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Keith Sinclair

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Looking for a quality stainless 160-190mm. Either a smaller Gyuto shape or a Santoku. My better half likes to use my gesshin ginga 240mm, but most of the time she uses a cheap stainless smaller knife that I keep kind of sharp.

My smaller blades are carbon she will not touch them.
 
In that size range, you can a Watanabe Pro with stainless cladding. He offers both a 165mm santoku or a 180mm gyuto. Unfortunately, the yen has risen about 20% against the USD since the beginning of the year.

JKI has the Uraku in semi-stainless or the Ginga in stainless for knives in your desired size.
 
What's your budget? If cheapo knife, why not look at a Tadafusa SLD santoku? I know it's technically "semi stainless", but I never had a problem with reactivity even when leaving it wet for quite some time ...
 
I recall that you are a fan of the Tojiro HSPS. Knives and Stones offers a 170mm santoku in that line.
 
Gesshin Kagero has a 180mm gyuto. Powdered steel with soft stainless cladding.
Gesshin Ginga has a 180mm as well if she likes your 240 Gesshin Ginga (although it is out of stock).
Takamura 165mm santoku, Shibata Kotetsu Bunka (180mm) are interesting options if she likes lasers.
 
Takamura? Is there even any doubt. You could probably source a 180 tanaka vg 10 if you wanted something thicker. But for my $ the takamura is arguably the best $ for $ stainless.
 
Talking about wives and Takamuras; my wife's favourite is Takamura R2 210mm now. Before that she would never use any knife bigger then 180mm.
 
+1 for Takamura R2 or Tanaka VG10 damascus.

Both are pretty, shiny and light for the ladies! (and for the gents as well! :lol2: )
My wife uses only under 210 stainless knives with western handles.
 
Tanaka seems to be real popular these days. They make western handled ones which are actually very comfortable especially for smaller hands.
 
The Takamura R2 seems to be literally designed for this purpose.
 
Tanaka and Takamura are representating Takefu/Echizen well!
 
From what I understand, he learned and trained in Takefu...speaking of which, does anyone know what is going on with Ryusen these days?
 
Thanks some good suggestions here. She likes the gesshin ginga because it is sharp & light. I know she prefers a smaller blade than a 240mm. I like the powder steels the Takamura R2 has a thin grind, often heard about these knives, want something that when I sharpen it on gesshin 4K it will blow her socks off:biggrin:
 
Is it just me or did Akifusas go up in price? Right now they cost as much or a little more (depending on size) as Ryusen Blazen on the same site or the Takamura HSPS Pro on MTC, and I could swear that was not the case when I last looked at them in recent months.
 
The western handled ones seem to have gone up quite a bit in price. They used to be less expensive than the wa-handled versions. Wa-handled prices are the same as when I purchased mine a few months ago.

Perhaps the vendor received a restock of western handled knives at the new (higher yen) exchange rate.
 
buy a tojiro dp and then post about how ****** it isn't.

that'd be a twist.
 
Well the majority wins. I ordered the Takamura R2 170mm Santoku. I prefer wa handles because they are light, the Taka has a smaller handle with a partial tang which is good it cuts down on the weight. I have a 217mm Megume stainless Damascus she likes that knife too I will have to pull it out for the move to the Antie's house.

It has a nice kitchen was cleaning it up today. Her Antie liked to buy Japanese dishes most are from the 50's & 60's. Pulling out these boxes all brown from age much of the stuff had never been used still individual wrapping. Some had insect droppings. Some nice stuff if anyone interested I will post some pictures of some of the dishes, bowls, tea pots, etc.
 
The western handled ones seem to have gone up quite a bit in price. They used to be less expensive than the wa-handled versions. Wa-handled prices are the same as when I purchased mine a few months ago.

Perhaps the vendor received a restock of western handled knives at the new (higher yen) exchange rate.
Some time ago I heard from Cleancut that the maker was considering quitting making them (Akifusa PM) because there was no profit in it, but they then decided to increase the price instead.
 
Let me add to the Takamura chorus - easiest "nice" knife to get women to accept in my experience. Light, western handles, stainless.
 
Too late, I wanted to push the Kagero. The Takamura is thinner, it does get a little sharper, but it takes more effort to get there and there is no comparison in edge retention, the Kagero hold a sharp edge much longer. Ah well, can't go wrong with either really.
 
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