Can you show me distal tapers?

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Don Nguyen

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I'd like to see distal tapers. All kinds. Good. Bad. Extreme. For now, lets just stick with gyutos.

What makes a good one? Why are certain ones bad? For makers, how do you do your tapers, and what are the most crucial aspects you keep in mind?
 
I am just writing this off the top of my head, but, in my experience solely as a knife user, not a knife maker, a good distal taper creates a thin tip that is not flexible and does not compromise other characteristics of a knife, such as blade flexibility, thickness, weight, geometry.

The taper of Dave's 240 gyuto is quite good. Although I've come to not like the profile at the tip as much as other knives because it drops down quickly like a santoku and it's more difficult to eyeball where the tip is with respect to the food that you're cutting with the tip than other knives, the knife is very thin at the tip and has excellent stiffness.
 
Here are a few. L to R - Hiro AS, Fowler, DT, DT ITK

IMG_3627.JPGIMG_3630.JPGIMG_3631.JPG
 
Oooh, that DT has a nice tip.
 
Zwilling Kramer, from very thick above the heel, to very very thin at the tip.

IMG_0545.JPG
 
Wow, that Zwilling.

Visually that's the most appealing. Performance wise, how is it?
 
I really like it. The edge profile is different then the rest (seems to look a bit like a Carter funi), so I need to make a slight adjustment in technique to get the most out of it but it did not take long to figure it out. It's pretty thin, and has a very useable tip.

The handle is bulky, but I still haven't reached the point where I want to box it up and send it back for tapering, although I probably will at some point.
 
Just what I'm looking for. I'm alright with the handle, I tend to choke up and have half the handle against my wrist when working with the tip. Slightly shorter on the height, with a larger flat area?
 
Slightly shorter? No -- actually it's a few mm taller then the DT, which is almost the same blade length. But it is a lot flatter (although with a gentle curve).
 
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