The biggest, baddest Takedas

Anyone rocking a 300mm extra large gyuto? Or the large kiritsuke or Chinese cleaver? I have the 210 stainless clad gyuto and can't stop imagining how big the big boys must be. Sure to win any "That's not a knife... THIS is a knife." pissing contests. But it also seems like these knives would also be super-awesome kitchen workhorses that combine the virtues of a general purpose blade shapes with incredible height and length. But they also seem like they could be giant, pricey liabilities.

No doubt, some of that will depend on your personal preferences and usage patterns. But I can imagine mowing through tremendous amounts of product and moving it here and there in no time... carving giant roasts, slaying cabbage, turning carrots into dust. On the other hand, I can imagine them just being too goddamn big and getting in your way all the time. I mean... what percentage of your cutting board does one of these knives take up? Does that even matter? Or is it all too much?


Inquiring minds want to know.

I once had a 14" chef's knife and it was too big for me to use...12" is about the limit for me...

chinacats said:

12" is about the limit for me...

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🤣🤣🤣

chinacats said:

I once had a 14" chef's knife and it was too big for me to use...12" is about the limit for me...

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That what she said !

Keep your cutting board size in mind. Mine is about 35 cm / 14 inches deep, and while a 240 still works excellent, any longer than that starts running out of space to use comfortably. Maybe someone has a magic formula for it?
I find more length is mostly nice for cutting more at the same time (you just line up more stuff behind eachother) and / or not having to lift the knife as far when you're keeping the tip on the board (especially useful when you rock a lot). But you use nimbleness in the tip. So unless you actually cut a lot of volume I doubt there's much of a benefit of going extra large.
Exception... slicers and bread knives. Longer = less zigzagging.

My "210" (small) runs "235mm x 60mm"... fwiw

I'm not really afraid of length per se. I'm more afraid of the length + height combo. Which is also what I'd be really looking forward to. It might be totally killer or total overkill.

My "210" Takeda is really more like 225, and it's a perfect size for most tasks. When I need something a bit longer, I have a slender 240 Anryu and a chunky 270 Yoshihiro kiritsuke. Or a sujihiki. But the thing that's so unique about the Takeda gyuto is the height. The kiritsuke's also tall, and the Chinese cleaver is one of the tallest knives I've ever seen. And I want to know about daily use with one of these longer, taller blades. I have no real interest in the sasanoha, for example, even though I'm sure it's a lovely knife. What I'm more interested in is a long, tall, razor sharp, wall of steel that has exceptional food release because of that distinctive hollow hammered S shape.

I've only been able to find one video of the XL gyuto, and it's not the best shot video I've ever seen. But the sheer height of the thing as it goes through the roast, and the way that the slices fall makes me imagine it'd be equally awesome cutting stacks of vegetables or potatoes... or pretty much anything really.

[video=youtube;jEIk3cL6QIk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEIk3cL6QIk[/video]

Cutter for sure. What are we doing with cubed prime rib?

Yeah... I have no idea what the hell's going on with that prime rib, but I do something similar with sous vide pork shoulders. Sliced into steaks, they make super flavorful "chops;" diced into cubes, and they're ready for a skewer.

@Jovidah I guess (for home cooks) it also depends on whether you consider your countertop an acceptable food contact surface (if something falls over the edge of your board) or more of a semi-dirty workbench meant to place not yet washed produce, shopping bags, containers or appliances that have been stored on the floor... on

I have had my 300 AS for about 18 months or so. Love it. Absolutely a keeper. I'm a home chef only, but on my biggest cutting boards this knife is just fine.

It absolutely demolishes everything - some of the most fun you can have with a knife is taking this 300 AS to heads of red and green cabbage (and some nice fat carrots) to prep a huge coleslaw...awesome!

It is 305mm long x 66mm high at the heel. Lightweight at 233g (unlike the second one the store had the day I bought mine...much heavier and not nearly as thin behind the edge as mine).

I wish you luck and hope you find one as fantastic as mine!

Cheers,
Blair

Look what you just made me do. I knew it wouldn't take much to push me over the edge, and I'm sure all of you knew that too.





I can't help but hear the cello/bass line from Jaws when I look at one of these things. duuuuuuuuh, nuh. duuuuuuuuuh, nuh. duh-nuh, duh-nuh... duh-nuh, duh-nuh...

Anyway, I ordered it from Carbon knives in Colorado, who I wasn't previously aware of but seem to carry a pretty nice range of knives and whatnot. Lots of Takeda to choose from. They were a pleasure to deal with, and took photos/measurements/weights for me. Sounds like it's just a hair over 300mm, similarly lightweight to yours, and around 66mm at the heel... so here's hoping mine's as fantastic as yours!

I'd still love to hear feedback from other users of big Takedas... especially the cleavers. The world needs more videos of Takeda cleavers. There are more videos of Takeda beating the crap out of a glowing-hot cleaver to flatten it out than there are videos of actual finished cleavers cutting food.

Also curious about the big-ol' fat knives. Debas. Butchery knives. Non-tall things that are still big and fat in their own way. But perhaps that's a matter for another thread.

btbyrd said:

I can't help but hear the cello/bass line from Jaws when I look at one of these things. duuuuuuuuh, nuh. duuuuuuuuuh, nuh. duh-nuh, duh-nuh... duh-nuh, duh-nuh...

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Although the profile reminds me more of an orca than a shark. True apex predator. They eat great whites, you know....

Reminds me of Indiana Jones and the guy swinging his big knife. :wink:

Congrats! Should be a killer whale...I mean knife!!! :laugh:

(I confess I've been calling mine the Orca for awhile too!)

Cheers,
Blair

Watermelon slayings ahead! The grim reaper would look good with one in his kitchen... prolly already has one

B what does that weigh?

I only have a 270 Takeda NAS but like it

aboynamedsuita said:

I only have a 270 Takeda NAS but like it

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The 270 gets you into the party, my friend! LOL. Especially with that spiffy handle...nice!

Hope the winter was not too bad to you...seems like we are pretty close to true spring weather here now.

Cheers,
Blair

GREAT thread in the true sense of the word.
I sported a 270 Gyuto for many years in the kitchen until my old hand would stiffen up from, well, being old. The savior was the full size Chukabocho/cleaver. The height made all the difference in the world for my hand. Plus that extra height is so damn useful in scooping stuff up, there is no turning back.
I find that once you start getting into the larger blades, chores go much, much faster, as long as you have the cutting surface space available. On the line with limited space and using anything under 240 and I still feel like I'm using a toy knife.
Coworkers often snicker at my, ugly, large, rust-prone knifes... lol. The Takeda especially is lost on the youngins. Funny actually.
Cheers to a great purchase choice!

aboynamedsuita said:

I only have a 270 Takeda NAS but like it

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Spiffy! I like the purple accent on the handle. Could you tell us more about the materials?

aaamax said:

GREAT thread in the true sense of the word.
I sported a 270 Gyuto for many years in the kitchen until my old hand would stiffen up from, well, being old. The savior was the full size Chukabocho/cleaver. The height made all the difference in the world for my hand. Plus that extra height is so damn useful in scooping stuff up, there is no turning back.
I find that once you start getting into the larger blades, chores go much, much faster, as long as you have the cutting surface space available. On the line with limited space and using anything under 240 and I still feel like I'm using a toy knife.
Coworkers often snicker at my, ugly, large, rust-prone knifes... lol. The Takeda especially is lost on the youngins. Funny actually.
Cheers to a great purchase choice!

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Thanks for sharing your experience with the cleaver! That's a dream knife for me, and one that I'll try to own one day. Your remarks about using larger blades echo my own thoughts. When I first got into J-knives, which admittedly wasn't too terribly long ago, I was actually a little frightened when my 270 gyuto arrived. It's not a Takeda, but a thick Yoshihiro kiritsuke. I thought it was radically "too much knife." After about a month, however, it felt like a perfect extension of my hand and I was totally comfortable with it. Then when my Anryu 240 showed up, I thought "Is this a 240? It seems so small! Maybe I should have gone for the 270...". Which is absurd, of course. So I've come to prefer large knives for blowing through chores. For small meals at home, however, the Takeda 210 is just about perfect. It is a very big knife in a relatively small package. I have a 210 petty/suji that is roughly the same length, but is dwarfed by the height of the Takeda. The only thing it really lacks is the length to slice larger items.

Can't say that about the 300mm. Mine should be arriving today!

Small and XL.





The 300mm club.

BlueSteel said:

The 270 gets you into the party, my friend! LOL. Especially with that spiffy handle...nice!

Hope the winter was not too bad to you...seems like we are pretty close to true spring weather here now.

Cheers,
Blair

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Yasss, I made the cut lol! Winter is wrapping up here I think… fingers crossed. There's been talk of a knife/stone gathering out west, probably Alberta. If it goes ahead perhaps you'll be able to make it too

btbyrd said:

Spiffy! I like the purple accent on the handle. Could you tell us more about the materials?

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The handle is black & white ebony with ancient Ukrainian bog oak ferrule (carbon dated to over 2000 years old), fossilized mammoth tooth & argentium silver spacers, and a lapis lazuli / ultramarine inlay (takeda handle on left).

They're from Mikey, unfortunately idk if he is still around here

aboynamedsuita said:

Yasss, I made the cut lol! Winter is wrapping up here I think… fingers crossed. There's been talk of a knife/stone gathering out west, probably Alberta. If it goes ahead perhaps you'll be able to make it too

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Ooooh - please keep me in the loop! I have friends/family in Edmonton and Calgary, so happy to participate in an Alberta gathering if I can get clear of work. If it happens in summer, would do a road trip - love that drive through the mountains!

Cheers,
Blair

btbyrd said:

Small and XL.

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I like how the small only really looks small in comparison to the XL. :rofl2:

BlueSteel said:

Ooooh - please keep me in the loop! I have friends/family in Edmonton and Calgary, so happy to participate in an Alberta gathering if I can get clear of work. If it happens in summer, would do a road trip - love that drive through the mountains!

Cheers,
Blair

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There were plans for Calgary, at one point we were talking to Kevin Kent at Knifeware too… hopefully we can pull it off. I'd probably drive from Winnipeg too (not a fan of flying), it'd be a long day, but I've done it before.

I'll leave this here.



The big boy after a tune up from Ryan at District Cutlery.