IKEA SLITBAR chef’s knife review

Updated (2012/10/31) – Added some more thoughts about the knife’s usability and design aspect.

Updated (2014/11/24) – Added some more thoughts after using the knife for 2 years.

Updated (2017/01/02) – Another update.

ASIDE: I originally started this post April 9th/2012,  but never got around to finishing it.

At the time, I had just come off nose surgery, and spent my first weekend in IKEA. Not the ideal way I wanted to spend my time recuperating, but we needed a toddler bed for Emily, who had turned 2 years-old the past Friday (April 6th). I was all up for getting her out of her crib and having her sleep with her sister, Evelyn.

Trips to IKEA are often fraught with disappointment and surprise.  As a kid, I hated it. My parents never let me and my brothers play in the ball room. What kid wants to look at furniture? Especially if it’s furniture not for them… That said, often times I find great stuff like the IKEA OMSORG Shoehorn, or the IKEA 365+ IHÄRDIG spice mill. There are also the disappointments, the most notable for me is their KAFFE press.

This past Saturday, I was browsing their kitchen centre when something caught my eye:

I bought it on a whim and I’ve been really impressed with it. It actually might be the best thing I’ve purchased all this year (and the diamond honing rod is a great deal as well).

I re-profiled the blade so that it uses a 30˚ edge (one side was already 15˚) — this took forever on my Spyderco Sharpmaker. VG10 steel is much harder than my other knives.

I also took some 150-grit sand paper to round out the edge of the spine where it meets the bolster for more comfortable handling.

That said, the knife pops the hairs off my arm, and it has retained an incredible edge over the last 10 months. It’s a bit bigger than I would like with the tip being a bit too rounded. The knife is Asian inspired, with a slight belly so it works wonderful for “straight-chopping” and “rock-chopping” motions.

The VG10 blade has a tendency to rust if I leave it in my sink too long, but I think that’s more about me than the knife.

Word of warning — the fit and finish of the knife is not the best. Of the knives that I saw back in April, many of the knives on display and in-box had a noticeable edge between the pakka-wood handle and the bolster. In some cases, there is a large glue-gap between the two as well. Moreover, the grind can be a bit inconsistent (although in practice, I don’t think it will matter once you sharpen it). By far the biggest thing that I notice is the knife tip can be chipped.

Still, amazing for the $79 price point.

Pros

• Great value for a VG10 steel blade
• Very Sharp out of the box, but can be made sharper with the right tools
• Full bolster design
• Great warranty

Cons

• Fit and finish could be better
• Spine edge is uncomfortable
• A bit large for small hands

UPDATE (2014/11/24):  I’ve been using the knife for over 2 years and it is still the main workhorse of my kitchen. I sharpen it once a year using the Spyderco Sharpmaker and use my honing rods frequently. I’ve notice that the VG10 blade has a few chips on it. I wouldn’t call the blade brittle, per say, and it hasn’t really impacted cutting performance, but I could see how that might annoy people.  Then again at $80 CAD, I’m not too gutted about it. The thing that is beginning to look a old is the resin-infused handle.  I’ve tried polishing this with some Brasso metal polish to add back some lustre, but I still find it dull-grey.  The SLITBAR diamond honing rod hasn’t fared too well over the last 2 years.  It’s a heavy piece of steel, but I was probably a bit too rough and enthusiastic with it.  Most of the diamond surface is gone.

UPDATE (2017/01/02): I really treated this knife like crap this year.  I don’t know why, but I would leave it in the sink overnight and left it unsharpened for over a year-and-a-half.  I did manage to pick up a brand new honing rod (a Zwilling J.A. Henckel’s Professional) in a neighbourhood garage sale and I was pretty religious on using it prior to use.  It kept a good edge all year (not great, but serviceable), but I think that’s more about the thin profile of the blade.  Many more chips and pitting along the VG10 edge, but the cladding has remained intact.  A lot of this is just rough use on my part and leaving it in contact with other metals while wet.  Just sharpened it on the Spyder Co and it made such a huge difference.