If you're looking for a steak knife to beat all steak knives, this is it

Geshin Kagero 135mm

http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com...esshin-kagero-135mm-powdered-steel-petty.html

After a disasterous Shun experience from my days of complete ignorance I still wanted to throw some cash at something that would be a decent steak knife. The other day it finally dawned on me what that knife would likely be, and not even realizing my birthday was coming up though maybe I unconsciously sensed it, anyway I immediately snapped the button on my present.

This blade is everything I hoped for. Aside from the fact that who doesn't like buying from Jon, this is what you get:

Right out of the nice padded carrier it comes with the edge cut a .025"/.63mm onion slice my first try, just fall thru sharp. And it cuts through a crusty steak just like you'd want it to. The super hard, super fine grained SRS15 PM steel is I believe everything it's cracked up to be, I don't think this one is going to need sharpening on anything like a yearly basis even. On top of that fit and finish is very nice and includes the stamped in characters on the blade. Excuse me but I'm not certain what you call that, a kongei?

I had told Jon the intended use and he worried that the tip might chip contacting a ceramic plate, my impression though is more likely it would be the plate that chipped. BTW, the tip is very thin, and the edge is decently thin also.

You could pay much more for a custom knife, but I doubt you'd get a comparable blade, I doubt you'd get anything that was in any way more suitable for the stated task here. And at $145 shipped, you could easily afford a rehandle if the black paka-wood (?) didn't appeal.

Bottom line, I think Jon should double-list this one under Steak Knives.

Now if I could only get this in a 240 suji.


Rick

You must really like your steak.

It's a long story actually but yeh, I like a dedicated knife here. The short of it: Another buying experience made be think perhaps it was time to transition from the modest handmedown kitchen knife I'd been using for 25 years. I decided my first foray here would also include what turned out to be the [wrong] steak knife. Happily now that's been rectified.

Hey but if you think it an excessive extravagance, though the steaks the average person here goes through in a year I believe would easily exceed that price many times, the knife could easily do double duty. ;-)~


Rick

Thanks for posting

Are you using this on a wooden plate/ board? Cause if it was used on normal ceramic plates, wouldn't the plate dull the edge of the blade since it's not serrated

You should only be contacting the plate with the tip of the knife, so dulling is not an issue. Jon was initially horrified at my suggestion of a steak knife as he that it would chip, but I have used this rather roughly on ceramic plates and the tip behaves as any ordinary steel does. I do not sharpen the last 3mm of the tip, that is essentially the contact pad for the plate.

As an update, at the time I bought this knife I also needed something to do fine chopping on the board. The slight belly of this Kagero (unlike the gyutos which are very flat) extended all the way to the heel so I ground a flat at the heel. It got about 600 wacks a night on the board for 6 weeks, doing things like slivers of celery, garlic, shallots, etc. There was no touch ups done during this time, and after it all the rather steep edge was still whittling hair. SRS-15 really has some great edge holding. And if you can handle a modified pinch grip (fingertips touching the handle rather than wrapping around) these little knives are very pleasant to use. I have no problem whacking off slices machine-gun fire rate, and these get down to .026mm/.010" thick.

I did encounter some very fine micro chipping at the steep angles, like 10-12deg/side, but finishing with a few very light stropping strokes at about 18deg fixes this with no real sacrifice in cutting performance.

Great little knife, I wouldn't replace it with anything. Now if I could only decide on a Knono HD2 240 Wa suji (which doesn't seem to exist at the moment) or the Ginga in carbon or maybe stainless - then I could fill the other knife void I have.



Rick

I like cutting my steaks on a wooden board, small one just for meats. I'll use my konosuke suji or yanagi, it is superb.
I think any petty with a very thin edge will do, just not directly on glass. Hate that sound.

Great advice, was just looking for wooden steak plates online ...

alwayssharp said:

I like cutting my steaks on a wooden board, small one just for meats. I'll use my konosuke suji or yanagi, it is superb.
I think any petty with a very thin edge will do, just not directly on glass. Hate that sound.

Click to expand...

It's all part of the ritual and enjoyment factor. In my case I just prefer to use the same plates as for everything else.

I have a Randal #12 8" Bowie I picked up back in the early '80's for $125. It came with a dull edge but I left it that way because it was just for knife fight practice. After several decades I decided to sharpen it, not thinking at the time what this would do to the collector value, well I suppose it can be buffed up.

Anyway since then I've been thinking of using it as a steak knife, a special occasion of course. And of course I wouldn't think of touching that one to a glass plate, don't care for plastic here, so wood it would be, even if just a paper plate.



Rick