NKD... ( new knife day )

Following a tradition on Sevenstring.org where immidiate capture and posting of a new aquisition is required, I'll post my NKD. I sold off a good portion of my work kit to co-workers to fund a couple new purchases. While I loved the performance and feel of my konosuke white #2 gyutos the edge retention, for me, in a busy pro kitchen was a bit lacking so off they went. the 210mm to the exec sous, and the 270 to the sous. The hiromoto... mixed feelings about this knife. I loved the sharpness and edge retention, but being so in tune with my konos I always felt like it was quite heavy and a bit clunky, so off it went also to the sous( he is a big fella' and also gifted him a cleaned up beaty 0 cleaver which in his hands doesn't look big at all ). Lastly my 210 tojiro gyuto. I bought this after having my konosukes, a mizuno tanrenjo, akifusa, so I can't really say why I picked it up. Curiosity I suppose. This knife went to the exec sous' brother who just got himself back into a pro kitchen after a bit of a hiatus.

New kit: Suisin IH 240mm sujihiki( basically replaced my 210 kono in use ) and 270mm gyuto. Also threw the Gesshin 400 stone in there it's also fairly new )







Also picked up this little gem for the house.

You have solid taste, well played sir!

Elegant looking blades. I hope they prove to be what you are after.

Congrats, and thanks for posting.

Congratulations on the new kit. Love the handle shape on the Suisin IH, the rounded bottom just feels right.

Rick

Love the wood used for the handles Looks like a nice kit!

Congrats!

I'm very curious to hear what you think about the edge retention compared to the kono. I have a kono white, and I too think that the edge retention is lacking a bit for a pro kitchen

Very nice additions to the collection!

@ jmfreeman: I've had the suji for almost 3 weeks now. I sharpened it once as soon as I recieved it and have been maintaining the edge stropping on 3 micron natural diamond on leather, and 1 micron diamond/ 1/2 micron boron carbide on leather and after a light stropping the majority of the edge will still comfortably shave, save the very tip where it sees the most board contact, and feel that I will probably get another week or so of useable sharpness. The edge retention of the suisin far surpasses the kono white 2 in my experience.

Interesting...I'm looking to pick up another gyuto, and the suisin is on the list of contenders. Just wasn't sure if it would be too similar to my kono to justify getting, but if the edge retention is that much better, it just moved up a couple of spots.

Thanks for the feedback

How the performance of the Suisin IH gyuto?

I don't think the edge retention of the Suisin IH is that much better than the Konosuke white#2 accept for the typical carbon vs. stainless degradation differences from more acidic items...however, I am speaking of in a home environment using only edge-grain cutting boards, but I could see how this is much more apparent in a kitchen all day. Kono HD and Suisin IH are much closer aligned in all performance aspects that it is almost too close to call, except for price differential.

From the pics it looks like the 240 suji has the same size handle as the 210 petty--do you find it to be a bit small?

I've notice the Suisin IH is getting a lot of love again lately...the cycle is coming back around.

I've had a Suisin IH 270 mm gyuto and 210 mm petty for over a year and I think you're talking very high performance lasers here. Nice score K-Fed.

Cadillac J said:

From the pics it looks like the 240 suji has the same size handle as the 210 petty--do you find it to be a bit small?

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it is a little small but I feel that it suits the knife well and feels "right". It is however a little bit lager in diameter than my 240 Konosuke hd gyuto and the handle on the IH gyuto is considerably larger than that on the konosuke which is something I like. I had always felt that the 270 konosuke gyuto would benefit from a bit larger handle and as far as the difference in edge retention between the white and semi-stainless/ stainless, I think alot of it did have to do with working with a considerable amount of acidic foods and some may also be due to the addition of the 3 micron natural diamond strop as I didn't have that before off loading the konosukes. Thanks Dave by the way for posting the link to advanced abrasives. So very cool of you:cool2:

Thanks for posting!! Love that new board!!!:thumbsup:

I love the idea of NKD. I also hear the mods saying "uh oh".:justkidding:

I took a few more pics to show what I was talking about in regards to handle size.

In order left to right: Suisin IH 270mm gyuto, Konosuke HD 240mm gyuto, Suisin 240mm sujihiki





and most of whats left of the work kit after purging

wow that is a big handle.

i didnt know suisin's handles came in different colors. are both handles made of the same wood? all your new purchases look great btw!

labor of love said:

i didnt know suisin's handles came in different colors. are both handles made of the same wood? all your new purchases look great btw!

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Thanks =). The handles are made from the same wood. Just a good example of the natural variation of colors in woods/ natural materials.

From what I have seen the IH handles are darker in color on all pictures?

If I'm not mistaken, the Suisin handles are made from Japanese yew, while the Konosuke handle is made from ho wood, a different species entirely. Thus the difference in color.

Peco said:

From what I have seen the IH handles are darker in color on all pictures?

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K-Fed said:

Thanks =). The handles are made from the same wood. Just a good example of the natural variation of colors in woods/ natural materials.

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That does look awesome.

One of my favorite things about my Suisin in the looks department was the horn ferrule had some white and 'orange' that matched the handle perfectly. Pic doesn't do it justice.

That's an impressive pile of knives.

Johnny.B.Good said:

That's an impressive pile of knives.

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Are those two lefty yanagibas on the right? Who is the maker and how long are they? Are you happy with them?
Thanks,
Jan

They sure are. They're 210 and 300 mm seikon dojo blue #2 yanagiba from EE. They make good work knives. Nothing pretty simply functional. They came fairly well ground with the usual slight hollows that have worked their way out after a few good sharpenings. One thing that I will note is that both of them had a slight over grind at the tip on the ura side which made sharpening a pain for a bit. When they get burned out I will definately be getting something of a bit better quality. They did however make great knives to learn on.

Johnny.B.Good said:

That's an impressive pile of knives.

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I thought it was an impressive "expense" of knives!

Glen

GLE1952 said:

I thought it was an impressive "expense" of knives!

Glen

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Yes, definitely time to use the lowercasebill descriptor.