Shibata Kotetsu R-2 Petty 150mm

bought a Takayuki Shibata kotetsu R-2 powdered stainless steel 150mm petty and it finally arrived monday. They are a laser profile with a 50/50 grind. the knife comes with a octagonal rosewood handle and pakka wood ferrule.
Edge Length: 150mm
Height: 31mm
Weight: 2.3oz
its now had fours days hard labour at work and made its way through a far bit of prep that has included veg,fruit and meat.this had almost become my go to klnife were ever possable,really love the feel in hand and the balance the knife has and the handle really feels comfy even after a few solid hours of prep work .the knife came a loverly presentaion box and the f&f was beautiful .the sharpeness was very good ootb and i have just left it to see how long the edge will hold up with out any work.it has had just a few strops over the last four days just to bring back the razor edge and the edge has held up amazingly considering the amount of work it has been put through .it will still performe all the sharpness tests you see on all the youtube vids nowadays with ease even after a whole bunch of cutting .im trying to be impartial as i write this but im really blown away just how well this knife has performed over the last few days compared to my german steel knife i previously used(now religated to the dusty draw in my home kitchen ) i will most certainly be aquiring a few more of these from the range over the next few months as it has stood so well to all the work that has been thrown at it at work so far.its also a really pretty knife to and looks really nice in my knife roll :cool2:
just waiting to see how long it lasts before i need touch it up on the stones
pictures will be added once iv worked out how to add them on here :fanning:

matthew78 said:

pictures will be added once iv worked out how to add them on here :fanning:

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Rick

Love my Kotetsu 210 Gyuto. Always beem intrigued by the K-tip profile and I cannot get enough of mine. Really good knives. I kind of want the Bunka now too, but then my 170 Masakage Yuki Bunka would be sad. The flat profile on the gyuto really fits my cutting style perfectly. It is quite light in the hand as well. Almost too light, very "lasery" to be sure. Glad you enjoyed yours so much too.
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I have the 135mm petty. Shallot destroyer .

What sharpening setup do you guys use for it? It keeps an edge very well but I have a difficult time sharpening this knife.

sharptools said:

What sharpening setup do you guys use for it? It keeps an edge very well but I have a difficult time sharpening this knife.

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I have several R2/SG-2 steel knives, among these the Shibata Kotetsu Bunka. I don’t find any of them particularly hard to sharpen. But you probably need stones with some cutting power – I use a combination of JNS and Naniwa Pros/Choseras which all seems to do the trick quite nicely. What do you use?

I have King stones and a higher grit natural stone. The R2 eats up the 1000 like crazy. Maybe it is time to upgrade my stones.

KitchenCommander said:

Love my Kotetsu 210 Gyuto. Always beem intrigued by the K-tip profile and I cannot get enough of mine. Really good knives. I kind of want the Bunka now too, but then my 170 Masakage Yuki Bunka would be sad. The flat profile on the gyuto really fits my cutting style perfectly. It is quite light in the hand as well. Almost too light, very "lasery" to be sure. Glad you enjoyed yours so much too.

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really like the look of the gyuto too mate..think that may be my next buy .and really nice light knife that just makes it way though prep with ease .think there really good value for the money

sharptools said:

I have King stones and a higher grit natural stone. The R2 eats up the 1000 like crazy. Maybe it is time to upgrade my stones.

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I have a King 800 and I like it, but not for sharpening R2.

Maybe you should get something a little bit better suited for the task, like e.g. a Gesshin (1K, 1.2K or 1.5K), a JNS (800, 1K or 1.2K), a Naniwa Pro (800 or 1K), a Bester (1.2K), or a Shapton Pro (1K or 1.5K)? I think all of those would work just fine with R2.

In the US the Gesshin line seems to be pretty much unbeatable; in Europe you can get Naniwa stones at very reasonable prices (way cheaper than in the US - almost half the price, actually). JNS stones are very good, not cheap, but good (I have the 300 – it looks like a piece of concrete, but it is not...!)

Never tried the Bester, but it is very much liked, never tried Shaptons either, but they are well respected.

Yeah, I will give one of the ones you suggested a try.

I've been geeking over white #2 recently. Will go back to my Shibata when I'm done.

There's a good table online for comparing different popular stones.
http://straightrazorplace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Hones_-_comparison_table

If the advice there is correct, then the Shapton Pro at 1K and below has been noted to wear quickly, but I haven't used that stone myself. Personally I use a Shapton M15 1000 (I think is one level below the Shapton Pro), which I picked up in Tokyo many years ago for around $35 USD and it's served me well. I can corroborate at least that part of the table, it cuts fast and is hard wearing, including on SG2/R2. For polishing I use Naniwa Superstone at 5K and 1K. Yeah a long time ago I had a King stone, and it was quite a noticeable improvement once I upgraded. Heard great things about Gesshin, but wow they are pricey!