Takeda cleaver comparison - New vs Old (pic heavy)

[chobint]

These are both classic carbon clad knives. As an avid home cook, I have never had issues with the cladding.

Regarding the quality and passion behind Takeda's knives: Ignoring the edge profile, which has too much belly, the quality of the forging on the new knife is far superior imo. It is thicker at the spine, has a great distal taper and thins out from spine to edge. I can echo this for my 240 gyuto as well. The secondary bevel, however, is a bit too obtuse. I have noticed in general that all 3 of my Takeda's have come with the 1200grit finish with no stropping and thus a wire edge. This was somewhat disappointing for me, as the review on zKnives said that his came polished to 4k(ish?) and poppin sharp.

Quantum,
Thanks for the sale. It is a gorgeous knife. The heavy brass spacers help bring the balance back towards the handle just a smidge. Feels nice and gets stuck in my board if I throw its weight around too much. I will be starting a new thread here soon with a semi-guided freehand system I've devised (non-proprietary). While I do enjoy sharpening completely free hand, its nice to have a easier way to get a good convex japanese edge on things.

[Dave Martell]

Takedas knives recently have been getting really thick down at the edge, or directly behind it, and it's not something easily fixed with stones. They've taken some of the best performing knives and turned them into Henckels, not cool.

This is an exaggerated drawing to show the difference between what he used to make and what he's putting out these days.....

[droshi]

Disappointing to hear as I've always wanted one of these laser cleavers. Besides the cck is there another cleaver that comes super thin behind the edge?

[mikemac]

Hey Dave...if we go back 4-5 years or more, weren't Takeda's hollow or concave grind behind the edge to some degree?

[Dave Martell]

Hey Dave...if we go back 4-5 years or more, weren't Takeda's hollow or concave grind behind the edge to some degree?

Yes they were and that was the whole blade and the edge bevel was thin and ground up higher into the hollow. The new grind is almost the exact opposite.

[mkriggen]

Does anybody know if you can specify the old style geometry if you special order direct from Takeda?

[brainsausage]

It's my understanding that he'll do just about any type of custom work you ask for. Go check out Mr.Magnus' custom. Thing looks frickin awesome.

[Sdkkds]

Takedas knives recently have been getting really thick down at the edge, or directly behind it, and it's not something easily fixed with stones. They've taken some of the best performing knives and turned them into Henckels, not cool.

This is an exaggerated drawing to show the difference between what he used to make and what he's putting out these days.....

How would you go about fixing it?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

[Dave Martell]

Takedas knives recently have been getting really thick down at the edge, or directly behind it, and it's not something easily fixed with stones. They've taken some of the best performing knives and turned them into Henckels, not cool.

This is an exaggerated drawing to show the difference between what he used to make and what he's putting out these days.....

How would you go about fixing it?

The ones I've seen I wouldn't want to try. I can't imagine how you could do this without screwing up the kuroichi finish. The grinding work needs to be so isolated just above the edge and the blade will wobble there as it's sticking out thick. I'm not saying that it can't be done but rather it's going to be messy and a lot of work as well. In my opinion this is a forge issue.

[Dave Martell]

I wanted to mention that I dig Takeda's knives, always have, and that I hope that this info gets back to him so that he can re-evaluate what's being put out and get back to making those killer knives we've all come to appreciate so much.