Katsuramuki softening veg

My last thread got a bit de-railed so this is take 2:

Katsuramuki: are softer vegetables easier? And if so, is it a bad idea to try and soften veg before cutting? What vegetables do you find easiest?

Yes, I think we can all agree softer vegetables like cucumbers are easier than carrots.
I've heard of cooks soaking carrots and turnips to soften them for katsuramuki. I've never tried it myself though.

My experience has been that Daikon is best veg to practice on. Once the peel is off, the veg is the same consistency throughout. Cukes are a close second but once you get to the seeds they get real mushy. Carrots vary by moisture content so there is not much consistency from veg to veg.

So far im just about as good with a gyuto :/

I am surprised at how mucj i can.smell the cuke reacting.with.the blade, im assuming this is normal?

I just tried using a gyuto again
Hadnt tried for a year or so and with a wakui kasumi 240 i was better at katsuramuki than with my new watanabe usuba. Maybe i should do a thorough resharpening before throwing in the towel.

Also this is off topic but im shocked at how much steering a usuba does. I always heard that all you have to do is ease off the pressure and they wont steer but that is just plain false. Any other tips? What else do yall use your usubas for?

The steering is what helps in turning during katsuramuki.

Second the daikon. It's very cylindrical for most of the length, doesn't have a core, cheap as hell and you can make pickles after practice.

I glanced over your first thread and decided to try softening veggies in the fridge which worked a lot easier (quicker) than I expected. I tried this with carrots, celery and cabbage.

I did it by putting veggies in fridge at 34*F in a drawer without any cover. It took a week for them to soften.

Overall not bad, i didn't detect any flavor loss by what I tasted. They were generally soft, you could bend the veggies but they could snap..eventually. Carrots (only the thin ones) were hard to peel and would wrinkle, but looked alright once peeled.

As for cutting the veggies it was smoooooth, I could cut the carrots really thin but I chose to cut them lengthwise, with a thickness that was slightly translucent. There was some really interesting chew to them..thick with a slight crunch. Even cutting cubbed for my stocks/broths it felt nice. Celery was fine, not really a noticeable difference in any regard. The cabbage though was really the best. I think because when I used it for Asian noodle dishes cutting the cabbage thin required no cook time and they tasted fresh and great, maybe because the hot soup freshened them up..? Also I made a side dish of some cabbage with sausage and the cook time was also reduced by almost half...so A+ for saving some gas.

Practically, saving veggies for a week doesn't sound ideal, but cutting those carrots was like driving a nice car on a nice road.