Trying to find a Honesuki

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Chef_

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Ive been thinking about investing in a honesuki for work. I would only be using it for light poultry butchery and deboning pork sometimes.
I prefer one that is either single bevel or a mostly asymmetrical bevel.

Im deciding between the trusted gesshin ginga, as I have one of the gyutos, and you cant go wrong buying anything from JKI.

But I also have my heart set on the Shun Blue 4.5" honesuki, I love the compact and sleek design of it. I would normally never buy Shun , but the Blue line looks like quality stuff http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090YWMWG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Im trying to steer clear of anything from CKTG honestly, Ive bought from them before and i find them to be a hit or miss, their knives dont come sharp, not that i dont know how to sharpen, but it seems like a simple service vendors should include when youre dropping hundreds of dollars for one of their products. especilly since knives from JKI come razor sharp OOB.

If you recommend anything else, let me know.
 
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If you want excellent blade for very good price but less than stunning looks, than check out the Hiromoto Honesuki over at JCK. For $70 you get SLD steel that is heat treated just right - decent edge holding, but very resistant to chipping and reasonably easy to try. Plus it has more belly than most honesuki have - I find that very useful if I want to quickly dice some meat (for a goulash for example). The weight balance is nice too.
I really like mine and I stopped Traditional (for a honesuki) asymmetric design. If you want a nicer looking honesuki or WA, than go with a Ginga or talk to Jon - he also had some semi stainless honesuki (similar to the Hiromoto) some time ago.

The Shun does look nice, but I would fear it to be butt heavy.
 
hmm, yeah i found a gesshin stainless honesuki with the same brown handle that looks like the one on JCK. it looks decent, except it doesnt have any choil room. Im not sure how much of a difference that would make in performance.
 
You are right - that lack of choil room is there - I also noticed it, but do not consider it a deal breaker. I actually plan to convert mine to WA handle once I will have the experience (or courage).
 
If you want excellent blade for very good price but less than stunning looks, than check out the Hiromoto Honesuki over at JCK. For $70 you get SLD steel that is heat treated just right - decent edge holding, but very resistant to chipping and reasonably easy to try. Plus it has more belly than most honesuki have - I find that very useful if I want to quickly dice some meat (for a goulash for example). The weight balance is nice too.

X2 :thumbsup:

For the price, this is an amazing little knife... Supposedly they're NOS, and the fit and finish is better than his later works. It actually had a semi-usable edge out of the box, although a little lacking in bite. As mentioned, the HT is spot-on. For what is essentially D2, it's actually really nice to sharpen (Feels less gummy, and is easier to de-burr than most stainless.), takes a good edge (Again, for D2; you won't confuse it for Shirogami, but it's not far off AUS-8 in sharpness potential.), holds it well, and is surprisingly durable for something with such an acute edge (The right hand bevel is ~7 degrees.). It reminds me of his HT of AS, actually; a little softer than normal, but he hit a sweet spot in regards to balance.

- Steampunk
 
Maksim at JNS recently returned from Japan with some very interesting new Toyama knives.

It seems that both the honesuki and the garasuki are single bevel.

I've been kinda tempted but I would love if someone else would give one a go and give some feedback. All Toyama knives I've handled have been very very good.

Honesuki

Garasuki
 
Maksim at JNS recently returned from Japan with some very interesting new Toyama knives.

It seems that both the honesuki and the garasuki are single bevel.

I've been kinda tempted but I would love if someone else would give one a go and give some feedback. All Toyama knives I've handled have been very very good.

Honesuki

Garasuki

im sure those are great knives, but theyre beyond what i want to spend on a honesuki.
 
X2 :thumbsup:

For the price, this is an amazing little knife... Supposedly they're NOS, and the fit and finish is better than his later works. It actually had a semi-usable edge out of the box, although a little lacking in bite. As mentioned, the HT is spot-on. For what is essentially D2, it's actually really nice to sharpen (Feels less gummy, and is easier to de-burr than most stainless.), takes a good edge (Again, for D2; you won't confuse it for Shirogami, but it's not far off AUS-8 in sharpness potential.), holds it well, and is surprisingly durable for something with such an acute edge (The right hand bevel is ~7 degrees.). It reminds me of his HT of AS, actually; a little softer than normal, but he hit a sweet spot in regards to balance.

- Steampunk

sounds good, what exactly is NOS?
 
+1 for Sam/Buttermilk. And of course for Jon's Ginga line. I've not tried the Honesuki but do own the Hankotsu and like every other Ginga I've used it's a very nice knife.

FWIW I've handled the Shun "Blue" line of knives and like most Shun they had a very nice F/F. But that's where the attraction ended. Knife design by the marketing department.
 
I think the shun blue knives are great and am happy with mine. The only qualm I have about that particular honesuki is that 4.5 inches is a bit small. Having said that I'll let the higher minded friends on the forum insert their jokes here.
 
I think the shun blue knives are great and am happy with mine. The only qualm I have about that particular honesuki is that 4.5 inches is a bit small. Having said that I'll let the higher minded friends on the forum insert their jokes here.

No reason for jokes here. Schun classic petty was my first Japanese knives and we used it for years and it was a considerable step up from whatever knives we had at that time. It did microchip a lot and was relatively flexible (very easy to bend - like a piece of low carbon steel rahter than a knife steel, I guess the VG-10 core was very thin and the cladding very soft), but the F&F was great and the handle (probably some wood-based material) had 0 problems and was well shaped.
 
This thread alerted me to the new Toyama honesuki at JNS.

It looks simply sublime...

P1020862__98871.1460733483.386.513.jpg
 
Look how slim it is compared to the Kato (also at JNS) (Kato is 170mm, Toyama is 165mm):

1106_7__88545.1371473871.386.513.jpg
 
That Toyama honesuki looks actually a little underweight and the cutting edge very thin. The Kato is a monster :)
 
That Toyama honesuki looks actually a little underweight and the cutting edge very thin. The Kato is a monster :)

I suppose if you stick to using it for just poultry, it would be perfectly adequate.

The kato would be adequate for anything up to a 5m dinosaur.
 
Damage, this is the Toyama garasuki:

P1020856__90894.1460733256.1280.1280.jpg


Still more delicate than Kato's honesuki!
 
I know that.

What I am saying is that the Kato "honesuki" is actually pretty much a mislabeled garasuki.
 
I know that.

What I am saying is that the Kato "honesuki" is actually pretty much a mislabeled garasuki.

Ha! Yeah, I know you know that.

I was agreeing in pointing out that the K honesuki is more stout even than the T garasuki :)
 
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