New tesshu honyaki (inexpensive) augami

What do you guys think of this?

https://www.aframestokyo.com/tesshu...-240mm-blue-i-steel--japanese-chef-kn240.html

Looks a little sloppy here and there so maybe a project? At that price, though...besides, it is just a photo and they do not always tell the whole story. I have never really been disappointed with anything from Aframes so I'd take the gamble if I were in the market. This time of year the funds just are not there.

Not a good sign that knives of this shape are entering the market. Looks like it gets thicker at the tip?

Chicagohawkie said:

Not a good sign that knives of this shape are entering the market. Looks like it gets thicker at the tip?

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Hard to tell from the pic. Distal taper is definitely non existent lol. I think the price is fair. I’m trying to figure out if I would like the profile or not.

Chicagohawkie said:

Not a good sign that knives of this shape are entering the market. Looks like it gets thicker at the tip?

Click to expand...

It is interesting to see these become available again. I thought that the smith retired when you know who, stopped carrying them.
There is a post in the other forum (old version) about a custom handle on Rob's knife by Carter Hopkins.
Very front heavy knife iirc.
Also i do not think it is diff. hardened, just forged monosteel

that knife looks 100% not for me.

GRoc said:

It is interesting to see these become available again. I thought that the smith retired when you know who, stopped carrying them.
There is a post in the other forum (old version) about a custom handle on Rob's knife by Carter Hopkins.
Very front heavy knife iirc.
Also i do not think it is diff. hardened, just forged monosteel

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If there is a way to look at a photo and tell if a blade is differentially hardened or not I’d like to know.

wut

Hard to tell from the pic. Distal taper is definitely non existent lol. I think the price is fair. I’m trying to figure out if I would like the profile or not.



I remember these being real flat, but unusably thick to the point of being useless. Dropped from to go because no one bought them. Probably much better knives out there to choose from. These were also discontinued at Japan wood worker as well.

labor of love said:

Hard to tell from the pic. Distal taper is definitely non existent lol. I think the price is fair. I’m trying to figure out if I would like the profile or not.

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labor of love said:

If there is a way to look at a photo and tell if a blade is differentially hardened or not I’d like to know.

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It’s not diff hardened. Just a monosteel or Honyaki.

My point remains though.

And wow, glad I asked about these...I was tempted. Seems like it could be a good fixer upper.

Chicagohawkie said:

It’s not diff hardened. Just a monosteel or Honyaki.

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+1 It is as much of a honyaki as the Suisin INOX honyaki line. To me it is not a honyaki and should not be called as such.

This is just a knife forged from one piece of steel. It is not differentially hardened as it would be impossible for it to have a kurouchi finish. I would rather buy a Munetoshi than this knife, but that is just my personal opinion.

I’ve definitely seen “honyakis” with both hamon and KU finish. I know nothing about making knives, but hamon does indicate differential hardening no?

I hope I’m not coming off as argumentative. If there some prior knowledge about how this knife is made that suggests it’s not differentially hardened that’s fine-I honestly don’t understand how someone could look at a photo and know that for sure.

labor of love said:

I hope I’m not coming off as argumentative. If there some prior knowledge about how this knife is made that suggests it’s not differentially hardened that’s fine-I honestly don’t understand how someone could look at a photo and know that for sure.

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Not at all. Remember that we had a long thread here which made it obvious that different people have different definitions of what honyaki actually is. For me, it is a monosteel knife that was differentially hardened with a clay coat and has a well made kasumi (or similar) finish. As much as I love rustic kurouchi knives, I would hesitate to call them a honyaki even of they would have some sort of differential hardening.

how do you get KU on a honyaki knife
when its covered in clay for the final firing?

There are knives from Japanese and non Japanese makers I would recommend in different price brackets to my friends, this won't be one of them .
The heel is quite overground and there is a massive whole at the edge from the pic , thinning down thick honyaki blue is quite hard even with having all the tools in pro knife makers shop , trying to do it with atoma/dmt / sandpaper is not going to cut it . Fwiw This looks lot more job than a project knife to me

The Takagi honyaki is pretty old school. In fact, it seems like not so long ago Bob Kramer himself praised the work coming from this smith. Indicative of where the forum is at nowadays I guess.

Timthebeaver said:

The Takagi honyaki is pretty old school. In fact, it seems like not so long ago Bob Kramer himself praised the work coming from this smith. Indicative of where the forum is at nowadays I guess.

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It is no news that expectations of western buyers are different than of the Japnese ones. We have here a lot of discussion about evenness of shinogi lines or low spots, hand made kasumi finish and clouds. Japanese makers do not sweat the low spots as they (unless too deep, of course) do not impair the function of the knife, just to looks when one tries to make a kasumi on stones (which again, is not something that is normally done in JP to new knives - the 'kasumi' is usually done with a piece of wood and some powder). All that natural stone crazyness that is going on now is driven nearly exclusively by western (and by what I have heard also rather strongly Russian) market.

So - the above knife may have obvious defects or deviations, but it still may be a very good cutter, be well forged and have very good HT. And I can well imagine that such properties could get praise from a knifemaker like Bob Kramer.

I would most probably not buy the knife ... I am a western buyer

chefcomesback said:

Fwiw This looks lot more job than a project knife to me

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Thank you Mert.

Matus said:

+1 It is as much of a honyaki as the Suisin INOX honyaki line. To me it is not a honyaki and should not be called as such.

This is just a knife forged from one piece of steel. It is not differentially hardened as it would be impossible for it to have a kurouchi finish. I would rather buy a Munetoshi than this knife, but that is just my personal opinion.

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It could be hardened deferentially by only immersing a portion of the blade in the oil (much like Shi Han) does. Not sure if that is still considered honyaki but definitely deferentially heat treated.

Could these be the same?

brooksie967 said:

It could be hardened deferentially by only immersing a portion of the blade in the oil (much like Shi Han) does. Not sure if that is still considered honyaki but definitely deferentially heat treated.

Could these be the same?

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I thought of that. I would say the best person to ask about that would be Robin as that is how he quenches his UHB20C blades.

Water is different from oil Matus, but yes it's probably possible to harden blue like that.

RDalman said:

Water is different from oil Matus, but yes it's probably possible to harden blue like that.

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I would not argue with that Robin. But I have actually little to no idea how a blade looks after it was differentially quenched in water. I guess I need to check some of your videos

It says 2 mm at the spine above the heel, was there other pictures because on my phone I don't see any that show whether or not there is forged distal taper. In fact, the only thing I can tell on my phone is that it's rustic.

Double post

An explanation missing from the thread: "abura honyaki", as found in the description, means oil hardened.

it's a takagi, keith has one of these! he said it needed a lot of thinning but once the grunt work was done its good and edge lasts forever. i would buy one if it was white steel as i dont think thinning honyaki blue steel would be any use because you would make no progress before losing your mind, lol.

I started this thread thinking this might be a cool mono carbon to check out but I decided to get a ginrei/ shi han gyuto instead. Anybody wanna live vicariously through me?