Hi from Europe

Hi everyone!

Since I decided that my kitchen knives needed an upgrade, I was looking for information and got good stuff here.
I got myself a Teruyasu Fujiwara Nakiri and Petty, as well as a Tadafusa 240 Gyuto. I would have loved Teruyasus Gyuto, but that was too expensive for now.

I'm a vegetarian, so no meat cutting for me, but I'm always interested in trying new things, new cuts and preparations. I'm looking forward to learning how to sharpen well with Japanese stones (got myself the Kai 300/1000 and the Suehiro Rika for now) and at present, I'm trying to get the Tadafusa thinned down.

Besides that, a big hobby of mine is tea, so if you got any tea-related questions, I probably know the answer. That and my dog


Michael

Dog? What dog?

Welcome! You will have to let us know what you think of your purchases.

Hi, thank you for the replies.

The dog is a Berger de Picardie:



I actually wanted something smallish, but you know how it goes. He's very sensitive, but also intelligent and energetic. After improving my dog-handling skills, we started to make up a good team.

I'll gladly write something about the knives In a nutshell, I am completely in love with the Teruyasu Fujiwara knives. They perform like lightsabers and are very pleasing as far as aesthetics go. Had I not read about the complaints about the finish some people have, I'd never thought of it, everything seems to be in the perfect spot.

Here they are, alongside the Minamoto Kotetsu 180mm Gyuto, which for the last years had been my best knife.



The Tadafusa is quite nice also. Out of the box, it had way too much behind the edge. This is how the blade looked when it was new. The image is from the seller, bluewayjapan, (http://www.ebay.de/usr/bluewayjapan?_trksid=p2047675.l2559) I hope it is ok if I use it in this fashion:



When it arrived, it was almost blunt, but after only a few minutes of sharpening it turned out razor-sharp. It still felt not really different from the standard western chef's knife, because it was to thick behind the edge though. So I started to try thin it, it is far from perfect, but much better already. And scratched up, obviously, but since I'm not done, I won't start polishing it yet either. Still, without the weird greyish layer it came with, I find the looks drastically improved. Also, while I am far from a T-F like geometry, the performance is much better already.

Hi,
thanks for the warm welcome. I had composed a longer response, but it somehow never got posted. Something I overlooked apparently?

are you into Lapsang Souchong? that's my favorite tea that i'd actually forgotten about since college, but was just reminded of by your post. welcome to the forum.

Hi.. my last two replies to this did not get published, so I'll try again. Oh, it works now, great stuff :cool2:

daveb said:

Dog? What dog?

Click to expand...

It is a Berger de Picardie, a French shepherd. Not the one in the video, but very close:

[video=youtube;ExL1BUXFurY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExL1BUXFurY[/video]

Loves action, is more like a Border Collie then a German Shepherd. My best buddy I also do some dog sports, walking only is too boring for a working breed :running:

mc2442 said:

Welcome! You will have to let us know what you think of your purchases.

Click to expand...

Gladly Basically, I like them all. The Tadafusa is performing very well now, but only after some hours of thinning. I've learned a lot, but for a ready-to-go knife I'd buy something with a thinner profile. The T-F knives perform like hell, the irony is that I rarely ever use them because I don't want to make a mistake Plus, the 240 Gyuto, while seeming huge when I first held it, quickly became my favorite knife. The form and size are just perfect.

senryu said:

are you into Lapsang Souchong? that's my favorite tea that i'd actually forgotten about since college, but was just reminded of by your post. welcome to the forum.

Click to expand...

Thank you. It depends! I like classic, high-quailty L.S. with little or no smoke. I've tried several horrible, cheap lapsangs which tasted like ashes. But a well-donne L.S. - anytime