You may think of it as a butcher's specialty meat knife, but... It's a sort of weird combination of gigantic boning knife and slicer, with a lot of belly and an incredibly high tip. It does everything you could ask for in the barbecue context.
It's strong enough and shaped so that you can lean on it a bit, when you're splitting birds, cutting through tips, and so on. It's quite agile, plenty good for trimming the fat off of briskets. Slices and portions like a dream. Keep it sharp, and you'll be shaving your brisket paper thin if it comes out a little tough.
There are some work-arounds to make it function as a chef's knife. It chops quite well, providing you know how to hold a knife and keep the handle off the edge of your cutting board. But it does have a weakness as a chef's knife replacement. It's high tip doesn't go on the board easily which makes a few things difficult, chopping onions fine using the "cross-hatch" method, for instance -- but that's not something we usually do with our outside knives is it? So
There's no heel to speak of, so if you use your knife heel for opening cans and such, you're SOL with this bad boy.The shape is available as either a Fibrox or Rosewood -- only difference is the handle. Many (most?) people find Fibrox more secure when dealing with raw meat. I own a Fibrox (long story), actually prefer the Rosewood, but think most people here would choose Fibrox.
The 10" is probably most versatile.
Forschner Rosewood and Fibrox are made thinner than "classic" German knives, and are consequently a lot easier to sharpen; and everything else being equal, they act sharper than thick knives.
Forschner Rosewood and Fibrox series knives are made from one of the best German style alloys, X15CrMoV15. They sharpen easily on regular "western style" oil stone, and you'll find the edge is easy to maintain on an ordinary, fine "honing steel" (don't use diamond or other "sharpening" steels, they'll tear your knives up). No surprises about the edge quality, as it's intended identity is as a professional butcher's knife.
In the senses of weight, agility, edge qualities and alloy the Forschners are far superior to Mundials, for instance; or other "German" style knives anywhere near the price range. They do lack full bolsters and aren't quite as stiff. Also, you could say they lack "heft." So, if those are features and qualities you value, you might want to look at something besides Forschner -- let alone the cimeter, specifically. That said, most skillful knife users don't. Remember that Forschner is pretty much the top of the professional butcher's food chain.
BTW, I'm aware that a forum member recently purchased Mundials, and I don't mean to rain on his parade with the comparison. Mundials are good knives alright, but different.
The knives are extremely well made, with excellent fit and finish in Switzerland.
The price is certainly reasonable.
BDL
PS. The great truth about knives, is that nearly all of using a knife productively is keeping it sharp. All dull knives are created equal, and no matter how good it was when it was sharp, a dull knife is only a dull knife.
