Mutsumi Hinoura Knives

I'm curious about the AS line offered by Hinoura-san, junior, at Epic Edge. I'm wondering if anyone can share some hands on experience. I am looking at the 210 gyuto with the smooth ku finish, willing to consider a 240

I'm curious if the cladding is reactive or stainless?
is the 210 much smaller than a 240 (like Sakai knives/lasers)?
How's Fit/finish and grind?

Thanks KKF!

Edit: forgot to mention. I have searched through old topics and found some information from a few years back, but I'm hoping now for more recent information and experience.

Hello, i have the 240 AS Mutsumi and i really like it. I asked for mine with a custom handle so i can tell you only that the spine is rounded and the choil also. The steel is perfectly forged. You can tell it has a high HRC 64...from the way the edge holds and keeps bitting. It is an agressive cutter and i can slice tisue paper after chopping some veggies. I have sharpen it only once on king stones 1000/ 6000 and it was splitting hairs after a couple of runs on the stones. The kurochi finish is great...nothing sticks and i mean nothing. And the blade geometry is great with a huge flat spot more then 1/2 a nice heft to the spine 2.5mm and a nice weight to give you chopping momentum. The knife is great value for the money and once you buy one you will think of buying one for spare....that much i like it.

danemonji said:

Hello, i have the 240 AS Mutsumi and i really like it. I asked for mine with a custom handle so i can tell you only that the spine is rounded and the choil also. The steel is perfectly forged. You can tell it has a high HRC 64...from the way the edge holds and keeps bitting. It is an agressive cutter and i can slice tisue paper after chopping some veggies. I have sharpen it only once on king stones 1000/ 6000 and it was splitting hairs after a couple of runs on the stones. The kurochi finish is great...nothing sticks and i mean nothing. And the blade geometry is great with a huge flat spot more then 1/2 a nice heft to the spine 2.5mm and a nice weight to give you chopping momentum. The knife is great value for the money and once you buy one you will think of buying one for spare....that much i like it.

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Thanks for the info! I'm planning to buy a 210 in the coming days. I managed to gain a little info from a few sellers as well, both had really nice things to say.

I'll post my own thoughts and experiences soon.

Bumpitty, bump, bump!

I have now had the 210 gyuto AS KU stainless cladding from Bernal. First impression was outstanding, this is my first knife from a Sanjo smith. I really Lil the added heft with a thicker spine and blade forward balance.

The ff was solid. Perfectly straight. Beautifully rounded chill and spine. The handle is a smooth and aligned really well. The KU finish is really smooth with a matte like finish, the blade road is finished with what I assume are natural stones (certainly not the common bead blasted finish)

The grind is inane. Being thick with true wide bevels, the knife still glides smoothly through everything. Looking from the choil it almost seems to have a slight s grind. While there are no sharp corners/shoulders where the grind starts, thr blade is just noticeably thickest right before the grind begins to fall toward the edge. The grind finishes extremely thin behind the edge.. more so than both my 210 and 240 hd.

Even in the short time I have sadly had minor tipping incident. That said the knife isa breeze to sharpen and work on.

Hoping to eventually pick up the 240 for a bit longer of a flat spot. My 210 has nearly a continuos curve with little to no actual flat spot. The tip is more of a drop nose santoku style (seems common to Sanjo maybe?) which is not ideal for tip work but still functioned well. As mentioned I had to re-tip mine early on, and worked to crested more of an aggressive point.

Steel is hard 64? I think. Holds an edge really well and seems pretty tough (the tip was due to the unknowing hands of a past his prime linecook)!

All in all a fantastic knife. will definitely be buying more from Mutsumi Hinoura, probably not his father though.

So I'm guessing the ones at epic edge are stainless clad?

I'm not sure if its the same offering.

I have 240 AS KU and it is stainless also. Must try it...you will be surprised how good the steel and the grind is. The 240 blade on epicedge looks exactly like mine. It has a long flat spot and a long thin tip.

Macassar ebony?(epic edge)....is that just normal ebony?

Also, I wonder if the wh2 ho wood handle line performances the same with the difference being not so hard shirogami steel.

A friend of mine got a 210 stainless clad AS recently and his imoressions are very similar to those of Meesterleester. Seems to be really a great knife.

i dunno but i wish JCK would offer the KU white #1 series with iron cladding instead of soft stainless!!

panda said:

i dunno but i wish JCK would offer the KU white #1 series with iron cladding instead of soft stainless!!

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Just curious, why don't you like stainless cladding?

Pain in the ass to thin, scratches too easily which adds drag, feels horrible on stones.

#notallstainlesscladding

So far the ss has been a breeze to thin. Easily maintained at the tip with 1000 grit imo.

I also have the Hinoura megumi stainless gyuto 200mm in white #2. The cutting steel is hard hrc63 and holds an edge for a loong time. It sharpens like a breeze. It came with a wide beed blasted bevel which i removed on the 1000 grit stone ( found a very nice vid from john at jns on thining) and the stainless coating was quite easy on the stones. I removed most of the scratches on 6000 stone since the bevel is nice and flat.

labor of love said:

Macassar ebony?(epic edge)....is that just normal ebony?

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Macassar (or Makassar) Ebony is considered the highest grade of ebony, although I don't know why. It has brown streaks that people other than me apparently find attractive. I prefer the solid black, myself.

DaveInMesa said:

Macassar (or Makassar) Ebony is considered the highest grade of ebony, although I don't know why. It has brown streaks that people other than me apparently find attractive. I prefer the solid black, myself.

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Is it as dense and heavy as regular ebony?

I believe that on the Janka hardness scale.. it is slightly higher as it is it more dense than the Black african ebony. Both above teh 4000 readings. rgds d

I see Blueway has the nashiji KU with burnt chestnut D handles. Been wanting to try one of these for ages.

I saw that too. Take a good look at the choil shot just to make sure that’s the right knife for you.

Looks like a flat wide bevel. Pretty thin behind the edge. Weight and dimensions are attractive. 200g, 2.2mm mid spine, 53x245mm. Ended up pulling the trigger.

Well this one is better than I expected!

I've been using it next to a Cleancut Mazaki (awesome knife!!!) for the last week or so. I'm finding myself reaching for the Hinoura more often. Lighter, better food release, lower reactivity, and just feels more comfortable.