I know that the suji is basically the western version of the yanagi and is primarily a slicer. My question is what makes a good one? Grind, thickness, profile, length ect?
Funny you should ask, I just posted about this exact topic this morning at ff.
Here was my response, keep in mind that most will probably differ from my opinion. I seem to be the odd one out on what I like...
Height-although I prefer my sujis taller, I like my chef knives more so. To me a suji needs to be at least 35-40mm tall. I have larger hands and still use either a handle hammer grip when slicing or light pinch grip for multi use so the extra height helps me from having to change my grip to avoid board contact.
Balance-I prefer my chef knives balanced at about 3/4 inch in front of the bolster, but my sujis I prefer to be substiantially more blade heavy with the balance point at a good two inches and beyond.
Grind-this is where I will differ alot from other guys, I like my sujis convexed closer to the edge, at least the bottom 1/3 of the blade. This is counter intuitive because everyone else will say, thin, thin, thin, but my two best performing sujis have convexing near the edge making them thicker, (not fatties, but healthy)(Think of the edge more like a Lolo Jones or Hope Solo, as opposed to an Kate Moss)but imo better cutters for protein slicing, albiet less so for multi purpose.
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