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tbone1004

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new to this whole knife thing. Only cooking at home and for family, but as an engineer have to research everything to death. Bought my first knife from Jon at JKI and was thoroughly impressed. Will be slowly but surely trudging thru the process of replacing the knives I have with better ones. Expensive, but worth it
 
Welcome to the forum tbone!
Greenville's not too shabby of a town. Got a good restaurant scene going on there..........
.......waaay better than living in Columbia!
 
agreed whole-heartedly!

I guess I'll also use this thread as a kind of running commentary on where I am, where I've been, and where I hope to be going.

I started this whole endeavor after I moved to Maine a few years ago and had full access to a boat load of fantastic fish but no sushi restaurants where I was. I've always loved cooking and as an engineer Alton Brown really speaks to me. After watching his sushi episode a few times I figured it was time to figure out how to do it myself. At this point I make sushi about 2-3x/week. Combination of maki/sashimi. I decided it was time to get a "nice" knife and decided on a Gonbei 240mm wa-gyuto after talking with Jon a bit. I've got a bit of experience sharpening so wasn't concerned about that and after a quick touch up out of the box, this thing was good to go.

My brother has recently bought a house and figured I would gift my knife block to him *fairly cheap german knives*.

At this point I want to get set up with a good set of "workhorse" knives that offer a good balance of cost/quality and as time goes on, replace some of them with "higher" end knives, more as a because I want to than because I need to.

300mm yanagiba-really just want one, so debating on the Gesshi Uraku and the Gesshin Stainless *fiance likes some sushi with acidic type things in it, so figure it may be best for a first to have it in stainless and then get a really nice one later after I get a sujihiki

Honesuki-we make turduckens every year, and I break down chickens and ducks pretty regularly. More of a want than a need, but likely going with the Gesshin Stainless for this to have as a "beater"

AP knife for the wife and quick work at home-going back and forth between a Kochi Honesuki, Uraku Santoku, and Zakuri Tosagata Bocho/Sabaki Bocho. I have big hands, so like the tall profiles which is why I'm not looking at petty knives at this point.
 
Welcome to KKF!

Knew a Chef from your neck of the woods (Steven Devereaux Greene).... Stupidly talented guy and a Knife Knut in his own right
 
small world. Looks like he's in Cary right now. Went to school at NC State so have spent quite a bit of time over there
 
got my first carbon knife gifted to me by my grandmother. Was an old meat cleaver that hasn't been used in probably 30-40 years. No idea of the maker, but it sharpened really well after about 90 mins of sharpening *I'm slow....*

Also designed and built a quick prototype for a knife block.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00286VJ3Q/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Saw this, really liked it, so decided I could do it a bit more to my needs and wants. Got some teak flooring for pretty cheap, and will post some pics in a few weeks after the magnets come in. Only real design changes are giving an extra inch to the first slot on the left *11"* to fit a 270mm gyuto/sujihiki later down the road, and making the back center piece 8" wide to allow me to put a 300mm yanagiba on the back and get it to fit under a normal countertop.

Should come out pretty well
 
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Welcome.

When you get ready to drop some more coin, there's a first knife questionnaire in the Kitchen Knife forum. If you'll fill it out you'll get some recommendations that may or may not be tailored to your requirements. :whistling:

FWIW I had a Uraku Yani for a couple years. Liked that it was fine enough to cut better than I could and robust enough to handle the inevitable abuse I put it through. Don't recall any issues with acidic foods, even using it to cut paper thin lemon slices for tuna sashimi. Make sure you keep it wiped down, esp after slicing rolls. Rice starch is a *****, um, female dog. Have since moved on to a better (read more expensive) knife that still cuts better than I do. Sometimes wish I had kept the Uraku as a visitors knife.
 
Dave, you're basically on track for what I'm planning. Right now it's get a set that exceeds my current ability, will end up keeping them as travel/visitors knives, and then upgrade one by one to my specific needs with some really high end stuff. I have no issue dropping $200-$300 on a knife right now, and the uraku's seem like a good balance of cost/quality, and then you jump almost straight into the $500 range and my skills/sharpening isn't there to justify those knives at this point.
 
Welcome. I'm just about 45 minutes from you in Laurens.

Reed
 
just committed to the next pair of knives, so we'll see how that goes. Really excited. Ended up with a Butchery Series 150mm Honesuki from JKI as well as a Gesshin Uraku 300mm Yanagiba. I hope for this to be the last for a while, but we shall see. Will depend on how often I find myself needing a petty knife, but it isn't very often as I'd rather use my gyuto. Will post some pictures around Christmas time when the block is done and the knives are all here
 
knives got in a few weeks ago, opened them up and used them for a boat load of cooking over Christmas. Yanagiba is absolutely superb, unfortunately the first use was on a boneless roast beast, but it was incredible. Can't wait to see it attack some fish this week. Didn't get to use the honesuki, though my fiance stole it for some apple prep and loved the single bevel for that. My gyuto bit me on the thumb as I was rushing with some potatoes. My idiot fault for using the blade to scoop up the diced potatoes from the board.
Knife block design has changed for now to the Boker Forge design to save some counter space, so hopefully I'll have time to build it here soon
 
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