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Maluaka

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Hello from Canada!

First some background: I got into knives several years ago thanks to my cousin. He married a Swede and they lived in Northern Sweden for about six years. While there he was exposed to the Scandinavian knifemaking culture and brought back several very nice examples both by local makers, and knives he had made himself.

I thought this was fantastic and set about ordering some scandi blades and doing my own handles and sheaths with quite good results. This has already led to several commissions and I have made somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 customs now, both stick and full tang. None of this has anything to do with kitchen knives so I will now put a sock in it :wink:

Several months ago I ordered some Fallkniven blades which are swedish but made of Japanese VG10. This got me thinking 'I wonder what's available for Japanese kitchen knives that would be better than my Globals?'...........

Holy rabbit hole batman!! :Ooooh:

So far I have purchased three knives:

Super orange low light photos-

By the way, the cutting board is Larch wood (tamarack) and is made in Eastern Canada. Awesome cutting board!

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The Petty some of you will be familiar with. It is a JCK Kagayaki AS 150. It is beautiful with great FF. It gets unbelievably sharp but the cladding is REALLY reactive. If you cut a tomato and leave it for a couple minutes the cladding starts to turn orange!

The Gyuto and Nakiri were purchased at a local dealer in Calgary called Knifewear (check out their site). It is a super cool shop run by total knifenuts. They only carry Japanese knives and stock some seriously cool stuff (they have a huge stone selection and some other kitchen stuff as well but the focus is the knives). They carry even more than what's on the site and they have hand sharpened versions of almost all the knives on mag strips for you to fondle and try out on potatoes, tomatoes etc.

Both knives are from lines which are designed by the owner of knifewear and hand made by Japanese smiths. The custom designed knives are called "Masakage".

The Gyuto is a 210 made by Miroshi Kato San in Takefu and is White steel with stainless cladding. It is much thinner than the choil picture makes it look due to a very thick tang and rapid distal taper.

The Nakiri is a 165 made by a 30 year old smith named Yu Kurosaki also in Takefu. It is White steel with iron cladding. He gets the X pattern by forging with a hammer with a raised X on it. This Nakiri is pretty much Takeda thin and performs awesome. It also is thinner than the choil suggests due to aggressive distal taper. The cladding is less reactive than the JCK and is taking a great patina.

I already had some waterstones for sharpening my scandi's but have added a couple more.

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Counter clockwise from top left is a Norton 220 (like abrasive suspended in butter :yuck:), next are Bester 700 and 2000 (not bad but a bit too hard and they tend to glaze. Not a problem if you flatten them every time). Next is a Naniwa 4000 but not a superstone. It is sold under the name "Lobster brand" but is made by Naniwa. It is my favorite stone. Feels awesome, wears slow and makes good mud. Last is an Imanishi 8000 which I also really like. Top right is a Norton flattening stone which works great. Strop used daily. Knives are kept sharp enough to fall through phone book pages from the top.

I have been enjoying lurking on this forum and the "other" forum but decided I would join this one as it seems friendlier and drama free. Besides, it looks like most of the knowledgeable folks from there are here now!

I look forward to learning more and possibly having something to contribute with all you other addicts!

P.S. I currently have a Masamoto KS 240 Gyuto coming from JCK but our flippin postmen are on strike!

Sorry about the looong read!

Dustin.
 
everything looks amazing!

that x-pattern nakiri looks amazing - I wish I had that!

and yes lets end this fillibuster and get the postman back to work! If only for a week so I can get the stuff I have in the mail. Then they're free to do what they want!
 
Very nice set up! Love the gyuto, I am going to have to check those guys out.
 
everything looks amazing!

that x-pattern nakiri looks amazing - I wish I had that!

and yes lets end this fillibuster and get the postman back to work! If only for a week so I can get the stuff I have in the mail. Then they're free to do what they want!

Thanks! I guess I should clarify that the postmen are locked out and not on strike anymore. It would still be nice to have my Masamoto. I can't even take advantage of Koki's crazy $7 three day tracked shipping!

I agree that the X pattern on that Nakiri is seriously cool! I was unsure about it at first as it is decidedly "non traditional" but the artistry of it won out. I would get his 240 gyuto as it is really thin but I have come to find that all the "Masakage" gyutos have too much belly for me. The edges follow a continuous curve with no flat portion at all. My decidedly non professional knife skills favor a flatter profile. The 270 Suji however.......

And thanks to all of you for the warm welcome!

BTW Jim, I like the Cary Grant avatar! My wife is a huge old movie fan. Philadelphia story is her fave.
 
Hey, welcome to the forum! According to the "rabbit holes" in this place, the bloody rabbits are huge!! By the way, that board is sweet! I made a rifle display case out of that stuff, man it likes to twist!! Once you finally get it in place your fine, but till then... wow!
 
Thanks! I like the board a lot. It's not as soft as you would think, I have only had edges stick in it a couple times. The only strange thing is that it had an odd smell when new but after some washing and weekly applications of board butter it has seasoned nicely. I do regret not getting a bigger one though. Oh well, six months till Christmas....
 
Hello Maluaka, very nice set-up you got there. Kevin is a cool guy, just missed him on his last trip to Maui. I like that Nakiri, just got a cheapo a couple of weeks ago, and I gotta admit, I had a lot of fun with it. :biggrin:
 
I love that cutting board. Is that custom made, by you maybe?
 
I to0 love that cutting board!

maybe I'll come to calgary for the stampede and get myself one! okay there may be more friendly economical options then that.

what store was it from tho, as I do have some friends heading down for the stampede and I may be able to convince them to bring me back one... on top of the cowboy boots there bringing home for me as well :)

edit: just saw that it was made out east. where? as that was a trip I was going to do anyway!

gotta love calgary!
 
I got mine from Knifewear in Inglewood (East of downtown). The boards are made in Nova Scotia (waaay East of downtown). Their site is larchwoodcanada.com. I would post a link but am on my iPhone and failed at it. Looks like you can order right off their site.
 
Hey welcome! This is a great little collection you have! It's refreshing to see someone with good stuff that didn't get them by first buying 55 pieces of crap.

That cutting board is so cool looking!
 
Hey welcome! This is a great little collection you have! It's refreshing to see someone with good stuff that didn't get them by first buying 55 pieces of crap.

Just Henkels and then Globals. I couldn't believe the difference when I got the first Global! Thin and light and so much sharper than the Henkels. Of course then I discovered "real" Japanese knives and what is possible with waterstones.

My mother in law has a full set of Globals and I made the mistake of offering to sharpen them a couple weeks ago They haven't been sharpened for three years. You could cut better with a spatula. Those things are a B@$tard to sharpen! They may be thin but they are really thick behind the edge and the steel is pretty wear resistant compared to cabon. Not to mention a few of them had some pretty good chips from putting them in the dishwasher.

Trouble is, now I have repetitive stess injuries, no knuckle on my right ring finger, they're so sharp she's scared to use them, she still refuses to hand wash them, and she went and told everybody else in the family what an amazing job I did. Now everybody wants their knives sharpened!! :slaphead: :D
 
Welcome to the forums. And that is one nice looking cutting board and some good looking knives.

I really love my little global but I don't look forward to sharpening it like I do my other knives. The idea of sharpening a whole set to what I consider decent makes me shudder a little. lol
 
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