Something a little different today. The Serbian chef knife, or Almazan knife, from Raven Forge. I’m not suddenly starting a cooking channel (although I might consider it at some point), but this ties in nicely with outdoor cooking vibes, especially if you’ve seen it on YouTube courtesy of Almazan Kitchen. Will it be part of my camping kit? Absolutely. Is it practical for Milsim? Nope. But, everyone likes cool shit and this is an excellent tool if you want to hack stuff to bits in your kitchen.

I’m no chef, nor do I know knives in any great detail with regards to materials etc, so there are probably more technical guides out there but I thought I’d show it off from the point of view of an average user rather than Gordon Ramsay. It arrived a few days ago and I’ve attempted to use it on all sorts of foods because it’s much cooler than the supermarket set of knives I currently have, and that helps to test it out. Most of my diet at the moment consists of fried breakfast foods, breads, and chilli based dishes so it’s been through all sorts of meats, vegetables, breads and packaging and done really well. It’s one of those “all in one” solutions which is partly why I bought it. I hate having to wash up 20+ knives.

Epic blade. There are a few of these on the market, but as mentioned I picked this up from Raven Forge, who are based fairly locally in Northern UK and are probably better known for forging other cool shit like axes, swords and lots of other Viking-related merchandise. It’s a very nice website, and I’ve long wanted an excuse to buy something from them. They’ve named their version “The Big Chopper”, which is a bit cheesy, but I’ll let them off.

It’s a hefty beast of a knife, weighing more than any of my pans (650g). But big, heavy, stable knives make life a lot easier. The top of the blade is nice and thick so you can push down on it if needed and it’s not going to cut your hand open. It’s carbon steel which makes it stronger and harder than other materials, so this thing should last a lifetime with any luck. If I had one criticism, it’s that the 19cm long blade isn’t quite as sharp out of the box as I imagined, but I have a few sharpening stones that will easily sort that out given the nice straight edge. The blade is a nice blackened finish with a mirror effect edge, and the handle feels very solid.

It comes in a nicely made leather sheath too, which pops open and closed easily enough and has a belt loop, although that’s not something I think I would have hanging off my pants but I guess it’d strap to a backpack if you went hiking.

And that’s about it really. Can’t do a ten thousand word essay on it, but I thought I’d show it off because I know there are people that will want it. £39.99 from Raven Forge (link here), who gave excellent service so I’ll definitely be back for more cool stuff. Or if you’re outside the UK and postage is a bitch, Amazon does a couple of similarly styled cleavers, like this one here, but do check the materials first. High carbon steel ftw.

Does anyone want me to do any food-related blogs then?