K04 Mini Santoku Mod

[araneae]

I finished up this mod for Paul and thought I would share some pics. I may have to do one for myself if Paul reports that it works nicely in the kitchen.

I had Paul mark his rough outline with a Sharpie:



Taped up and cut the tip. I used the ice bath very frequently- the stock is thin and I did wan't to damage the HT.



Shaped up with the 1x30 here it is against my K04 for comparison:



Not the best pics, but I used my phone. I did learn that this thin stock takes a light hand and is trickier to work with than a typical folder. I ended up hand finishing the spine with several grades of sand paper. Looks like it should make a nice small chopper.

[Holland]

Awesome Mod! thanks much for sharing

[The Deacon]

Outstanding! Thanks a million Nick. Can't wait to try it out, but you're more than welcome to test drive it first if you like. :)

[Blerv]

That turned out great! Looking forward to a review from anyone :) .

[M80]

Looks great :D

[LC Kid]

Absolutely Awesome!


Always wanted a medium sized Santoku, and this one looks as good as it might gets. :D

[xceptnl]

That looks great guys.

[IG-88]

Wicked mod!!! Thx for sharing!

[WireEdge Roger]

Looks stock! Should be super handy.

[Donut]

Every time I see someone sharpie a new profile on a knife, deep down there is a voice that says, "NOOOO, don't do it!"

It doesn't look too bad. Is there any reason to not wait for the actual Santoku to come out? Shouldn't the handle be higher up to give your hand room?

[The Deacon]

Is there any reason to not wait for the actual Santoku to come out? Shouldn't the handle be higher up to give your hand room?

You mean aside from the original Spyderco Santoku's blade being just shy of 7" long and, assuming the K04's sell well enough for Spyderco to consider reviving it, the new version will almost certainly be the same length, or very close to it? Honestly, I just want to see how a small non-pointy knife will work for me in the kitchen.

As for clearance, sure, more would be better, but that would mean a full custom knife, or waiting, hoping the Santoku is re-issued, and getting one of those cut down to 4". Plus, my most used kitchen knife is a K05 Utility which, if anything, has even less clearance due to a slightly narrower blade. I rarely have a problem with it not having enough clearance and when I do I solve it the old fashioned way - I cheat, and work with the handle beyond the edge of the cutting board or counter. I don't see doing the same with this one, if and when I need to, as a problem.

[Donut]

I haven't been keeping track of all things said about the kitchen knives, I thought they were planning on running all the models eventually.

I wasn't sure what advantage having a shorter Santoku would help with. Most of the professional chef types seem to recommend a larger blade if you have the room to use it.

I guess you'd have to take the normal utility knife and figure out what section of the edge you normally use to give your fingers clearance, then make sure that section of the edge is still on this one.


You'll have to report back to tell us how well it works for you in use.

[ChapmanPreferred]

Interesting! I think it looks nice and it was well done.

[Ned]

Love it, hard to beat a good smallish santuko in the kitchen!

[tonydahose]

Looks nice.

[araneae]

Outstanding! Thanks a million Nick. Can't wait to try it out, but you're more than welcome to test drive it first if you like. :)

I took you up on the test drive and made some soup last night. Chopped some carrot, onions, cabbage and peppers. Clearance isn't a big deal if you use the edge of the counter like I usually do. Sliced very nicely.You can put the point on the board and rock it down for pretty fast dicing. I did think it could use a tad more belly, but it did pretty well. Pretty sure I will be doing another of these for myself soon. My wife has a kai pure komachi that this outperforms, I think she would use the heck out of it if I made one. Thanks Paul for letting me give it a quick test. It will be on its way to you soon.