Time for a sping clean... and a Garasuki... i think...

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ruscal

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hi there. i just discovered this forum. nice to meet you all.

i've always been into cooking, ever since i was a kid.

i started collecting kitchen knives around 2006/2007 when a now ex-gf bought me a few global knives for christmas. i got a few more global knives, built up a bit of a collection, and used one of those mino sharpener things. and they were great - i always enjoyed cooking with them.

then around 2010/2011 i found a couple of online cooking forums, read a bunch of stuff about knives, and bought a Masamoto VG. soon enough i'd replaced all the globals with Masamotos. and gave all-but-one of the globals to my mum.

around 2011/2012 i bought some Wa-handle knifes - 3 x Konosuke and 1 x Ashi. but i rarely used them. they seemed too "special" and i was scared as heck to sharpen them in case i ruined them. also they had some small finishing issues with the handles where elements weren't flush which had always bugged me. so i used the Masamotos and started learning how to sharpen just using those Masamoto knives.

anyway. today, having benefited from the advice of Japanese Knife Sharpening, i used some wet and dry sandpaper and re-finished the handles. and then i sharpened them. it took me a ridiculously long time. like 5 of 6 hours.

they're now sat on my old cutting board while mineral oil slowly soaks into the handles...

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so now i think it's time for a spring clean. think i'm going to get rid of all the knives below (except the Mac bread knife), and just use the wa-handle knives above. i don't have the time to keep all of these sharp, and it seems silly to have doubles of so much stuff.

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does anyone think it would be a mistake to get rid of any of these?

i could keep the 16mm drop-forged global and use it for cutting up meat when i'm worried about bones... but i was thinking it might be nice to get a 180mm Garasuki and use that instead.

would anyone recommend a Garasuki as a good knife to have?
 
Greetings! Nice transition so far, there will be people to offer advice as to the garasuki, I for one have never used one.

Cheers!
 
You could put the old ones on the BST and see what you get or you could thin them and experiment with them perhaps, give them a new lease of life? If you're looking for a garasuki what kind of poultry do you eat a lot? Garasukis are pretty big, I used one for a while on 20kg turkeys and it worked awesome but on something smaller a honesuki would probably work better
 
Welcome to KKF!
I wouldn't recommend a Garasuki unless you prep a lot of large birds like gigantic chickens or turkeys or maybe Pterodactyls. I get a lot of use out of my Honesuki, but just don't see the need for a larger version.
If you want to chop bones, get a big thick bone chopping cleaver. Or a German something...........
 
thanks for the welcomes guys. :)

does a Garasuki really feel a lot bigger than a Honesuki? i've not played with either of them, but they look real similar except one is 150mm and one is 180mm. i didnt think that 30mm would make a big difference?

with my pettys i have a 150mm and a 210mm, but the 150 always feels a bit small. so i was thinking 180mm might be a nice length.

to be honest i rarely break down whole chickens. i like roast chicken, so sometimes i need to trim the drum sticks so it looks pretty. i currently use kitchen scissors to do that.

i often make stock. but i haven't needed to break down bones for that yet. i just use what i have, or whatever the butcher gives me, in whole pieces.

i make a lot of stews and casseroles but there are rarely bones in the cuts of meat i work with.

i would like to get into mincing my own beef and pork for ragu. feel like i'd need something a bit thicker than a Konosuke to do that... plus could be nice to slow cook bone in joints before breaking them down and mincing them.

i cook a lot of thick steaks which need to be portioned before serving. haven't done them bone in yet, but would like to do that in the future.

maybe i'd be better off with a Hankotsu and/or a cleaver... but i was kinda hoping the Garasuki would be able to do everything that those would do...
 
Welcome! Honesuki/garasuki are pretty much only useful for poultry fabrication. If you're not breaking down birds on a regular basis, I don't think you have much need for one. Hankotsu is also primarily for meat fabrication, so again, unless you're getting whole primal slabs that need to be cleaned and trimmed, you don't have much need for one. If, however, you WANT one, by all means get one and have some fun with it. I do break down whole chickens quite often, and I get by just fine w/ a petty and beater Wustie. If you want to mince you own meat, get two sturdy Chinese cleavers.
 
From reading your posts I'd probably avoid a garasuki, I think it's too specialised for your needs. Maybe just try a different gyuto if you're looking for a new knife to buy?
 
i would like to get into mincing my own beef and pork for ragu. feel like i'd need something a bit thicker than a Konosuke to do that...
You don't.

From your posts, it sounds like you are thinking the knife will be for chopping through bones? IMO you don't really need anything special for working around bones since you aren't chopping through them, just getting meat off them. I use a konosuke and scrape along bones at times and never had any problem with chipping. I do have a hankotsu since I like the shape and short blade when trimming meat, but its not a necessity IMO. A good petty is actually all I'd need.
 
thanks for the advice guys. ok, so gonna keep the global just-in-case and try to use my wa-handle knives for everything else

with the western handle stuff, think i'm also gonna keep the 240 gyuto, 240 suji and 150 petty. been checking out dave martell's re-handling work and fancy doing that sometime! wanna re-profile the gyuto first though; at the moment i find the belly a little wide. not quite sure whether to take it down on the blade side or the spine side, or do a combo of both sides. but guess i'll have a play and try to figure it out.
 
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