jacko9
Senior Member
Anybody have experience with this knife? Is it worth the price compared to similar or compatible offerings?
Jack
Jack
I'll disagree with what's been said so far. I've just had one Kono Fujiyama (Blue2 240mm) but was not a big fan. Yes, a 'nice blade' but one I think that's made above all to look good with its nice finish and wide bevels and clear straight shinogi.
You'd think it'd be an easy knife to maintain, just thinning along the wide bevel and then tending to the edge. The wide bevel and clear, uniform shinogi are machined and polished on, however, and do not reflect the real contours/geometry, which come out as soon as you put it to the stones along the wide bevel. The one I had was ground irregularly, kind of like you'd expect with a cheap KU nakiri. The front of the blade was especially bad, with the natural shinogi waving toward the tip away from the superficial shinogi and bevel curing upward to the spine. (The problems were more so on the front/right side of the blade where geometry features more, rather than the flatter back.)
The blade also didn't cut well and needed thinning. (I wasn't the first owner and maybe previously only the edge had been sharpened, with no thinning to maintain geometry. (However, I think the knife was only used lightly before and when I had it it was not very different from being new.) Thickness was more pronounced toward the front half of the blade, I thought, which was too thick and had extra steel/mass. I felt if more effort had been put into creating the right taper and getting the geometry right, instead of a snazy polished wide bevel + shinogi, with too much thickness left above the shinogi, then you'd have a better knife.
Overall, my impression is these are overrated/overpriced for what they are, designed to look good and appeal to international buyers who go for a good finish, polished spines, etc. The performance was disappointing and, if you look to thin as you go and maintain geometry over time, not just sharpen the edge, while still trying to keep a knife that's supposed to look good looking good (ie. without grind problems revealled, and with that uniform shinogi maintained which isn't possible when the grind is irregular) then this knife would be a pain. :bat:
I've heard the Heiji's are flat but I've not had one of those.
..have you sharpened the Syousin yet? Just wondering if the bevel is flat or if it takes a couple of times on the stones to get them really flat. (they are sand blasted so it's hard to tell.)
Heijis are slightly concave on the wide bevel...though in my experience very consistent.
For wide bevel sharpening, I don't have a lot of experience. I had a Kochi stainless clad 240 gyuto and used it quite often. It started to lose its cutting magic so I decided to embark on this style of sharpening. First couple of attempts were not that stellar. I did notice the concave grind to the bevel. So I started to mess around with that and ended up leveling it out a bit. This did bring back some of that Kochi Magic, but not entirely.
You'd think it'd be an easy knife to maintain, just thinning along the wide bevel and then tending to the edge. The wide bevel and clear, uniform shinogi are machined and polished on, however, and do not reflect the real contours/geometry, which come out as soon as you put it to the stones along the wide bevel. The one I had was ground irregularly, kind of like you'd expect with a cheap KU nakiri. The front of the blade was especially bad, with the natural shinogi waving toward the tip away from the superficial shinogi and bevel curing upward to the spine.
Have you seen or handled any others, or heard from other Fujiyama owners? I guess what I'm wondering is if this is standard for the line, or if you just happened to get a one-off dud?
I had one but wasn't 100% in love w/ it so I sold it. After I sold it I started to regret it, go figure. But then I got a 240 Blue #2 Syousin Sakura, in fact I think I was the first one to jump on this newer line earlier this year when James released it. I put it up against the Kono 240 I sold to a buddy of mine and we both agreed the Sakura is a much better performer.
Take in mind that was just our thoughts, and for what it's worth that same buddy of mine still has and uses the Kono on a regular basis. I doubt he'll ever sell it.
I have a pair, suji and gyuto.
They are my favorite knives!
The steel is a joy to sharpen and polish! It does patina from time to time, which is easily solved with a rust eraser and some slurry off a polish stone.
In my opinion, it is a very competent knife, i have no complaints about these 2 konosukes.
Are those the kono white 2 steel? How you like the edge retention on those? My white 2 loses edge pretty fast!
Enter your email address to join: