Two weeks ago I purchased a much needed gyuto to put through the paces at work.
I was looking for three things:
Blue steel core
Flat profile (k-sab, masamoto ks)
Medium thickness with distal taper
I decided to take a stab in the dark at a [relatively] unknown knife, the Takumi Ikeda 250mm AS Gyuto, from Mark at ThisSiteIsNotAllowedHere.
I tried taking pictures of this beauty but my phone's camera is complete crap.
The handle I received was the same one as the picture, bubinga with a wenge ferrule. The fit and finish on the handle was perfect. There were no rough edges or gaps and the tang is epoxied in with the machi completely covered. Both the spine and choil were rounded and polished.
This is no thin knife by any means, coming out of the handle at 3.3mm then tapering to 2.4mm an inch in front of the heel then slowly tapering to 1.2mm 1 1/2" from the tip. The tip came incredibly thin, a little bit too thin. I ended up chipping it against the stainless sink when washing it (oops). Took me about 20 minutes to re-profile the tip and it came out just fine.
The damascus cladding on this knife is NOT stainless. It appears that it's layered stainless with carbon which creates an amazing pattern when the carbon develops a patina and the stainless stays relatively stain-free.
Lastly, I want to talk about the most important part of this knife, the Aogami Super core. It has a heat treating I'd estimate at about 63-64 HRC. The edge retention and sharpness of this steel is absolutely insane. I sharpened on a 1000 grit, then 6000 grit, then 6000 grit + newspaper strop. I have not resharpened after the initial sharpening 2 weeks ago, just some stropping on the 6k, then 6k + newspaper every couple days.
Here is the list of the major stuff I prepped on a weekend with this knife
10 Red onion, julienne
14 Red pepper, julienne
10 Yellow pepper, julienne
10 Poblano, julienne
8 Onion, brunoise
2 Cabbage paper thin
4 Red pepper paper thin julienne
4 Yellow pepper paper thin julienne
A **** ton of cilantro mincing and lime cutting
20 lbs flank steak, sliced to about the size of the spine of this knife at the heel xD
25 Chicken breasts, same slicing
And I put this knife through this twice using only NSF poly boards.
I noticed today that my hair was getting quite long. So instead of using my ****** hair cutting razor I decided to use this gyuto after some quick stropping on a 6k.
Me with my haircut and the Ikeda.
Just for shits and gigs I decided to see if this could still shave arm hair. Yes. Cleanly. Seriously. This steel is the real deal.
I think I might be in love with this steel. :thumbsup:
I would seriously recommend picking this knife up if Mark has one available.
Cheers.
I was looking for three things:
Blue steel core
Flat profile (k-sab, masamoto ks)
Medium thickness with distal taper
I decided to take a stab in the dark at a [relatively] unknown knife, the Takumi Ikeda 250mm AS Gyuto, from Mark at ThisSiteIsNotAllowedHere.
I tried taking pictures of this beauty but my phone's camera is complete crap.
The handle I received was the same one as the picture, bubinga with a wenge ferrule. The fit and finish on the handle was perfect. There were no rough edges or gaps and the tang is epoxied in with the machi completely covered. Both the spine and choil were rounded and polished.
This is no thin knife by any means, coming out of the handle at 3.3mm then tapering to 2.4mm an inch in front of the heel then slowly tapering to 1.2mm 1 1/2" from the tip. The tip came incredibly thin, a little bit too thin. I ended up chipping it against the stainless sink when washing it (oops). Took me about 20 minutes to re-profile the tip and it came out just fine.
The damascus cladding on this knife is NOT stainless. It appears that it's layered stainless with carbon which creates an amazing pattern when the carbon develops a patina and the stainless stays relatively stain-free.
Lastly, I want to talk about the most important part of this knife, the Aogami Super core. It has a heat treating I'd estimate at about 63-64 HRC. The edge retention and sharpness of this steel is absolutely insane. I sharpened on a 1000 grit, then 6000 grit, then 6000 grit + newspaper strop. I have not resharpened after the initial sharpening 2 weeks ago, just some stropping on the 6k, then 6k + newspaper every couple days.
Here is the list of the major stuff I prepped on a weekend with this knife
10 Red onion, julienne
14 Red pepper, julienne
10 Yellow pepper, julienne
10 Poblano, julienne
8 Onion, brunoise
2 Cabbage paper thin
4 Red pepper paper thin julienne
4 Yellow pepper paper thin julienne
A **** ton of cilantro mincing and lime cutting
20 lbs flank steak, sliced to about the size of the spine of this knife at the heel xD
25 Chicken breasts, same slicing
And I put this knife through this twice using only NSF poly boards.
I noticed today that my hair was getting quite long. So instead of using my ****** hair cutting razor I decided to use this gyuto after some quick stropping on a 6k.
Me with my haircut and the Ikeda.
Just for shits and gigs I decided to see if this could still shave arm hair. Yes. Cleanly. Seriously. This steel is the real deal.
I think I might be in love with this steel. :thumbsup:
I would seriously recommend picking this knife up if Mark has one available.
Cheers.