takagi honyaki

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does anyone have any experience with these? cheap honyaki i imagine means crap fit & finish and needs some serious thinning be done, but that doesn't scare me. how is the profile and heat treat? hows it feel on stones?
 
No experience myself, but I've always been curious about his gyutos. Ultimately, I know I don't have the patience to put into "fixing" one, so that keeps me from pulling the trigger. But here's an old thread with some pretty good info.
http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/2940-Takagi-Gyuto-First-Impressions

Harald (Darkhoek) did a comparison with a few other high end gyutos and it came it out very well. I believe his had a significant amount of work put into it though.

Cheers,
Josh
 
narrow profile and assuming great retention sounds interesting as a line knife.

i basically grind my own bevels anyway so 'fixing' part wouldn't bother me much. i would probably invest in a dmt xxc however, haha.
 
I have one. Gets pretty darn sharp and edge retention is very good. The profile and geometry leave a bit left to be desired though. OTB, it's thin at the spine, but a bit thick behind the edge. Geometry wise, the knife is just like a giant santoku; whether that's good or bad, I'll leave that up to you to decide.

Edits - Sorry, I'll make some comparisons to make this a bit more useful. It takes a more refined edge than any other knives I have (although the rest of my knives are stainless). Edge retention wise, it's better than my TKC. On the stones, it feels like glass...
 
I bought a yanagi. Who ever did the grinding did a horrible job. I I brought it to Dave Martell and he said it was one of the worst he's seen. This could just be a fluke. The forging of the blade was fine. It was just finished poorly. Still makes me a little weary.
 
For inexpensive honyaki, I would suggest Singatirin from Maxim. Great knife with nice fit and finish.
 
Panda I have the 240,then again I like drop nose gyuto's.Got it at least 5 or 6 yrs. ago for a little over 200.00 at Japan woodworker.I believe they sold his seconds with a cheap handle at a much lower price.Mine has a few imperfections,the handle I used at work for a while & swapped it out for a Stepan Keller ebony octagon that looks great.

It is a beefy gyuto,Assem. grind.I thin a little behind the edge when I sharpen it,then establish a final bevel.You can put a really sharp edge on this blade & it holds the sharpness better than most.Have not done major thinning on this knife & never will.If you want a thin blade don't get a Takagi.I still like using it for prepping dinner goes thru foods wt. little stiction & it is so sharp,it keeps sticking in my endgrain board using forward push cut & chopping.
 
i love drop nose profiles too, can't stand belly knives. it basically looks like a 240 santoku which i think is totally awesome.

at 2.1mm at spine, i would consider that a very thin blade (just not behind the edge since it's probably not ground down much at all), i like a thicker blade so that i can get a more aggressive taper for better food release.

how much of a pain is it to sharpen? above mentioned feeling like glass sounds horrific, heh.
 
I remember Mario had one. Think he was impressed with the steel, but had to put in some sweat equity. Hopefully he'll chime in.

I think the difference with the Takagi is it's a blue steel honyaki, unlike many of the other lower priced honyakis, which are often white #3....
 
Mine is 2.18 at the heel,2" from tip 1.94,at tip,1.49.The spine does not thin that much toward the tip.Also at the top of the wide Shinoge at the heel it is still 2.11.So it does not thin much at all down the sides of the knife until it hits the wide bevel.Takage makes other tools that demand strongness behind the edge.His blade reminds me of a wood chisel,power behind the wide chisel edge.


Jkerr's link above on page 2 of thread shows a heel shot fr. EE.I used it alot at work cleaning Lobster,would plant the tip middle of tail one rock cut splits the tail perfect.Also even on thick shell Claw go twix the spines & twist pops the claw.The knuckle meat is exposed wt one sweep along the leg takes off a slice of the shell.Try that with a thin Gyuto.The steel holds up well doing this work,lesser blades would chip or bend esp. on the leg slice.The edge holding & prolonged sharpness makes it a useful tool in prep kitchen.Japanese are always cutting thu shells & fish bone you will often see wide chisel type grinds.

From JWW the handle no way matches the quality of the steel,so the cost of a rehandle may be a factor.
 
The kurouchi/nashiji part isn't reactive. The rest of the blade gets settled quickly imo. It isn't very reactive after an onion or two.
 
I would say that being mono steel, and not having soft iron cladding will keep the reactivity in check.
 
I don't own one, but I handled (hihi :) ) a few, and I am with Keith on this. If you want a sturdy knife you do not have to baby and you are willing to put a little work in a slight thinning behind the edge, and you are aware that the handle is nothing to write home about, I always thought it is a good value, liked how it felt and handled. I was always thinking about getting one down the road. But it does not make sense to buy one if you want to thin it down to a laser, then you would be better off starting out with something thinner. The other thing for me - and I am in a minority with this - it's a little too flat for my taste, I like a little more belly to it.

Stefan
 
Dude, just go ahead and buy it already!
You can sell it to me when you're tired of it in a few months!!!:devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::woot::woot::woot::woot:
 
Dude, just go ahead and buy it already!
You can sell it to me when you're tired of it in a few months!!!:devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::devilburn::woot::woot::woot::woot:



Can i have first dibs when you give it away later? ;)
 
Panda you being in the business the steel alone is worth it.I used AS which is also good carbon steel at work as well.The steel in the Takagi Honyaki is as good as I have ever used period.I found that it performed well when I needed a stronger blade.I am a huge fan of thin knives for alot of prep & fine knife work.Some jobs you need a extremely sharp tougher blade for these the Takagi was my go to blade.

At first when I read about guys thinning the crap out of them,Thought it was stupid esp. since I had used it for banquet prep.I used cheap chinese carbon cleavers for lobsters for banquet sit down dinners up to 200 count.The edges would suffer,the Takagi was perfect for the job.

Since reading some more who am I to judge?If someone wants to thin it to make it cut smoother,they will still have a knife with excellent steel.The Kurouchi finish is very stabile so only the wide beveled edge patina's.Since I used it mostly for protiens it took on a nice patina.If you do radical thinning you have to go into the Kurouchi.
 
yeah i am floored with AS steel, my custom takeda should be arriving any day now. he told me 2 months and then 4 days later i get an email saying he shipped it!

i'll be on the look out for one of these. i'm not a fan of thin knives so would only thin about 3/4" up the blade.
 
I remember Mario had one. Think he was impressed with the steel, but had to put in some sweat equity. Hopefully he'll chime in.

I think the difference with the Takagi is it's a blue steel honyaki, unlike many of the other lower priced honyakis, which are often white #3....

Do you have any examples of these other cheap Honyakis?
 
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