Gesshin Uraku vs Ginga (stainless) for sujihiki?

Hey all, I'm heading down to LA for a conference on Friday and I'm planning on stopping by JKI to pick up a sujihiki. People in another thread recommended the ginga stainless as a great slicer for a home cook (I would be carving thin slices of chicken breast and roast beef for sandwiches and cutting boneless cuts into stew). After searching on the website, I also found the Uraku 270mm stainless for pretty much half the price. There isn't much information out there on the uraku in terms of reviews besides what Jon has posted himself, but I know most people only have experience with gyutos which would have a lot of board contact so I'm curious if the qualities that make the ginga better than the uraku are significant when choosing a slicer. They're both monosteel stainless, and the Uraku sujihiki is only slightly thicker at the heel than the Ginga, and I imagine grind doesn't matter too much for slicers? Since it will be used for home use on maybe 6-8 pounds of meat per week with little board contact, edge retention shouldn't be a huge issue, just edge taking, right? I'm willing to spend the extra if it's really worth it, but I'd like to hear the board's opinion first. Thanks!

An oversimplified comparison of Ginga and Uraku Gyuto is that the Ginga is a laser, very thin, maybe a little flex, while the Uraku has a little more ass to it, not as thin. Would expect the same is true of sujis. I find a little more heft is preferred when slicing cooked proteins, the laser is preferred when slicing raw. Both would work well as an "only" suji but I would tend toward the mid weight if only having one.

Of course if I was going to Knife Mecca I would just tell Jon what I wanted the knife for and give him money.:cool2:

Yeah that's my plan, I visited him before Christmas and talked about it but now that I have the money in hand from Christmas to buy it, I wanted to go in with as much information as possible so I wouldn't waste so much of his time

daveb said:

An oversimplified comparison of Ginga and Uraku Gyuto is that the Ginga is a laser, very thin, maybe a little flex, while the Uraku has a little more ass to it, not as thin. Would expect the same is true of sujis. I find a little more heft is preferred when slicing cooked proteins, the laser is preferred when slicing raw. Both would work well as an "only" suji but I would tend toward the mid weight if only having one.

Of course if I was going to Knife Mecca I would just tell Jon what I wanted the knife for and give him money.:cool2:

Click to expand...

There is suprisingly no flex in my ginga, despite how thin it is.

go with carbon