Top 5 affordable White Steel #1 gyutos

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Ever since stumbling across a forum discussion about the virtues of white steel #1, I've been looking for a white steel #1 gyuto that 1) not too expensive and 2) is not too thick.

I can't find one. The one's I've seen are very expensive. Hence my question,

What are the Top 5 most affordable white steel #1 gyutos?

(I know affordable is relative, I mean something priced at the lower end of the scale for white steel #1 gyutos)
 
I think Konosuke makes a white #1 gyuto under their premium Fujiwara line. Price wise, Konosuke's tend to be great value so shouldn't be shockingly more expensive than the standard white #2.
 
Any reason why you are looking for white#1 instead of the much more common/available/offered white#2?
 
What are the Top 5 most affordable white steel #1 gyutos?

Carter uses white #1 in his clad knives SFGZ and High Grade (the ones marked with a "W" on the blade, the other ones are AS) . Great cutters but are they affordable?
 
Carter uses white #1 in his clad knives SFGZ and High Grade (the ones marked with a "W" on the blade, the other ones are AS) . Great cutters but are they affordable?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Carter uses AS steel. True the W on his blade is for white #1, but the S on his blade designates Super ie. Blue steel right?
 
Any reason why you are looking for white#1 instead of the much more common/available/offered white#2?


Thanks everyone.

I'm new to this, and the only reason I'm looking for white #1 is the enthusiasm of a number of people on knifeforums.com on how "retarded sharp" white #1 can get.

If you feel that white #2 is fairly close to white #1 in how "retarded sharp" it comes off the stones, perhaps I can modify the original question:

"What are your 5 favorite White #2 gyutos under $300 ? "
 
If you like white and are willing to go shorter, the carter SFGZ series is a good knife with a ****** handle. A funayuki at abut 210 shouldn't run much more than $300-350 in this line. Maybe less.
 
Why spend so much on a knife that wasn't given any attention to detail?
I like Carter, but those knives bug me at many levels.
 
I own a konosuke fujiyama white #1 gyuto and a carter ip white one gyuto, completely different knives, both great knives, both not affordable, I search a lot for white 1 gyuto

there are very very, and not many I would call affordable, but.... you never know, as another thread here mentioned, many times you get what you pay for
 
Why spend so much on a knife that wasn't given any attention to detail?
I like Carter, but those knives bug me at many levels.

I think that's going way overboard. The handle is bad. The handle on many, of not most, very expensive Japanese knives aren't much better stock. The blades themselves are very, very good, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has handled them to argue otherwise. I know Carter has a bad rap with some of you guys, but were talking about a ABS mastersmith generating handforged blades in smallish but reasonable size for less than $400. That's a hell of a deal, in my book, regardless of what you think about the handle. Right now he has a 180 nakiri on his site, high grade series, polished blade, ho handle with buffalo horn ferrule that looks just as good as what one would expect from any of the good Japanese makers, for $360. Find another ABS mastersmith that you could pick up a knife like that if you wanted it at that price TONIGHT. He has a short funayuki available now for less than $175! I think the Carter distaste is way overstated by a lot of you guys.
 
Thus far, I can get white #2 stupidly sharper than the others steels I’ve tried and have read that white #1 get’s even more stupidly sharp w/ better retention. Supposedly, #1 is much harder to work with than #2, so the smiths and knives are likely going to be more higher end. You might want to reach out to Jbroida @JapaneseKnifeImports, iirc he's a big fan of white #1 and may have some insights.
 
Uglyjoe,
I like Carter's "finished" knives quite a bit and he's a big part of why I only sharpen on two/sometimes three grits. I love that he has let us know that we don't need five stones before stropping, assuming you have a stable edge, to have a wicked sharp knife.
In my opinion, he should just sell unhandled rat tail blades (for us to put our own handles on), or his fully finished, breath taking pieces he is capable of.
I would love to own a Carter one day...besides, he's Canadian....
 
Uglyjoe,
I like Carter's "finished" knives quite a bit and he's a big part of why I only sharpen on two/sometimes three grits. I love that he has let us know that we don't need five stones before stropping, assuming you have a stable edge, to have a wicked sharp knife.
In my opinion, he should just sell unhandled rat tail blades (for us to put our own handles on), or his fully finished, breath taking pieces he is capable of.
I would love to own a Carter one day...besides, he's Canadian....

The handles on the SFGZ and KU series knives are just burned in and come off easily. So, you're almost buying an unhandled blade. Considering what the plain handles cost, you might save $5.

On the other hand, the handles on the HG knives are glued/epoxied on and are much more difficult to remove. But the handles are of much better quality.
 
Masamoto does great things with White #2. I'm not thrilled about having put mine up for sale. They aren't, however, at the lower end of the price spectrum, so maybe not your cup of tea.
 
It has always been my understanding that the Japanese don't consider the handle on their kitchen knives that important. It is just something you hold on to while using what hopefully is a finely crafted blade. I also think if Murray only offered rat tailed blades his sales at knife shows to the general public would go down to about zero. That said, I own maybe a dozen Carters and almost all of them have had the handle come off at one time or another. A little bit of super glue and back they go to the block.
 
It has always been my understanding that the Japanese don't consider the handle on their kitchen knives that important. It is just something you hold on to while using what hopefully is a finely crafted blade. I also think if Murray only offered rat tailed blades his sales at knife shows to the general public would go down to about zero. That said, I own maybe a dozen Carters and almost all of them have had the handle come off at one time or another. A little bit of super glue and back they go to the block.

I was/am considering breaking the bank and getting a custom Carter but that last part about all of your Carters' knives having the handle come off at one time or another really bothers me.
 
I'm talking about the lower end "working" grade Carters. The higher end ones have the blade glued/epoxied into the handles. I have both and the higher grade knives have never been a problem. Not sure that is really traditional Japanese though.
 
The tang normally burns its way into the handle, in old school j-knives.
Once again, let's not doubt Carter or his high end blades. The guy makes a mean knife and I would love to own one. However, the "low-end" $200+ knives still bug me.
I would put money on being more than pleased with a custom or pro series, though.
 
Lefty,
You probably need to understand I haven't bought very many Carters in the last decade or so. Not since he emigrated to the U.S. at least. Looking at my block, I see one. The prices weren't that high way back when for the working grade knives. But then, anyone on this forum has a different definition of "high" than the avenge kitchen knife user.
 
I bet the old Carters are pretty cool! You should post some pics of them!
 
i have had MANY MANY carters.....from almost all of his lines.....i would never get a high end blade formmurray today witha handle....i would have someone else make it for me.....i have had too many problems with them......ryan
 

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