Ben, thanks for the Kochi opportunity. :thumbsup:
OK, I'd list this one in the "mighty gyuto" category with my Yoshikane 240 as reference.
This is a badazz kitchen knife.
Large, solid, and some Japanese rustic mojo mixed with charmed refinement.
Stiff?
Oh, yeah baby. Proverbial railroad track stiff.
But this is a cutter by being fairly thin behind the edge.
Actually, I was expecting it to be a bit thinner there based on descriptions of these.
Very good performance on the board with various root veggies.
Soft tomatos, raw chicken breakdown, and fruits were also easily worked over.
Relatively thick at the top of the spine with a narrowing right off the handle, but after that... really not much distal taper along the top to speak of.
The profile tip makes this unique over the traditional gyuto.
A reverse tanto style point that, in theory, makes for a stronger tip for jab/stab cuts. Really didn't have a use for this until
after the knife has been shipped out and wifey brought home a thick-rinded spaghetti (winter) squash... which would seem to have been an ideal use with the added strength at the tip to start the halving with a stab cut.
Well, either that or poking it into some sheet metal, which I think the Kochi could do with ease.
But the tip itself was also thin enough to be a useful worker on the board.
The knife held some nice cutting sweet spots.
Yes, the profile at the end does sweep a bit, forcing the rocking motion higher at the handle. But I didn't find it to be that distracting, just a bit of getting used to.
Another star was the nicely done, evenly polished bevel.
Fit/finish I'd deem good but not great in comparison to the Yoshi.
Spine is rounded but not evenly and the transition and step-down work to the Kiritsuke tip seemed a bit hurried. Perhaps some more time could have spent here.
Kurochi finish was even, not course or flaky, and appeared to be very stable.
Really liked the charred chestnut handle.
It is not fine sanded or filled- leaving a natural suface texturing that offers really good purchase even when moist.
Some black charring (?) did come off during periodic wipe downs. Perhaps the chestnut has been stained as well...
But the handle IS larger in diameter, quite Bunyanesque. Though it is proportional, imho, to the blade size/weight; it may not be to everyones taste.
A fingernail easily catches on the ferrule to handle meet up. The handle size and horn ferrule matchup could both be easily remedied with some simple DIY sanding.
Steel was lightly reactive and on the polished areas only.
Overall a very nice knife... it would seem the 210mm or 240mm would be seductive models in this line too- for folks looking at kurochi finished "mighty gyutos".
Knife was oiled up, though not sharpened and shipped last week to Kalaeb.
Seemed to hold it's edge just fine for the time I had it.
Came with some small areas of black patina and left with smattering of faint orange (sorry, out of scotch-brite pad).
Ben, a very cool knife and gesture. Thanks again! :knife: