which is a lot for a kitchen knife with a 195 mm long blade. Now it is certainly stated on the website that the weight would be a whopping 376 g and with the saia 484 g. That is thankfully not true.

I intend to return to this knife with new information about what material the knife is actually made of, how it is made, and where. My guess is the Chinese "letter steel", that it is machine made and that the country of origin is likely China for this particular model. Hopefully, it can be sorted out after contact with Vikingsun. Namely, they have a wide range of different steels in their repertoire and the others are Japanese.

Then, of course, there will be a review! The fact that the introduction could have been clearer does not mean that the knife has to be bad! It feels well made and I look forward to using it!

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/ J - a little confused

* Possibly the misunderstanding may be because the other knives in the Kuro series are knives that appear to have a Tsuchime hammered blade with a pattern welded blade with a VG10 core (edge) steel. However, Mori is not made that way at all.

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