Curious about the Kikuichi Swedish Warikomi Gyuto 240mm

Hello to all. I'm relatively new around here but have been collecting knives for about a year now.

I'm interested in purchasing a knife that uses AEB-L steel and wanted to know if anyone had heard of the Kikuichi Swedish Warikomi Gyuto 240. Some websites I've seen have said the core is AEB-L, while others just say the core is made of Swedish stainless.

The prices I've seen for this knife are anywhere from $265-300. Anywhere else I should be looking in that price range? I'm not afraid of carbon knives (I've already got a handful), but I am interested in trying AEB-L for my next purchase.

Thank you, and any information on the knife would be appreciated.

Save a bit more and get an itk in aebl from bst

rdm_magic said:

Save a bit more and get an itk in aebl from bst

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Care to elaborate?

rdm_magic is referring to a Devin Thomas line of knives called "in the kitchen". Great knives at a lower price point than Devin's other knives. You can check out his site as he is a vendor.

bst refers to the buy, sell, trade forum.

Bill13 said:

rdm_magic is referring to a Devin Thomas line of knives called "in the kitchen". Great knives at a lower price point than Devin's other knives. You can check out his site as he is a vendor.

bst refers to the buy, sell, trade forum.

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Thanks. I've looked at Devin's stuff before and have really liked it. I read on his site that his favorite steel to work with is AEB-L.

Any idea what they might go for? I can't post in BST yet, but I don't want to post a thread and piss people off by deciding they're too pricey.

Point being that AEB-L can be good or bad depending on who works with it. Devin is known for his work with that steel. Others have reported that the steel is nothing special--they did not have a DT. I believe Marko also uses it with some success, but definitely not the most popular steel when others do the ht, etc. I believe the only reason others started to use it was because of the reputation of DT's knives.

The main point here is that it's not the steel but the craftsman using it.

Cheers

chinacats said:

Point being that AEB-L can be good or bad depending on who works with it. Devin is known for his work with that steel. Others have reported that the steel is nothing special--they did not have a DT. I believe Marko also uses it with some success, but definitely not the most popular steel when others do the ht, etc.

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Thanks for this. I think I read that Marko gets his AEB-L from Devin.

I have an HHH in AEB-L and it's the best knife I own HANDS DOWN

To answer part of your original question: AEB-L is a Swedish stainless steel, so both of those descriptions you listed may be accurate. 13c26 is also essentially the same thing.

You should watch this video, Jon sheds some light on common knife making steels. He talks specifically about AEB-L, and about how some makers are able to work a very specific heat-treat which yield a great knife (despite a relatively low carbon content) in AEB-L while others with the same steel are nothing special.

[video=youtube;jkLsLst8qMc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkLsLst8qMc[/video]

I have a question relevant to this thread - is BST essentially the only option for scoring an ITK? I'm interested... Looks like there have been a couple sold on the DT vendor section of the forum (including a run of 210 and 225mm) section.

johnstoc said:

I have a question relevant to this thread - is BST essentially the only option for scoring an ITK? I'm interested... Looks like there have been a couple sold on the DT vendor section of the forum (including a run of 210 and 225mm) section.

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Seems that every so often he does a "run" of these. The batches are relatively small and the list fills quickly. Then you wait. It's much easier to find them occasionally for sale used. It's a rather "inexpensive" way to try one of his knives.

Thanks for all the great responses

chinacats said:

Seems that every so often he does a "run" of these. The batches are relatively small and the list fills quickly. Then you wait. It's much easier to find them occasionally for sale used. It's a rather "inexpensive" way to try one of his knives.

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And by "the list fills quickly" CC means that a run of 10 might be filled within an hour or two. If you miss it, you wait probably months for the window to briefly open again.

Odds are better on BST (though they usually go pretty quickly there, too).

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that the warikomi was vg10. They have a warikomi damascus line and a mono steel warikomi line. There my be "hotter" knives available, but I have been very happy with both their warikomi and their carbon knives. Both well finished, easy to sharpen . Not Aeb-l though. There are several makers here who do a Freat job with Aeb-l. I believe HHH has some that are immediately available.

I've had this exact knife you're talking about the Kikuichi Swedish Warikomi Damascus Gyuto 240mm since last spring and it's my favorite gyuto so far. Got it from a Canadian vendor for 265$ and although Kikuichis seem usually a bit overpriced, this one I think is a bargain. Laser thin under 2mm, profile is just perfect and mine is 248mm so it's really more like a 10inch knife. Very nimble but also quite stiff for a laser. I also have two Takayuki in AEB-L, the 240 suji in the 45 layer damascus line and the 270 wa-gyuto Grand Chef. They are both very nice and both take a keen edge, but f&f is definitely not in the same league as the Kikuichi (super high polish) and the steel/ Hagane for sure feels harder on the Kikuichi (60-61 hrc vs. around 58 for the Takayukis)
I wouldn't hesitate to buy the same knife again if anything would happen to it.