TC Blades 24cm wa-gyuto. Rosewood and ebony handle w/ copper space, 01 steel (pretty sure it's mono-steel), acacia wood saya which fits pretty much perfectly, supplied with a nifty silk bag too. Don't have anything on hand to measure with so I'm just guessing here; 3mm spine at the heel, next to no taper, about 45mm (?) height from heel to spine, 243g. Probably about the best I can do at the moment.
Some brief thoughts on sharpening. Ootb, the edge looked decent, just a little patchy in place so I thought I could probably get away with a few passes on my kitayama, but that seemed to do f' all. Started again with a shapton GS 500, 1k, 4k then kitayama. Actually raised a burr faster than expected, steel polishes up not too bad either, however the burr is an absolute brute to remove. I've never used 01 before so it could just be about getting my head around the steel, but I found it significantly harder than any carbon or stainless steel I've used so far (white 2, blue 1, VG-10, global crap, misono swedish, sab carbon, etc..). It's hard to tell, but I think there's still a little bit of a burr in places on it.
Profile and geometry:
Profile is awesome, feels somewhat similar to my sabs. Nice gentle curve, with plenty of flats (hope that makes sense). Geometry...well, I'm a little confused by that at the moment. It's thick as hell behind the edge, but cut some potatoes nicely though it was possibly the worst knife I've ever used to dice an onion. Slicing tomatoes was pathetic, but it push-cut through them effortlessly, easily push cuts paper, not shaving hair on my arm at all. I was gonna take it into work tomorrow to put it through it's paces, but I think I'll keep it at home for a bit longer. I reckon I'll probably have to invest in some time in tinkering with it before I find what works best.
Overall opinion for now:
I'm happy with it and think it's worth what I paid for it. Profile is great, handle is very comfortable and well fitted, saya is beautiful, spine and choil ain't too bad. I reckon it'll always be sh*t on root veg, but should fair well on fish, meat and soft veg. Should make for an interested project over the next few weeks until I'd get it where I want it. Plus, it looks pretty!
I'll post relevant thoughts further down the line.
Cheers,
Josh
I've got another gyuto and some stones on the way too, so I think I'll need to lay off for a bit; think I'm up to 5 new knives this year....planning to sell some stuff, so maybe after that.....
