Shigefusa - How Asymmetric?

Hey All,
Before I Comb through all the old posts of chili shots I was wondering in all of your experience just how asymmetrically ground are shigefusa knives? (I'm a lefty, insert knife enthusiast sad face) I'm specifically curious about nakiris if anyone has any feedback there.
This probably goes without saying but I'm not asking about just what's going on at the edge, I want to know about the whole grind and even how the blades tend to be set into the handles (I have found as a lefty that some of my knives, a Kono HD2 suji for example, are set into the handle with quite a bias for a righty.
Thanks and Merry Christmas y'all!
Matteo

Hah! I meant CHOIL shots, not chili shots

This link may offer some insight. I bought 2 shig Nakiris and compared them.
Plenty of chili shots...:thumbsup:

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...igefusa-finish-variations?highlight=shigefusa

Thanks drawman! Super helpful, and I'm a native Rhode Islander too!

TheDispossessed said:

Hey All,
Before I Comb through all the old posts of chili shots I was wondering in all of your experience just how asymmetrically ground are shigefusa knives? (I'm a lefty, insert knife enthusiast sad face) I'm specifically curious about nakiris if anyone has any feedback there.
This probably goes without saying but I'm not asking about just what's going on at the edge, I want to know about the whole grind and even how the blades tend to be set into the handles (I have found as a lefty that some of my knives, a Kono HD2 suji for example, are set into the handle with quite a bias for a righty.
Thanks and Merry Christmas y'all!
Matteo

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Shigefusa grind their knives symmetrically. That said, there are plenty of examples of various makers when bevel on the left or right is more pronounced or taller, and that gives an impression that the knife is asymmetric. It's often due to the fact that makers are not ambidextrous, and there will be a slight variation on the side where your leading hand is at the heel of the blade when grinding. One has to "over compensate" for the weak hand side to get a perfectly symmetric grind.

The difference between symmetric and asymmetric grinds is the center line (imaginary or scribed) at which the two plains meet. In the asymmetric, the center line is not at the middle, but shifted to either side, depending if the knife is right-handled, or left-handed.

Thanks Marko!

Not sure what I'm missing, but in my eye this is an asymmetrically ground blade, no?

"stock" Shig 240:

Looks very nearly symmetrical to me.

yeah i did a lot of google image search and among a lot of the makers shigs seem to be fairly symmetric, which bodes well for us lefties.

thanks for the image chinacats!

Just for fun, this blade is a little asymmetrical:

You a lefty Xoomg?

chinacats said:

You a lefty Xoomg?

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Nope, and the edge is out of the box, so it's totally untouched by me. I think I'll be returning it but can only get an exchange, rather than a refund...so I'll get to compare it with another sample by the same maker and see how consistent it is in his work.

I'd sell it and hook up a lefty. It should toss potatoes aside if you cut from the left.

Who's the maker?

I only have a Shig Suji left and it does have some asymmetry to the grind (though less so than many of my other knives). The weak hand side is slightly flatter ground and steeper than the strong. This is consistent with what I remember from my gyuto (which I parted with). Not sure where the hard doctrines on what qualifies a grind as asymmetrical come from, but most knives I've bought/owned have noticeable differences in grind angle, some more than others. I'd be shocked if this was not intentional and a vestige from the single bevel tradition.

ChipB said:

I only have a Shig Suji left and it does have some asymmetry to the grind (though less so than many of my other knives). The weak hand side is slightly flatter ground and steeper than the strong. This is consistent with what I remember from my gyuto (which I parted with). Not sure where the hard doctrines on what qualifies a grind as asymmetrical come from, but most knives I've bought/owned have noticeable differences in grind angle, some more than others. I'd be shocked if this was not intentional and a vestige from the single bevel tradition.

Click to expand...

+1

I've owned a good handful of Shigs (multiple gyutos and a kurouchi santoku) and they've all been somewhat asymmetric--none have been extreme.