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nutmeg

nutmeg

kasumi nut
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I was already fan of the knives made by Watanabe, now I had to try his stones.

At first, here are some pictures of the same blade sharpened with five of his stones. The AI#1000, Ikarashi-do, Shiro Suita from Maruo Yama, Shiro Suita from Ohira and Ao Renge.

(In fact I hadn't any knife needing to be sharpened with a coarser stone than a Shiro Suita, so this one is an horrible Aura borrowed from a colleague)


AI#1000


Ikarashi-do, hardness 5/10:


Shiro Suita, Maruo-Yama, hardness 6/10 :


Shiro Suita, Ohira, hardness 7/10 :







Ao Renge, Ohira, hardness 8/10 :


 
I can't edit my previous message anymore, so this is with some descriptions


AI#1000
The beast, very fast and agressive. I got this in maybe 20-30 seconds.


Ikarashi-do, hardness 5/10:
Very strong shaping power for for a Jnat. The blade is not clean yet but not so scratchy too.
Sharp enough for most of kitchen tasks.


Shiro Suita, Maruo-Yama, hardness 6/10 :
Very strong shaping power, the slurry comes in a few strokes ans stays constant. Very nice haze finish. It remembers me an Uchigumori Hazuya.
To me it is the last finishing stone people need for a kitchen knife.


Shiro Suita, Ohira, hardness 7/10 :
Beautiful stone, great feeling. I use it with another small shiro suita als nagura. Very nice semi-mirror finish.
It leaves a sharpness that people need only for high end cuisine.







Ao Renge, Ohira, hardness 8/10 :
With nagura, quite fast stone. Mirror finish.
Sharp enough to cut basil leaves-brunoise without its color changes :)





Actually, this is the sharpness I got with this stone on a petty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FndYUdUlPg&feature=youtu.be
 
Very interesting thank you. The way that petty cuts the hair in the video also tells something about your sharpening skills.
 
That cutting was most impressive. I can echo the insights on Shinichi's Ikarashi, maruoyama shiro suita and Ohira shiro suita. I think you have described it perfectly.
 
nutmeg said:
Next time, combo synthetic #1000 and #8000.
Click to expand...

and once again with an horrible Aura knife! I "understand" lot of knives but these ones, not. They haven't really been made to be used.
Dull, the knife.
In this condition you can't cut anything with it. Impossible to slice a hard tomato or cut parsley for example:
picupload
Kostenlos Bilder hochladen

The AI#1000 is a nice tool!
Kostenloses Bilderhosting

After about 4 minutes:
kostenlos bilder hochladen


And now the Kitayama #8000.
About 40 seconds to raise an effective slurry with the nagura and then 7-8 minutes to get this:
bilder kostenlos
direct upload

After this stone, my knives are very sharp.
So ok it is not as sharp as with the from above Jnats but for a human use it is already too sharp. I don't know any tasks where one would need a finer edge.

And.. I got this sharpness in say, 12 minutes.
With the jnats yesterday, I needed about 40 minutes. :)
 
with Jnats or synthetic I could do it a bit quicker. At work for exemple I could do it in maybe 2/3 the time but I think this time is representative of a stress-free sharpening and good results.
 
Anyway even if there are some very light scratches from #1000 they could be soon removed after a few sharpening with only the #8000.
And even if a finer say#2000 stone would have its place here between the two, some can see on the pictures that the combination Ai#1000\ #8000 works.
Fast and good. I find it optimal for professionals whose knives dull fast and who don't have many time to sharpen.
 
Really useful contribution, it makes me want to try the Maruo and maybe even Ao renge suita even more (I already have one Ohira Suita from Maxim for a few weeks, which opened a new world of sharpness and edge retention for me)! I wish there would be more so concise, but instructive threads about Jnats, based on side by side comparisons!
 
Great write up! Say, if you had to chose one of these stones as a finishing stone with bite, which would you pick?
 
The differences are slight bigger in real than on the picture..
The Maruo Shiro Suita leves a slight scratchier jigane and with Uchigumori it was a bit more finer and uniform finish with the biggest contrast.
So I would naturally pick the Uchigumori to polish.

But, wich one is the most useful?
as profesional chef I like fast tools and the Maruo Shiro Suita is definitely a very, very fast one. Not the finest but fast and clean, that's why I like the Maruo so much!!
 
nutmeg said:
and also quick done!
The stone is quite fast too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Shinichi mentions it on his webpage as well...I have finally picked an Ao Renge Suita, next to the Maruo, really looking forward to try them! I would like to try the uchigumori as well, but Shinichi mentioned the Ao renge are his final stock (contrary to Ohira uchigumori), so I decided to get this one first...
 
Even if I've never fount his stones particularely expensive it's really time to make a nice collection with his Christmas Sales! And as I am not sure to find the Ao anywhere else I could buy a second one....
The Ao Renge is very useful and fast with nagura. I didn't use it a long time but since I've made the pictures for the forum it became my everyday finishing stone, even for workhorses in the restaurant. Btw the Benriner mandoline became now an insane tool! It slices food as if was made out of air 😀 I'll make pictures this next days.
 
Indeed. I just got buch of stuff from Shinichi and got a very attractive discout on every single item (I did not buy any knives ... sounds strange saying that loud ;) )
 
nutmeg said:
Even if I've never fount his stones particularely expensive it's really time to make a nice collection with his Christmas Sales! And as I am not sure to find the Ao anywhere else I could buy a second one....
The Ao Renge is very useful and fast with nagura. I didn't use it a long time but since I've made the pictures for the forum it became my everyday finishing stone, even for workhorses in the restaurant. Btw the Benriner mandoline became now an insane tool! It slices food as if was made out of air 😀 I'll make pictures this next days.
Click to expand...

He writes that he is the only vendor who sells them, which is not 100% true, Metalmaster has currently two in stock as well (under the name black renge suita), as I was informed by one of the KKF knife nuts, but I like those by Shinichi more, at least visually...And I also got a really big discount (more than 40%) on both stones...and he seemed to be open to offer an attractive discount on basically everything I was considering...So if somebody wants to get a stone from him, it seems to be the right time now!
 
Matus said:
Indeed. I just got buch of stuff from Shinichi and got a very attractive discout on every single item (I did not buy any knives ... sounds strange saying that loud ;) )
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat, i have brought numerous stones off him but have never tried any of his knives
 
I've gotten both knives and stones… been eyeing the Ao renge Suita as well.

Who's the lucky guy who got #5?
aorenge26x80x184_big.jpg


I was gonna grab that later this week on payday :nunchucks:, but now am actually eyeing a bigger one, so should say thanks instead lol
 
Not me, I just got a nice old Aoto, small uchigumori (plus one super cheap for fingerstones), little Ikarashi-do (could not resist) and small hard Nakayama and ... lo and behold ... a Kamisori (was contemplating to try one for a long time and for this price I could not say no). I would have loved to get Shiro Suita from Marua, but I suppose Shin did not have a stone for me (or at least not in my price range).
 
tjangula said:
I've gotten both knives and stones… been eyeing the Ao renge Suita as well.

Who's the lucky guy who got #5?
aorenge26x80x184_big.jpg


I was gonna grab that later this week on payday :nunchucks:, but now am actually eyeing a bigger one, so should say thanks instead lol
Click to expand...

You are welcome:wink:! And I am quite sure you are interested in Nr. 2, so take it before it will be gone as well (as I know, there are several people interested in Ao Renge suitas currently, probably mostly due to this thread), I considered that as well, so Shinichi kindly put a discounted price for both!
 
Krakorak said:
He writes that he is the only vendor who sells them, which is not 100% true, Metalmaster has currently two in stock as well (under the name black renge suita), as I was informed by one of the KKF knife nuts, but I like those by Shinichi more, at least visually...And I also got a really big discount (more than 40%) on both stones...and he seemed to be open to offer an attractive discount on basically everything I was considering...So if somebody wants to get a stone from him, it seems to be the right time now!
Click to expand...

I have not bought from Shinichi before; what is the buying process like, and under what conditions does he tend to offer a discount?
 
foody518 said:
I have not bought from Shinichi before; what is the buying process like, and under what conditions does he tend to offer a discount?
Click to expand...

If you want some particular stone than just write him an email and ásk about a possible discount. Once you get it he will adjust the price on his webpage and then you use the 'order' butten at the bottom, fill-in a formular and in the description put the name of the item. It sounds a little strange, but it works fine. You will later get an email from him to pay via PayPal. Shinichi answers fast and is very helpful. Me and Krakorak have both had a lot of questions and we didn't manage to push him to his limits quite yet :)
 
Matus said:
Not me, I just got a nice old Aoto, small uchigumori (plus one super cheap for fingerstones), little Ikarashi-do (could not resist) and small hard Nakayama and ... lo and behold ... a Kamisori (was contemplating to try one for a long time and for this price I could not say no). I would have loved to get Shiro Suita from Marua, but I suppose Shin did not have a stone for me (or at least not in my price range).
Click to expand...

I got some kamisoris from Shinichi, they are the Sharpness itself. Their Edges are wonderfully polished.
 
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