Itou Gyuto not as sharp as expected

Just got a 240mm Gyuto with Abalone handle from Koki. Arrived today, and is utterly beautiful, nice to hold, and serviceably sharp. Shaves slices off of hanging paper quite easily, as long as I pull the knife, not just push.

Now the questions:
1. The knife, as it is, does not easily push-cut tomatoes, for example, and needs to be held aggressively to shave arm hair... If one pulls it, even barely, it does cut quite well - which makes sense. But, basically, it cuts tomatoes much worse than my 8'' Cermax (sharpened 2 weeks ago by me to 15 deg per side) blade. Am I expecting too much - i.e., should I have to sharpen the knife before use? (The Cermax was sharpened by diamond stones 100 to to 1000 grit, then ceramics (ending up at 1.6um), then stropped)

2. On one side, the bevel is missing on about 2cm of the knife about 3 cm from the back, i.e., in that region the knife has a single-sided bevel (from right). The entire bevel is about .5mm wide anyhow, but it is missing in that region. Verified by looking with a 60x loupe that there seems to be a _very_ small bevel there - i.e. it is not truly one-sided.

Any ideas on these 2 issues?

I guess I just assumed freshly bought Itous don't really have any issues like this...

I think that it's generally a good idea to sharpen a knife after you get it out of the box. Most knives don't ship with edges that knifeknuts would approve of.

As for #2, I'm sure more experienced people will chime in, but from what I gather, it could be two issues - knife is overground in the region where the bevel is missing or someone botched the sharpening.

The overground part is what I am kind of afraid of - I can sharpen the thing quiet well I would think - would need to find out the angle, actually - but if it is overground, I am not sure how to fix it even in theory.

I don't have first hand experience with Itou Knives, but unless I've expressly asked for some work on the stones from the Vendor (eg Jon), I've never received a knife that I didn't sharpen to get the best performance (not to mention thinning etc.).

mickg10 said:

I guess I just assumed freshly bought Itous don't really have any issues like this...

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No experience with Itou, but I think generally that J-knives are designed for the long term and to be broken in. I think those designed for the western market are increasingly designed to look great when you receive them, and from what I remember I think Itou are very much like this (damascus and flashy handles, correct?) but still that doesn't mean they're in their optimum state for use upon receipt and I agree with James. I'd say be patient and get to know the knife and how to sharpen/work the bevels, etc.

Again I don't know Ito, but this is a gyuto and on the back side it's very asymmetrical with very little bevel, right? Not sure I imagine it but, maybe the knife's ground a certain way for heavier use adjacent to the heel. However, is this only in a certain area between the heel and tip? Could be a bit irregular in an undesireable way. Better if you post a photo for the real knife-os to comment.

Sounds like a serious overgrind issue. Let it know to the reseller. Sometimes you can prove an overgrind only by attempting thinning and sharpening. Ask Mr Koki Iwahara for instructions before.

Not overground, apparently.

Sharpened it to 12 degrees per side on stones, as specified. The middle of the knife has visibly less bevel (it is thinner), and the back is thicker, but it is symmetrical, and looks purpose-done. Still, it has a good amount of bevel after sharpening.

R2 is somewhat annoying to sharpen, but after sharpening and stropping, the thing is scary sharp.

Thanks everyone!

Never had a problem sharpening R2, always been a pleasure for me. I don't think this knife will be problematic for you. Sounds like typical ootb edge really. Can you show us some pictures?

I own and love my Itou. Haven't had any issues with the R2 steel, like it a bit to be honest. It holds an edge well. I think you will enjoy it for years to come.

So, after spending some time on the stones with the Itou, I am coming to the conclusion that the knife is very good - I can get it to be sharper than my Henckels Cermax knives, and it seems to maintain that insane sharpness longer - Henckel's ME66 seems to lose that magic stage of "pull knife, and it falls through food" after slicing through 10 very thinly sliced apples or so. It is still very sharp after that, but not amazing. The Itou stayed at that stage for a solid 30 minutes of slicing hard fruits, no change at all. It was starting to feel like it wants to drop to just "sharp", not "mindblowingly sharp", but it never did - well, I ran out of food to prep.

So, I think I do love it. Now tempted to try to get one of his petty's or small gyutos.

That's weird, I still don't see any of the pictures.

ThEoRy said:

That's weird, I still don't see any of the pictures.

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