stainless yanagi rundown.

hi all,

I'Ve tinkered around with the idea of taking some boat work in the future cooking and that led me to assessing my kit for the ocean. i brought a semi stainless knife for a 3 month stint in the caribbean on a boat and had to be pretty vigilant to keep it in good condition. naturally working on a boat, you would come across a lot of fish. that leads me to my question of who has owned or currently owns a stainless yanagi? what are your guys recommendations and impressions? the only one that really comes to mind is a suisin inox but i'd love to hear about others both on the low and high end. thanks!

What size fish are you catching? I would think a ajikiri or a deba would be more useful on a fishing boat for butchering tasks. The Yanagiba is not made for contact with bones so it may get chippy real fast on you if you use it for butchering. A yo deba or mioroshi might be up your alley too!

sorry that was probably unclear, meant doing culinary work on private yachts and for charters. so i would have a full kitwith me but trying to have stainless. this is all hypothetical by the way, no imminent plans yet just seeing whats out there since as much as i love suisin itd be fun tohave a bit of variety.

neither have nor used a yanagi, but i do see that there are some tanaka g3 yanagis on ebay

never used a tanaka or g3 steel any thoughts?

suisin inox honyaki?
lots of great reviews.

pleue said:

never used a tanaka or g3 steel any thoughts?

Click to expand...

tanaka g3 is good stuff. really good edge retention.

Gesshin stainless damascus yanagiba? I don't have any experience with it, but I'm sure Jon would give you the low down
http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/gesshin-1/gesshin-specials/gesshin-stainless-damascus-300mm-yanagiba.html

Fujiwara Kanefusa FKV series in V-Gold stainless: $110-193.00. Alternatively, Masahiro 'Bessen' and 'G' series.

Sugimoto CM series? Used the steel which I really liked, though I've never used it in a single bevel.

There's also some beautiful Hattori yanagiba over at JCK at the moment, think there's just the VG-10 one left though. Speaking of which, Koki also has limited runs from Takeshi Saji (though you're paying alot for the lacquer handle and saya), aswell as the more basic stag and bamboo handled ones in Gin3. Also the Masamoto VG series.

Cheers,
Josh

Actually, come to think of it, there's a few options in G3 steel; Konosuke/Kaneshige, Suisin, Sakai Yusuke (Blueway Japan), Monzaburo, Sakai Takayuki shiden (fairly expensive, around $800 I think), Yoshihiro. I believe Aritsugu make single bevel knives from the a-style steel and Yoshikane in SKD which are both semi stainless.

I'm sure there's probably a lot more that I'm unaware of.

Cheers,
Josh

I'm thinking that, on a boat, out on the sea, that rust is going to set in anyway no matter what, whether the steel is carbon or stainless, which is why I recommended those budget lines.

I'm also interested in purchasing a stainless yanagi and usuba. It looks like the options are Ginsan, VG-10, or INOX. Can anyone comment on the practical issues of sharpening each of these steels? I know how it behaves on a double bevel, but what are practical considerations when sharpening a single bevel Japanese knife?