330mm Yanagiba, Aoko Super on Ebay

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carboonrider

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Hi there,

I am new to the forum but not for Japanese kitchen knives - I have a big collection which I will happily share one day.

Right now I have a question: There is a 330mm Yanagiba, Super blue steel on ebay. I do not exactly need it (I have a fantastic Watanabe blade with self-made Snake wood octagon handle). But I still want it - I like long knives, and I fancy having Super Blue knife even if it means absolutely nothing in terms of performance.

The only problem is that at $300 it seems too cheap. And my question - what can be wrong with such knife? Can it be a Japanese loo-alike Chinese made? Bad manufacturing/finishing quality? I do not mind if it comes not so sharp - I will take care of it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261486615775
 
No, it's legit, not Chinese made. Shimatani knives are on the inexpensive side of high end.

The vendor (Metalmaster) has been known for many years for offering very keen pricing on knives from mainly the Tanaka family (the damascus Blue steel and ginsanko lines are one of the great bargains in J-knives), but also knives from Shimatani.
 
No way these can be Chinese-made.

I've seen Shimatani knives on a Japanese site, something like e-hamono, it's damn overpriced there! MetalMaster is the man to get these from. I want it too, but don't have the money. Rip-offs everywhere, even Higonokami pocket knives are pretty damn overcharged by all other vendors and sites.
 
I have that knife in 360.

Pros:
* Surprisingly straight for such a long yanagiba
* A good grind and even blade road
* Better than decent fit and finish

Cons:
* Came with a secondary bevel applied (Might not be a con for you)
* Some deep wheel marks
* Beware that the knife is shipped with a lacquer coating

It took a lot of doing using diamond films as fingerstones to remove the wheel marks. Very difficult to remove from the hagane steel. They never did completely come out of the ura. The hira gave way to a nice cloudy effect. Altogether I am pleased with the result of my effort.

So if you want a good cutter out of the box this knife is it. If you want a good mirror project this knife might be a chore.

Cheers,

Rick
 
Thanks allot for all the replies. I took the plunge an ordered one. I will share my opinion once it arrives - should within 3 or 4 weeks.


I have that knife in 360.

Pros:
* Surprisingly straight for such a long yanagiba
* A good grind and even blade road
* Better than decent fit and finish

Cons:
* Came with a secondary bevel applied (Might not be a con for you)
* Some deep wheel marks
* Beware that the knife is shipped with a lacquer coating

It took a lot of doing using diamond films as fingerstones to remove the wheel marks. Very difficult to remove from the hagane steel. They never did completely come out of the ura. The hira gave way to a nice cloudy effect. Altogether I am pleased with the result of my effort.

So if you want a good cutter out of the box this knife is it. If you want a good mirror project this knife might be a chore.

Cheers,

Rick

All my knives have secondary bevel - when I bought my first knives I was advised to do so by people I considered experts like Watanabe and Tatsuya Aoki. My goto knife is 10 years old Suisin stainless Wa Gyuto which I sharpen on one side (and just remove the burr and polish the other side) - it already has a 3mm second bevel :D

Will not be the first knife with grinding marks. Previously I used regular stones to remove the marks - never used diamond film and finger stones. Where can I get these?

I guess the lacquer coating will be removed in the process of smoothing out the grinding mark...???
 
See the price here. It's called 'Drifting Cloud" :shocked3:

http://www.ehamono.com/houtyou/waboutyou/ukigumo.html

When I first bought my 270mm Blue #2 from Metalmaster, I received a bent knife, swallowed the return shipping cost and got a replacement instantly, + a Saya for free, so nice of him. I've no use for a Yanagiba actually, bought it just for the sake of collection, love the wavy pattern on the back of the blade.
 
Remove the lacquer with acetone. Be careful. Nothing hurts worse than cutting yourself with an acetone soaked rag. I know from experience.

Diamond films in small lots can be found at Digi-Key or psidragon. Not cheap but very efficient at finishing hard steel. From what I saw, the hagane on these knives must be at the upper range of hardness for Aogami Super.

Enjoy the knife!

Cheers,

Rick
 
Remove the lacquer with acetone. Be careful. Nothing hurts worse than cutting yourself with an acetone soaked rag. I know from experience.

Diamond films in small lots can be found at Digi-Key or psidragon. Not cheap but very efficient at finishing hard steel. From what I saw, the hagane on these knives must be at the upper range of hardness for Aogami Super.

Enjoy the knife!

Cheers,

Rick

Thanks for all the advices. As for films, I found http://www.digikey.com/ which is an electric supplier (is this what you meant?) and this http://www.psidragon.com/. I also found this page http://www.bestsharpeningstones.com/catalog/Lapping Film.htm which seems to be alright. Only issue is that that international shipping cost is rather prohibitive. I am planning to add a Shapton 16000 to my stones collection in the near future and then I can combine the shipping cost. Anyway, I more concerned with removing the rough mark with coarse stone to begin with.

On a side note, I had some results using micro-mesh, though being intended for wood working they don't have much bite, as well as polishing wheels and compounds (again from the wood working realm).

Thanks,
Oded
 
Oded please do us a favor and report back with your initial findings and results of any polishing efforts.
 
I'm interested to see a polished Shimatani yanagiba as well, please do so. I wish there is a sword polisher who can help polish mine.
 
The Yanagi has arrived.
Blade finish is better than expected - simply because I expected something really horrible. In fact, it's nothing that some work on a coarse diamond stone (and then polishing with finer stones of course) would not solve. I really need to get one - my Shapton 220 is probably on its way to the rubbish bin, i hate it as much as I like their finer grit stones.
The bigger issue is the blade is somewhat bent - something like 1mm deviation from straight. I am trying to make up mind whether this is something that will have enough impact in really to justify the effort and cost of shipping back to Japan.
 
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