advice for a fancy knife

[icanhaschzbrgr]

The issue here is, don't give a premium hand-forged knife to an unknown person, it's 100% going to get ruined

I hear you LKH9. But I doesn't share your assumption about knife being 100% ruined.

I've gifted several knives before, and so far non of them has been destroyed or even damaged.
I'd tell you more: all the knives that I gifted are being well cared. Maybe because they look nice and perform way better then any dull cheap stainless steel, that people do try to be more careful. Maybe for some other reasons.

LKH9, again, I do hear you and understand the reasons behind your advice. Now it's your time to hear me and my reasons behind this decision.

[XooMG]

If the knife is a mass-produced stuff, even if it's over 1000$, then I won't give a **** about that. Every single premium Japanese knife is painstakingly crafted with blood and sweat, it has the craftsman's 'spirit' in it. Please respect that.

If my Shigefusa or Kato were less expensive or if I were more wealthy and a lot more shamelessly dramatic, I might break one in response. Instead, I'm just going to disagree. As a former craftsman, I do not care about whether another living craftsman is queasy about losing one of his or her precious babies to an undeserving owner. Whether the customer wants it as a safe queen or a daily valued tool or an improvised pry bar is their business, if I'm willing to sell my product through a vendor. That's all assuming the person the OP mentioned is undeserving and abusive, which you seem eager to presume for no other reason than she's not an apparent member of our little exclusive club of snobs. Perhaps she's more responsible than you and I are, and again it's not our business really.

[icanhaschzbrgr]

A suggestion: She likely already has got good knives or can buy them herself. How about a really nice matched set of high quality waterstones instead? That is not something you can buy everywhere, not even in a first rate cooking supplies shop.

In Russia we have saying/stereotype that dull kitchen knives means there's no man in the family. Meaning it's the mens job to sharpen knives. So in our culture it would be a bit strange to gift sharpening supplies to woman, but I like your idea non the less.

I'm considering adding some combo stone along with knife. If I do my job well and could pack everything together, then it will be obvious that this particular knife should be sharpened on that stone, and not by some 3rd party sharpener with grinder. So her husband could use that stone to keep knife reasonably sharp. Once/if they became interested in learning more — I could help with pointing to good sources of information.

Thanks for idea!

[icanhaschzbrgr]

Consider one of the super-etched Saji blades as well, if you can find a dealer. They might have a bit more texture going through food but they look pretty sweet and have (imo) nice profiles.

http://knife-gallery.com/?pid=62313553 not sure where else to find them, but I'd be quite pleased if someone got me one of these.

Thanks for another option!
Haven't heard about this knives before.
That makes me wonder how many more decent knife makers are out there that are not being mentioned here on KKF…

[apathetic]

Don't forget that watanabe has some beautiful engravings on his knife, you might want to check that out

[jimbob]

and if pretty is what your after, how about some of konosukes offerings? I remember seeing a damascus santoku with flowers on it, and some with mt fuji etc. Decent blade too.

[panda]

could go with nenox, they're all eye candy.

[jsjs103121]

and if pretty is what your after, how about some of konosukes offerings? I remember seeing a damascus santoku with flowers on it, and some with mt fuji etc. Decent blade too.

Yep, I saw this too.
It is a really pretty looking knife.
The price for 180mm santoku is AUD 469.99 here.

[seattle_lee]

The issue here is, don't give a premium hand-forged knife to an unknown person, it's 100% going to get ruined,

This is a ridiculous claim.

We were all such 'unknown persons' at one point or another. And now we are knife geeks.

[mhpr262]

This is a ridiculous claim.

We were all such 'unknown persons' at one point or another. And now we are knife geeks.

Except we like knives and were actively interested in learning how to use and maintain them. That's how we became better.

99% of people don't give a sh!t. He isn't wrong.