Misen redesigned their chef’s knife. Thousands
of 5 star reviews that the old knife got over
the years including quotes from people like
Kenji Alt simply got applied to the new knife
on Misen’s website. So today, I thought
we should take a look at the new Misen knife
and see if it deserves the 5 star rating.
In case you’ve been living under the rock
the last 5 years, let me go over a brief history
of Misen because it’s not your typical cookware
company. If you are already familiar with
Misen, the timestamp for review is in the
description below. Misen is an American start-up
that wanted to design an affordable knife
with a 15 degree bevel more typical of Japanese
knives, but with the shape that would accommodate
the western pinch grip and rocking motion.
They have succeeded admirably. When Kenji
Alt from seriouseats.com tried their $65 knife,
he was shocked at how comfortable and sharp
it was. He wrote an article about it, which
inspired thousands of Kenji’s fans, like
me, to give Misen kickstarter campaign money
to produce this glorious knife. After a year
of waiting, I got my knife and never looked
back. My $200 shun is now crying from boredom
in my drawer because I never use it. Misen
rapidly expanded into all sorts of cookware
with the moto of making luxurious cookware
affordable to everyone.
In 2019, just last year, seriouseats.com reviewed
Misen chef’s knife again. Daniel Gritzer
said that Misen handle was “incredibly comfortable
to hold,” but out of the box sharpness at
curvature of the edge (in other words closer
to the tip) left much to be desired. I heard
about occasional sharpness inconsistencies
from other users as well. Not a biggie for
me because I hone and sharpen myself, but
it is probably a bigger deal for most people.
Seriouseats said that if out of the box sharpness
could be improved, Misen could be their top
pick.
I also noticed that even before the redesign
Misen stopped polishing the metal on the handle.
Not a biggie, but not quite what the first
shipment of knives was offering.
So that’s the history of the original chef’s
knife. The original knife is no more. A few
months ago, it was replaced by the new Misen
chef’s knife. Since Misen is the brand I
recommend to my students, I thought I should
try the new version to make sure it’s still
worth recommending.
The first change is the width of the blade.
The new blade is wider. Misen said that the
wider blade would give your fingers more clearance
and prevent you from hitting your knuckles
on the cutting board. That was never an issue
for me. I felt like I had plenty of clearance
with the old design. Of course, maybe I am
a small handed woman. Maybe for a man with
very large hands, a wider blade is preferable.
But given that the original knife was designed
by men and reviewed by thousands of other
men including professionals like Kenji Alt
and Daniel Gritzer, I have a feeling that
this was a problem for a pretty small fraction
of the population. But if it makes a knife
more usable for people with big hands, I am
cool with it. I can use a wide blade or a
narrow blade, but they probably can’t use
a more narrow blade.
The next design change is the shape of the
back of the blade. This is a huge change in
my opinion. The new knife stops the blade
further away from the handle giving you a
more steep arch in the back of the blade.
The old knife had the blade come pretty close
to the handle. When I hold the old knife with
a pinch grip, the top of my index finger falls
on top of a smooth and wide handle. When I
hold the new knife with a pinch grip, I have
to move away from the handle area and more
towards the blade area. This fills my hand
with more pointy spine of the knife instead
of a comfy, curvy handle.
Now, the top of my index finger falls onto
the top of the spine that is narrow and digs
into my skin. And to add insult to injury
that spine is as unpolished as ever. So I
am basically holding a fistful of rough metal
instead of a smooth handle. I don’t know
if my camera is good enough to show the difference
in the finish, but my audio equipment definitely
is. Here is what these knives sound like when
I run my nail on their metal.
These are not just my first impressions. I
made myself use the new knife for 2 weeks
to see if I could get used to it. I am a creature
of habit and it’s possible that any new
knife would feel wrong to me. But after 2
weeks of use, I was still not comfortable
with the new design. I actually ordered 3
other 15 degree knives on amazon to see if
I could find an alternative. I tried Nexus,
Tojiro,
and Miyabi. None of them were as comfortable
for me as the original Misen. In almost all
Japanese or Japanese style knives, the top
of your index finger falls onto the spine
instead of the handle and the new Misen moved
more in this direction. Basically, they gave
up the one huge competitive advantage they
had over the Japanese knives.
Pretty much all the knives that I found comfortable
in my life were designed with the handle extending
over the top of the spine. Here is victorinox
-- see how the handle is angled to give you
something wide to press on.
Here is the shun edo -- again see how far
the handle comes in?
Unfortunately, this knife is also discontinued.
And here is the original misen -- my favorite
knife of all time. These knives aren’t comparable
in terms of sharpness. I am just comparing
the comfort of the handle.
I was hoping that maybe smoother metal would
solve my problem, but it didn’t. Nexus was
very smooth and it felt great in the hand
until I started using it. But once I tried
to dice an onion with it and had to press
on top of the skinny spine, no matter how
smooth and polished it was, it was not comfortable.
I know what some of you are thinking. Why
are you pressing down Helen? Aren’t these
knives sharp? Sure they are. But even razor
blades don’t fall though root vegetables
like air. You do need to push down some. It’s
especially noticeable when you are dicing.
When you are slicing, the gliding motion can
help you get through the vegetable. But when
you are using the tip of the knife to dice
an onion, you can’t really glide the knife
through. Downward force, shouldn’t be the
only force, but it’s definitely a force
in chopping and I don’t want a skinny piece
of metal digging into my finger when I bring
the knife down.
I notified Misen of my concerns and they told
me that the new knife and the old knife were
so similar that keeping both would confuse
their customers. According to them the new
knife is better in every way, so that’s
the one they kept.
This is where I need your help my dear viewers.
If we raise our voices together, I believe
we could bring back the original Misen and
ask for better quality assurance, so that
every knife is perfectly sharp from the heel
to the tip. To me, that would easily be worth
an extra 20 bucks. What do you think? Here
is how to reach Misen on facebook, instagram,
and twitter (all linked below) and please
share this video with them. My kids tell me
we need a hashtag. So how about #misenoriginal.
And speaking of kids… When my daughter tried
the new knife she said, oh Mom, no. What are
we gonna do? And I said, don’t worry kiddo,
we already have a good misen knife, it’s
just a bummer that I no longer have a knife
to recommend to my students. And she said,
but what about when I go to college? ,
I haven’t thought about that. Well, the
good news is that we still have 5 years left.
And I really hope that by the time she leaves
home, Misen Original will be back.
You know that story about Julia Child breaking
off a piece of a cuisinart food processor
on her show because it was easier to use that
way?
And then Cuisinart made that fix for all their
future processors. Come Misen, I could be
the next Julia and you could be the next Cuisinart.
Here are more thought provoking culinary videos
for you to check out and if you are ever in
the Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one
of my classes.
