Qs about rounding out my home kit

Thanks for the warm welcome! Lots of great knowledge floating around here.

About me: A number of years ago I started worked in a cafe prepping and cooking. Worked up to management and I am now back in a kitchen. Nothing fancy or haute cuisine just running a kitchen at an assisted living facility. A few months into it now and I was able to budget in a couple of decent knives. Just ordered a Tojiro DP 120mm petty and went with a ******** Artifex Gyuto (over a Tojiro DP Gyuto).

In addition to cooking for a living, I really enjoy cooking at home. A few years ago I bought a Tojiro DP 150mm petty, a Tojiro DP 240mm gyuto and a single bevel kamagata usuba 165mm (not sure of the make) from Korin. I really enjoy the Tojiros but the usuba has remained in the box due to a lack of decent stones. I gave up after trying to flatten the back on a DMT xf plate and not getting the back of the edge very flat. My current water stone is a King ~400/800(?) and is about done in.

I do have a fair amount of sharpening experience from woodworking. Mostly old high carbon single bevel irons and chisels. Used mostly high grit sand paper.

I have the Beston/Bester/Arashiyama set and a DMT coarse on it way to my door right now. Hopefully that should leave me pretty well set for stones.

I also have a cheapie SS santoku and a cheapie Chinese cleaver. I am wanting to pick up a couple of new knives to round out my at home kit. I will probably use a few of them on occasion at work but that will be fairly rare.

I am thinking of a slicer and a boning knife after getting a couple of inexpensive Tojiro shirogamis. I would like to start getting whole fresh chickens and other large chucks of fresh local protein to prepare at home. I think I would prefer single bevel knives in carbon (blue or white, I guess).

My plan:
Tojiro shirogami 120mm petty
Tojiro shirogami nakiri
(because they sound like fun, are carbon and are inexpensive)
a sujihiki (are some made as a single bevel?) or a yanagiba
a deba or honesuki (is the Tojiro shirogami deba a single bevel?)

Feedback on what you guys think would be the best rounding out for my home kitchen knives would be great! I would like to keep the cost down as much as possible (<$200/blade).

Cheers and thanks,
rj

Maybe focus on 3 main knives to invest in instead of spreading yourself thin. If you don't think that delicately sliced fish is in your near future, take the yanagiba money and put more towards something else or some combination thereof. I have no problem with the Tojiro Shirogami line ( I have a 210 gyuto myself) but there are a lot of other great and inexpensive knives out there that are just above that $50-$80 price range. If you're used to a 400/800 stone, going up to a 1k and then some would probably bring a whole new view on how good your knives can be.

tkern-

I was using the DMT 1200 (xf) for finishing and sometimes using coticules to polish up a little. My blue and yellow are quite small though.

So a Sujihiki would make a better all around slicer?

Cheers,
rj

First, congrats on sticking with the industry on that path. Seems fairly similar to my own except instead of assisted living I'm dealing with a unionized kitchen.

Yeah, a nice Sujihiki would probably fit the bill. Gyutos aren't traditionally in the Japanese set so many of Japanese chefs use a suj. for a wide range of prepping. Does a good job with veggies, takes down a brisket well, etc.

Okay, I am impressed with the inexpensive Tojiro shirogami knives! Also, the new set of stones are really a huge step up for me. They are producing excellent cutting edges.

I have read a lot about how nice the Fujiwara FKM are for the price but not much about their carbon line. How are these knives? What carbon steel are they using?

I am kind of split right now on spending the extra money for a large step up on a Konosuke Gyuto 270mm in white #2 or just getting a FKM knife. The Artifex is doing well in a work environment but it really is not as long as I prefer. I do a lot of prep work.

I am also really working on my technique; moving away from 'rock chopping' and towards more push actions.

So should I drop the extra cash and pick up my first higher end knife or just stick with these lower (but excellent) knives?

I am leaning towards the Konosuke!

Cheers and thanks for the input,
Ryan

If I were you I'd go for the Konosuke. You already have a couple of cheaper knives and if you're getting good edges off them, why not? Even if you don't like the Konosuke, you could easily sell it here for pretty much what you paid for it I reckon.

stevenStefano said:

If I were you I'd go for the Konosuke. You already have a couple of cheaper knives and if you're getting good edges off them, why not? Even if you don't like the Konosuke, you could easily sell it here for pretty much what you paid for it I reckon.

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Yeah, I am talking with Jon at JKI and am really close pulling the trigger on the Konosuke. Makes for a nice bday present!

Cheers,
rj

There are some pretty rave reviews of Konosuke knives on the forums. I say go for it.

As the saying goes: "you will remember the quality long after you forget the price."

Happy birthday!

The trigger has been pulled! :wink:

Excellent. Happy birthday to you.

I will be curious to know what you think of it when it arrives.

Johnny.B.Good said:

Excellent. Happy birthday to you.

I will be curious to know what you think of it when it arrives.

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Thanks for the birthday wishes! I will let you know my impressions of this highly praised knife shortly after I receive it (hopefully by the end of the week).

Jon at JKI was a treat to work with as many people have mentioned already.

Cheers,
rj

skewed said:

..I will let you know my impressions of this highly praised knife shortly after I receive it (hopefully by the end of the week)...

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Looking forward to it!

My present arrived today. I came home from work after lunch to greet my mailman then headed back to work with the Konosuke with me. I was able to run it through a few veggies but not much of a real work out.

Not sure if this was mentioned... this knife is thin!

F&F are very nice. The knife is clean, fairly simple and understated. No bling which is what I like. The edge OOTB is better than I was expecting. I will wait until after a full day at work tomorrow before I do a little work on the edge.

So far I am quite impressed and am very happy with my first 'higher-end' knife. I am already thinking of asking Jon when he will stock the Konosuke 210mm w2 Petty.

I will keep you posted after a full day or two in the kitchen.

Slainte,
rj

Did you get the HD or White #2?

stevenStefano said:

Did you get the HD or White #2?

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White #2. Cost was a little easier to justify and I have worked on it before and am quite happy with how sharp I can get it and how long the edge last.

Cheers,
rj

After a full week, I am super impressed and am very happy with my purchase. After the first day at work, I spent a little time on a Arashiyama 6k (~10 minutes). I touch up the edge very briefly every other day on the same stone which pops hairs with a little swipe. At work I usually strop the knife several times per day doing 4-5 laps on a hanging horse butt strop followed by two light passes through cork which seems to keep the edge in shape pretty well.

I am thinking of cutting this strop in half, mounting the two pieces on hardwood and loading one of them with??? Not sure what would work the best for a touch up at work on the 6k finished edge: .5 micron, 1 micron or 2 micron spray.

Any suggestions? I am wanting to keep things fairly simple and not over load with more than one stropping medium. Would it make more sense to get another stone in the 10-12k range before getting into strop sprays?

BTW- now I real want a 210mm white #2 petty! The Gesshin Ginga looks pretty temping.

Cheers!
rj