What do you think of the Togiharu brand?

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Korin_Mari

Senior Member
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
1,323
Reaction score
4
Personally, I love my Togiharu Inox knife, but I'm not chopping away for hours in a commercial kitchen nor have I tried a million knives out. I like mine, because it's light and I think it's fairly priced compared to a lot of other knives out there.

A lot of people deem it as a beginner's knife to step up to something better in the future, and many try something else eventually then come back to Togiharu. I realize knifes are always very much a personal preference.

What do you think?

1. Is it cost effective?
2. Is it a good knife in general?
3. What do you like and dislike about it?
4. Would you recommend it?
5. If you have tried it out, which line did you try? (Molybdenum, Inox, G-1, Hammered Damascus, Cobalt Damascus, Carbon?)

Thanks for reading :)
 
I almost made the Togiharu Hammered Damascus with first j-knife purchase when I got started at the sushi bar. I was on a tight budget, and really needed a proper Yanagiba, so I went with a Tojiro DP instead.

I think they are pretty, I don't like the looks of them much anymore, but I can see why people think they are pretty(I used to). The cut well, cause they are thin.
 
I've never tried or even seen one in person. Would like to see how they compare to other knives in their same price range. I work in a heavy prep/production environment and would love to put one/some to the test. hint hint
 
never used one, but my togiharu 1000/4000 combo stone completely fell apart after soaking for 10 minutes, only used it twice. very disappointed
 
I have one that is designated for entry level food preppers. It takes an amazing pounding and does the work just fine.
 
never used one, but my togiharu 1000/4000 combo stone completely fell apart after soaking for 10 minutes, only used it twice. very disappointed

Oh thats annoying. Just out of curiosity, did you soak the entire stone? You're only supposed to soak the medium stone portion, and wet the finishing stone portion. Did it not come with instructions?
 
Oddly enough, I have soaked that one completely the times I have used it and nothing bad happened, so I don't know if yours was a defective one?

Oh thats annoying. Just out of curiosity, did you soak the entire stone? You're only supposed to soak the medium stone portion, and wet the finishing stone portion. Did it not come with instructions?
 
Oddly enough, I have soaked that one completely the times I have used it and nothing bad happened, so I don't know if yours was a defective one?

You're not supposed to, because it can split if you soak the entire thing. It's good that nothing bad has happened yet, but I recommend not soaking the whole thing anymore.
 
no instructions, I soaked the green half, from previous experience using other similar stones, but that didn't help.
 
no instructions, I soaked the green half, from previous experience using other similar stones, but that didn't help.

Did you return it? Note to self no togiharu stones.

BTW, mighty fine of you to take this challenge on Mari. Will be very good for your business in the long run.
 
no instructions, I soaked the green half, from previous experience using other similar stones, but that didn't help.

There is a power outage at Korin, so I'm currently working from home. Ideally what would be the best outcome and do you have a picture of the cracked stone? I believe you, but it is just nice if I could present something to management, especially because Ms. Kawano is in Japan right now.

What I can do immediately is a little bit limited this week... I apologize for this and hope to solve all of these problems as soon as I can. Bare with me. :(
 
That is a strange hassle for a product that is supposed to make something simple.
 
Did you return it? Note to self no togiharu stones.

BTW, mighty fine of you to take this challenge on Mari. Will be very good for your business in the long run.

If you have a problem with a product, our customer service team will be happy to help you. Sometimes there is an approval process or if it's defective we need evidence (photos, ship back, blah blah), but we will do what we can.

Thank you! It is very encouraging to read, and hopefully we can improve. Thanks to all of the feedback from here: management is trying to do something about shipping fees, we now check all of the saya pins before selling, and I just fixed up all of the warnings on all of the sharpening stones (it was there, just hard to read). We had a lot of customer service complaints in 2011, so we changed management, added customer service, and fixed things up in that department. Hopefully, customers will come up, but for right now all I can really do is play clean up.

Thankfully I haven't run into an enormous problem that I can't fix yet. ::knocks on wood:: :)
 
I was looking at these knives. They look pretty good for a starter set. Not being a Korin shopper, I wish there was multiple pics of the product. I went to look at a knife bag and the only pic I could see was the one with the outside of the bag. There was a second pic. but I could not click on it to enlarge. Kinda frustrating. http://korin.com/8pcs-Knife-Bag-Black

I could be wrong too, but I am sure that you could post to that page.

http://korin.com/s.nl
 
I have never used one, but their steel and pricepoint make me think they would make excellent entry level knives for people who want to try out Japanese gyutos that have familiar western elements. The carbon line especially probably represents good value. I daresay that they are better finished than the Tojiro DP line which seems their most obvious competitor.

On the other hand, these get almost no press on the forums. I think we can chalk this up to the Carbonext line, which takes a known and loved quantity (Ichimonji/Kikuichi TKC) and markets it as a rebranded knife at a significant discount. This effectively puts great geometry and a beloved (if unknown) steel in the "entry" price category, and having used a TKC as well as some of the "entry" caliber knives such as the Tojiro and the Fujiwara stainless line, there's absolutely no comparison.

I guess that's a question for you folks at Korin: how do you want customers to see the Togiharu? What sets it apart from its competitors? I'm often asked to recommend a sub-$150 western-style Japanese gyuto to people, and wonder what you see as this knife's strongest selling points.
 
There is a power outage at Korin, so I'm currently working from home. Ideally what would be the best outcome and do you have a picture of the cracked stone? I believe you, but it is just nice if I could present something to management, especially because Ms. Kawano is in Japan right now.

What I can do immediately is a little bit limited this week... I apologize for this and hope to solve all of these problems as soon as I can. Bare with me. :(

no worries, I bought the stone a few months ago and haven't gotten around to bringing it in, about a third of it is completely dissolved and the rest of it is cracked all to hell. Mostly on the 4k side and a few cracks on the 1k side. later this week I'll send you pics, so you can see it.
thank you, Mari
 
Back
Top