I just picked one of his knifes up on the forums, in part because I was curious being able to find so little out about him. A 150mm that is so damn tall they still call it a chef's knife instead of a petty. So far looks like an odd, but beautiful, knife.
I never heard of him either. One day while surfing a Canadian site and looking through the Masakage line I decided to try one out. I think the Kujira are made for the Canadian seller and are not always available. There is not much to be found in English about him.
I know some members here ordered from the same place and the knives were not in the best condition when they arrived. Dont know if its the manufacturers QC or the sellers.
here is a pic of my 240 next to Takeda.
I thI’ve got a Kujira 210 gyuto by Kageura, it’s quite pretty. The grind near the edge was quite convex and pretty wedgy and splitty when I got it; spent some hours thinning it and now I really like it. Kept it over an Ikeda honyaki and prefer it to the TF Maboroshi, the steel compares favorably to both. It’s my only Damascus knife although there wasn’t a plain option; I like how it isn’t shiny and obnoxious.
I owned two actually (195 santoku & 150mm gyuto) .. and handled several when the Ottawa knifewear shop opened up.
Grind was ok, not to the level that i (we) expect now days. Symmetry was good though, choil was always left rough. but you bought the knife for:
A) its amazing damascus that has a variety of colours in it naturally
B) the huge blade profile (among the tallest blades out there at that time aside from takeda)
C) it really was a very good heat treat. and he didnt use a blast furnace to heat his metal, he used a electo-induction.
I do consider a 240mm gyuto one of my biggest "Missed out on" of my current collection. - what drove me nuts is the people at knifewear were saying he was retiring from Oct 2013 (when i bought my first knife from them) -- in 2017 they were still bringing in new blades from him AND STILL saying "hes retiring." Admittedly the last 2 years have gotten pretty scarce.
-L
From what I remember 4 or 5 years ago with mine were. The steel was blue 2 I believe with a cladding made from a whole bunch of different scrap metal he accumulated, I remember old railroad spikes and ties and some military scrap as well. The result was a cool almost iridium hue. These were also 2 to 3 times the cost of a normal masakage knife at the time, so they were mostly a curiosity. Mine had a spine and Choil that looked like it was finished with a rough metal file and it had handle joint that looked like it was repaired. The performance was not like the knives I liked at the time, very thick and wedgy through product. I could have kept the 150 gyuto as that was a cool little knife for small tasks, but I got a 120 tall petty from Shawn Fernandez which I still have. The bigger gyuto I had was defective and had a hump in the blade profile which produced a visible gap between the edge and the cutting board. When they were discontinued they were massively marked down and even then sat around for quite a while. There were also a few threads about them in the old forms. They never were a popular blade back when and that’s why I thought it was odd that they’re being hyped now.
Yeah, my thought after using it for a while was that it was too much to pay for a project knife, no matter how pretty. Then when I actually did the project I decided that *now* it cuts like a $500 knife, and as mentioned above the steel is pretty darn good so (shrug)
This thread is becoming really funky to follow. This guy Henry comes out of nowhere and trying so hard to push this masakage smith to the market. Then all pitch in to say that he made weird looking gyutos out of all sort of scrap sheet. That people used to give away for free since no one would buy (ROLF). And then this guy comes out of nowhere again and writes these loong texts about how great this guy's work is and how he wants to pay his respects. Ok we got that from the first posting. Now I think you are trying too hard and that makes this even stranger to read. Did you buy some stock out of this guy and try to oversell it?
Thinned it all the way to the edge from about 3/4 inch (19mm) up, then smoothed it outHow did you change the grind?
Henry,
What other knives have you used that you are comparing against?
How is the S-Grind of the Kujira performs? it is slightly thicker behind the edge right but that S-Grind should help with food release.FT Denka, Shigafusa Ku, Tekada AS, Masakage Zero, Masakage Koishi, RiverJump.
They all seem to have a different quality of their own. I am just starting to appreciate their uniqueness of late. Before, I used my Denka as standard and would not use my other blades. Now I often go back and enjoy the non-Denkness of my other blades. I don't know if I am making any sense but I enjoy the different qualities of each of my knives. Otherwise I would only use my Denka, as I was previously guilty of and miss out on the beauty of my other knives.
How is the S-Grind of the Kujira performs? it is slightly thicker behind the edge right but that S-Grind should help with food release.
Did your source say whether he has fully retired, or semi-retired?Has anyone seen this beautiful knife made by retired blacksmith Ken Kageura. I guess he made a couple knives last year, a left and right hand version of this knife. View attachment 121738
He is completely retired has been for a couple years. My source is owner of Masakage himself Takayuki ShibataDid your source say whether he has fully retired, or semi-retired?
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