Alcyone : cutlery de bon alloy

Back from the 2018 Mini Meet in The Netherlands, my freind Nemo had a nice surprise for testing and benching: the Sal Glesser signed Alcyone!

So I have been testing the knife in different conditions so to get familiar with it. The manufacturing is very precise; serious stuff. Its a lightweight heavy duty!

However before that, I did a bit of research on the origin of the chosen name. There are different mythologies about king Ceyx’s spouse: Alcyone. In all cases she ends up being transformed into a kingfisher (1) by pity, (2) as a punishment for a sacreligous stand, (3) to reward her for her courage and love of Ceyx. A hypothisis is that the kingfisher flew far away from earth and became a fixed star in the Bull Taurus Constellation https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/01232012-ephemeris-the-face-of-the-constellation-taurus-the-hyades/: Alcyone, greenish yellow star and the brightest in the Pleiades star cluster. Finally Alcyone thought to be center of the universe for the Mayan…

Now that we have travelled so far lets land back again for some down to earth experiences.

The idea of this article is to feedback on my experience. For the basic characteristics I found some interesting aricles on the web:
– official description and technical specifications: https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details/C222GGY/Alcyone-G-10-Grey/1058
– the Americain made CTS BD1 blade alloy: http://knifeinformer.com/discovering-the-best-knife-steel/

The first test I like to do is against something that is both hard and soft: hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Imagine what a really dull knife would do: not get through the outer crust and squish the inside. Yuk!!
So I expect exactly the contrary as a demonstration of success. That is the idea with the first test involving an epiphyte (member of the bromeliads family able to store water in a structure formed by their tightly-overlapping leaf bases). For this test I call the ripe pineapple!
The result is great with minimum liquid escaped once the peeling complete and all pineapple “eyes” are removed.

Another example is the pear test. Here the harder element is inside the softer one: the pip! See how the pip got cut without squishing the pear.

So Alcyone passes both tests!

The next test is a “no going backwards test” over a long distance and observing whether matter builds up (which would be the result of a dulling blade). So for this resistance test I have used honeycombed cardboard over a meter long.
The result is very neat from start to finish both thick exterior and thinner inside making up the alveolus. Somewhat similar in structure: the french baguette and the test was conclusive too!

Cheese or the art of preserving milk…
The idea of Conte cheese was to accompany the bread I had just cut! That with the cork, we enter the realm of the famous “perpetual movement”: reserving oneself of wine, bread or cheese as an excuse to finish the trilogy.
In this case the Conte is one that has aged in good conditions for atleast 20 months in the french Jura as we start to see Tryosin crystals (the white spots). Tryosin is an amino acide that enters in the composition of milk protines. All that to say that the cheese can be moist inside but crumbly near the crust: even more with one aged 30+ months.
With all respect due to the Ceyx’s spouse, Alcyone cut the cheese well!

Finally the Big Sirs: two legs of lamb. Here I focused on working mostly with the tip of the blade to be precise when cutting the meat and removing it from the bones; tagine was excellent! From the mini meet to the big meat!