First Gyutou!

LOCATION
What country are you in?
USA


KNIFE TYPE
What type of knife are you interested in (e.g., chef’s knife, slicer, boning knife, utility knife, bread knife, paring knife, cleaver)?
Gyutou

Are you right or left handed?
Right handed

Are you interested in a Western handle (e.g., classic Wusthof handle) or Japanese handle?
No preference.

What length of knife (blade) are you interested in (in inches or millimeters)?
Debating between 210 and 240mm since my cutting boards are on the smaller side.

Do you require a stainless knife? (Yes or no)
Yes, stainless would be preferred.

What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife?
$100 USD


KNIFE USE
Do you primarily intend to use this knife at home or a professional environment?
Home

What are the main tasks you primarily intend to use the knife for (e.g., slicing vegetables, chopping vegetables, mincing vegetables, slicing meats, cutting down poultry, breaking poultry bones, filleting fish, trimming meats, etc.)? (Please identify as many tasks as you would like.)
Slicing, chopping, mincing vegetables, and slicing, trimming meats.

What knife, if any, are you replacing?
For the most part, I've been using a Taiwanese nakiri passed down by my mother, a Victorinox Santoku, and a Chinese cleaver.

Do you have a particular grip that you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for the common types of grips.)
Pinch grip

What cutting motions do you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for types of cutting motions and identify the two or three most common cutting motions, in order of most used to least used.)
Push cut, chop, slice, rock.

What improvements do you want from your current knife? If you are not replacing a knife, please identify as many characteristics identified below in parentheses that you would like this knife to have.)
Can't say much about improvements, but something cost effective would be great.

Better aesthetics (e.g., a certain type of finish; layered/Damascus or other pattern of steel; different handle color/pattern/shape/wood; better scratch resistance; better stain resistance)?
Honestly, it doesn't matter at this point.

Comfort (e.g., lighter/heavier knife; better handle material; better handle shape; rounded spine/choil of the knife; improved balance)?

Ease of Use (e.g., ability to use the knife right out of the box; smoother rock chopping, push cutting, or slicing motion; less wedging; better food release; less reactivity with food; easier to sharpen)?
Something somewhat forgiving in that I can learn to sharpen and maintain it well.

Edge Retention (i.e., length of time you want the edge to last without sharpening)?
As long as it can while I learn to sharpen my older knives.


KNIFE MAINTENANCE
Do you use a bamboo, wood, rubber, or synthetic cutting board? (Yes or no.)
Yes, wood.

Do you sharpen your own knives? (Yes or no.)
No.

If not, are you interested in learning how to sharpen your knives? (Yes or no.)
Definitely.

Are you interested in purchasing sharpening products for your knives? (Yes or no.)
Yes.



SPECIAL REQUESTS/COMMENTS
I guess from my searches on this forum, the recommendations would be along the lines of the Tojiro DP, Fujiwara FKM, and Artifex. At this point I may be leaning towards a 240mm Fujiwara.
Any other recommendations such as a whetstone would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

The Tojiro, Fujiwara and Artifex are all just okay knives at that price point. At your budget stainless knives are not very good performers. You should consider a more rustic carbon steel knife. Lower priced carbon knives always outshine inexpensive stainless knives for edge retention and sharpness. If you want to see what a sharp knife is about I'd recommend the Tanaka 210 Gyuto and King Combination stone.

At roughly 150$ you can get a knife and stone to learn to sharpen on and not feel terrible bad removing excess metal, also blue #2 steel is very, very easy to sharpen. After you've learned the basic sharpening strokes and have visually learned what goes on when holding angles, then upgrade stones and knives.

Right now enjoy the ride and don't try to get everything in one package for such a small budget. Compromising stainless for a reactive knife will give you a supreme edge. Honestly I think the Tojiro, Fujiwara and Artifex would be fine, but if you handled a well sharpened blue #2 steel knife you'd feel cheated.

Good luck. You can break down poultry but you can't hack into bones, if you are carefully around the joints you won't damage the knife but it's best to use the gyuto for veggies and boneless proteins.

My vote goes for the Tanaka KU knife and King combo stone. King is not the best but it'll get you by just fine. I really enjoy the food release of the convex on the Tanaka. It gets the job done...potatoes can fly off the blade when speed chopping, the same can't be said about some of my more expensive knives. The handle is ugly and cheap but the blade has got character, it's not perfect but it gets sharp.

The Artifex is clearly a project knife. If someone is prepared to afford a lot of work, it might be an unexpensive experiment. The OP doesn't sharpen, though. I don't expect him to start a large thinning project.

get a tojiro dp or a suisin inox western.

Suisin inox westerns aren't even a compromise. They come with a says and ******* perform.

They come with a says and ******* perform.

Click to expand...

Me not comprehend the quoted

? no comprende ?

Substitute copulating. They copulating perform.

At a budget price performance and functionality are not compromised.

nope, no comprende compadre. No really:

Suisin inox westerns aren't even a compromise. They come with a says and ******* perform.

Click to expand...

Does the above mean that Suisin inox is good or bad or what? says, I assume is saya? And ******* = ?????

Oh. Typo. Saya.

Dardeau said:

Substitute copulating. They copulating perform.

At a budget price performance and functionality are not compromised.

Click to expand...

Make sense now! Thank you!!

Tojiro dp is a great starter knife

Sure, but not the most appropriate for learning to sharpen. A basic carbon steel blade would be better.

the OP already stated that he wishes to choose a stainless knife.

I'm quite aware. In general he may better start with a carbon, and amongst the stainless, VG-10 is one of the more difficult steels as far as sharpening is concerned.

no. theres much worse than vg10.

A 100$ Blue number 2 knife is going give the op more of what he was asking for. He specifically states that he wants something easy to maintain and sharpen. He said he doesn't care so much about appearance. Rustic knives just perform better than branded products.

I don't believe the op will be content buying a stainless knife if he had the experience of sharpening a nice carbon knife. Less than perfect technique still yields great results with inexpensive blue #2 knives. Basically any Hitachi steel based carbon knife will pounce on the Tojiro stainless.

A $100 blue #2 knife? As opposed to white steel? Or virgin carbon? Or a few other things that can be had at that price point? Plenty of people are content with good stainless, considering the OP is replacing a beater cleaver and a forschner santoku its very likely he is simply looking for a decent stainless knife. Something like a Suisin Inox western or a Tojiro DP is easier to maintain than a rustic carbon. Also, as nice as some the cheaper Tanaka lines are they usually need some TLC OOTB with regard to super sharp spines and choils. While Tanakas have their advantages, I wouldnt recommend them to someone looking for their first Jknife.

I have one VG10 (a danish designed petty) and an FKM petty as well. From the two I will say the FKM is easier to sharpen and these two knives see a lot of misuse (not by me ), So my choise is a FKM.

What Umberto said in post #2