Badgertooth
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2015
- Messages
- 2,664
- Reaction score
- 655
This was tricky to find. But I am rather glad I did. I know these are spoken of highly and I wanted to see if it justifies that reputation.
What I wasn't expecting was the beauty of it, I simply agreed to take it because it was the sellers last one. Who'd have foreseen the ketchup swirl through hot English mustard patterning?
First workout was the standard Watanabe test. It sloughed away at and beautifully buffed the cladding and put a most elegant edge on the knife.
An effortless shaving edge was very quickly established. The foundation for this edge was a previous day progression of hard Aoto and Aizu. In use it was slightly harder than I thought it would be and feels finer too than I expected. That's not to say it's hard, but I guess I was primed to expect a mudfest.
Next up was a ginsanko Tanaka with its soft cladding. This knife is pretty much getting the most luxurious thinning in the world every time I work behind the edge testing stones. But I've become slightly obsessed with it after being slightly meh about it. This left a sticky edge, the one that bites immediately into your fingerprint swirls.
Last was my Toyama, which has the highest heat treat of the three and it took a little work behind the bevel to get things cutting and generating mud. Toyama is traditionally clad with soft iron and the Hakka left a deep contrast between core and cladding. The edge also had a cleaner, more polished feel. I had already packed away the camera but will try in daylight.
I love this stone.
What I wasn't expecting was the beauty of it, I simply agreed to take it because it was the sellers last one. Who'd have foreseen the ketchup swirl through hot English mustard patterning?
First workout was the standard Watanabe test. It sloughed away at and beautifully buffed the cladding and put a most elegant edge on the knife.
An effortless shaving edge was very quickly established. The foundation for this edge was a previous day progression of hard Aoto and Aizu. In use it was slightly harder than I thought it would be and feels finer too than I expected. That's not to say it's hard, but I guess I was primed to expect a mudfest.
Next up was a ginsanko Tanaka with its soft cladding. This knife is pretty much getting the most luxurious thinning in the world every time I work behind the edge testing stones. But I've become slightly obsessed with it after being slightly meh about it. This left a sticky edge, the one that bites immediately into your fingerprint swirls.
Last was my Toyama, which has the highest heat treat of the three and it took a little work behind the bevel to get things cutting and generating mud. Toyama is traditionally clad with soft iron and the Hakka left a deep contrast between core and cladding. The edge also had a cleaner, more polished feel. I had already packed away the camera but will try in daylight.
I love this stone.
.. a sick Hakka is still on my wishlist but those things are so rare.
