Double-bevled Honesuki and Single-beveled Honesuki/Petty/Utility Knife

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Marko Tsourkan

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Besides gyuto, suji and petty, I have several knives I would like to make on my list. Here are a couple.

I like using honesuki for deboning poultry. I use Watanabe honesuki - a single bevel knife with a hollow back.
I am wondering, how much need is there for a single-bevel? I think a double-bevel would perform fine and will have a stronger edge if cutting through the bones.

I also like a single bevel (honesuki-derived) utility knife. It's thinner than honesuki, but it is true single bevel with a hollow ground back.

For honesuki, I am looking at steels with great edge stability and very good edge retention and less maintenance than my Watanabe (you can tell, that I don't baby my knives). The profile will be slitly different than Watanabe, but height about the same.

For utility knife, I will be using 52100.

Both knives will be about 135mm and 1/8 at the spine.

I have honesuki prototype in works, and an utility prototype finished (a while back in fact but no handle yet).

What do you guys think about these two knives? I already got some feedback on the utility in an earlier post.

DSC_1785.jpg
 
I have a Carter honesuki from the old muteki line that is double beveled and I really like it a lot. It's like a heavy duty utility knife sometimes. I also use it for things like going through a hard piece of parmigiano etc. And I already said that I like the concept of the more narrow honesuki-style utility knife. It's innovative and useful.

Stefan
 
Yes, and yes. Love this shape and a shorter blade height would be really cool too!
 
Would the honesukis be double bevel with extreme asymmetry? And if so, by how much?

k.

I am not sure if asymmetry would improve performance on this knife. To be honest, I am also not sure why Japanese makers make them single-beveled. Most work is done by a tip and it is not a delicate work where you need a thinness and sharpness of a single bevel.

It makes no difference to me to grind asymmetrically, or 50/50. If you guys convince me that there is a clear advantage to the asymmetrical grind, I see no reason why not implement it.

M
 
Damn..
Sounds awesome.

I'm ready to start seeing some finished products. The anticipation is killer!!
 
I think the honesuki would be a great addition to your line up. Although I haven't seen this used much but a Garasuki stlye knife might be something to think about. In essence its the big brother of honesuki. I've watched some Chefs use it for fish butchery as well as meats and poultry, which I thought was interesting. Size typically 7.0" (18cm). 50/50 grind would work well. Don't see many 50/50 Japanese Butchering knives out there. And Im left handed so would be great for me.
 
Garasuki was on my radar too (I owned one), but it is thicker, so I would need to get thicker steel. Something to consider down the road.

M
 
I don't really need to say that I love the idea of a petty/Honesuki cross knife, considering Pierre made one for me and I've been happily using it ever since.
I will, however comment on how useful a knife like this is. Basically, it's my go to knife at the moment, and I haven't really had a time when I felt that another knife would much better for the task at hand.
Mine is 60/40, so close enough to 50/50 that I would say a neutral bevel would work very well!
If you have some more thickness at the heel and then allow it to get nicely thin (without going overboard) you will have a reall all-arounder. I've butchered chickens, plowed through semi-frozen sausage, minced, diced even sliced sashimi with mine (sure a longer knife would be easier, but with a smooth heel to tip glide through the fish, you should be able to get through the product in one swoop).
So, what I'm saying is, yes...there is definitely use for a petty/Honesuki knife, and I won't be surprised if we start to see more of them out there soon.
 
Looks like a really nice utility. Keep up the good work Marko.

Mike
 

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