Another Gyuto Recomendation

So I started to sharpen my own knives a few months ago (still trying to get better on the stones). I think I'm doing a decent job as I can get my Wustof Chef knife to easily go through a tomato, which it used not to do however when making the initial vertical cuts to dice onions I get some resistance, and I get a similar feel when cutting potatoes or the likes. I think I might just be getting some wedging. This plus I've finally got a bigger cutting board has me thinking it's time to move up to a 240mm gyuto. I'm not sure if I want a "laser" or if just a "normal" gyuto will feel like one to me after what I've been using. If it makes any difference I'm sharpening on a 1000/5000K combo stone and the cutting board is 16x22


LOCATION
What country are you in?
USA


KNIFE TYPE
What type of knife are you interested in (e.g., chef’s knife, slicer, boning knife, utility knife, bread knife, paring knife, cleaver)?
Guyto

Are you right or left handed?
Left but the wife is right

Are you interested in a Western handle (e.g., classic Wusthof handle) or Japanese handle?
Don't Care

What length of knife (blade) are you interested in (in inches or millimeters)?
240mm

Do you require a stainless knife? (Yes or no)
Yes possibly semi. I'll treat it well but the wife might not hopefully the larger size will keep her from using it.

What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife?
$350


KNIFE USE
Do you primarily intend to use this knife at home or a professional environment?
Home

What are the main tasks you primarily intend to use the knife for (e.g., slicing vegetables, chopping vegetables, mincing vegetables, slicing meats, cutting down poultry, breaking poultry bones, filleting fish, trimming meats, etc.)? (Please identify as many tasks as you would like.)
Veggies, Potatoes, raw proteins no bones

What knife, if any, are you replacing?
I currently use two knives mainly that I've had since right out of college. An 8 inch Wustof Culinar Chef's Knife and a Viking (forget who actually makes it) Santuko


Do you have a particular grip that you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for the common types of grips.)
Pinch

What cutting motions do you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for types of cutting motions and identify the two or three most common cutting motions, in order of most used to least used.)
Usually push or pull though when mincing or cutting herbs rocking (I can move away from that)

What improvements do you want from your current knife? If you are not replacing a knife, please identify as many characteristics identified below in parentheses that you would like this knife to have.)


Comfort (e.g., lighter/heavier knife; better handle material; better handle shape; rounded spine/choil of the knife; improved balance)?
Looking for a rounded spine, I should probably take some sand paper to my current knives but after current knives dig into index finger. I've got no problem with weight/size (> 6ft) however I've got small hands for a guy or large for a woman.

Ease of Use (e.g., ability to use the knife right out of the box; smoother rock chopping, push cutting, or slicing motion; less wedging; better food release; less reactivity with food; easier to sharpen)?
Would like easy sharpening and good edge retention and less wedging than current knives



KNIFE MAINTENANCE
Do you use a bamboo, wood, rubber, or synthetic cutting board? (Yes or no.)
Wood

Do you sharpen your own knives? (Yes or no.)
Yes. On stones



Thanks for the Help

Greetings and welcome!

Couple thoughts on your current knife. Not sure which Wustof you have but most Euro blades will likely perform better with a 1k rather than a 5k finish. Would also be curious how much it's been sharpened vs how often it's been thinned?

May make sense to figure out your current issue before moving along.

Cheers

It might need a little thinning but I went a long time without really sharpening it so maybe not. Not sure how I can tell. I sharpen using a sharpie and the new edge looks about like the right thickness and the angle seems ok. As for the 5k thats good to hears as I keep thinking it's worthless, guess I now know why.

chinacats said:

Greetings and welcome!

Couple thoughts on your current knife. Not sure which Wustof you have but most Euro blades will likely perform better with a 1k rather than a 5k finish. Would also be curious how much it's been sharpened vs how often it's been thinned?

May make sense to figure out your current issue before moving along.

Cheers

Click to expand...

If you're left-handed, better have your own chef's knife or gyuto. I would suggest one with an adapted geometry, with a left convexed face, and a flat right one, with the edge off-centered to the right. Better performance, and much better food release than with a right-biased blade or a neutralized edge as most retailers will suggest. Misono make them on special order, Masahiro have them standard in their Virgin Carbon series.

There's a 240mm Ashi Hamono for sale at B/S/T http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...-Ginga-240-yo-gyuto-210-yo-gyuto-210-wa-gyuto . It should take care of the wedging and it is stainless.

In a previous lifetime I bought the world's greatest knife: a 9" Wustie Icon with the Blackwood handle. At the time it was plenty sharp but in retrospect it had (and still has) the distal taper of a cleaver. This was no doubt the result of a design trade-off - it was targeted at the homeowner - homeowners break tips - let's make the tip more robust.

Hence the tip is thick, very little taper and wedges like a bastard on dicing tasks. Simple sharpening won't touch it. You can grind forever and possibly correct it or reserve the Wustie for beater tasks. I still reach for mine when I want to chop nuts or other tasks I don't want to use a fine edge on. And of course when (fill in blank) is visiting and wants to use a knife.

$350 should buy you a very good knife. I would look to the vendors here such as JKI, Korin, EE and JNS that can ship to you at little to no cost. Knives such as Gesshin Ginga, Suisin IH, come to mind for stainless. At that price there are nice options with stainless clad and carbon as well.

The Kochi V2 or Itinomonn Kasumi are good options, but both are out of stock, stainless clad too.

I appreciate the help. I think being a lefty my best bet is probably just to talk to jki or cktg and see what it would cost me to special order a lefty.

Talking to Jon is a good option. The other one though...

Quite sure some salesmen will tell you they have a huge collection of symmetric blades, perfectly suited to both left- and righthanded. Which is simply not true. Symmetric blades don't exist. Some have a more or less symmetric edge and will underperform with both left- and right-handed, unless they are lasers.
Generally wedging and steering issues appear after a few sharpenings without very judicious thinning and balancing.
I would give a truly left-biased knive a try. These aren't very expensive, and excellent blades.

http://www.knifemerchant.com/products.asp?productLine=44

Good to know. I'm not in any hurry so a custom order might be the best route, I'll talk to jon. I've seen "lefty" on a few sites however when it's that easy I doubt it's actually anything different other than maybe just a resharpening of the edge.

Thanks

I have a 6" Wusthof Ikon Chef's knife and parer with the blackwood handle and they are great knives, especially for everyone in the family to use. I keep it toothy sharp on 200 and 1000 stones. The best thing to do is get something stainless if the wife uses it. Look for an octagon handle which are more comfortable for lefties if you are going for a wa handle.