My Tojiro DP is struggling against sweet potato/pumpkins, what to do?

[NotAddictedYet]

I recently acquired this Tojiro DP 210mm Gyuto. I use it OOTB and it has not seen any sharpening. It mostly works great, I can slice through lettuce, tomatos carrots, apples, celery etc no problem. However it struggles with "chunkier" veggies like sweet potato, pumpkins etc. I can make a cut with the knife, but it would get very stuck in the veggie midway and it is very difficult to move the knife further. Is this normal? This is my first gyuto so I don't really have a frame of reference.

I am sure the knife edge can be further sharpened, but as far I can tell it is plenty sharp for me. Does the knife just needs to be thinned? What can I expect from this knife in terms of dealing with larger ingredients?

 

[ian]

Yea, thinning is the only thing that'll really help. Tojiros are kind of chunky out of the box. I wouldn't expect it to be stellar on those ingredients as is. It's good it handles carrots and apples ok, though.

Cutting technique can help a bit. There's a temptation with big ingredients to cut straight down, but it's much better to cut with some push/pull. Things will wedge less if you do that. It's true it's hard to do too much of that when the knife is only 210mm though.

 

[M1k3]

Pull cuts on stiff ingredients help. But I'd definitely second thinning the knife. At least the first 5-10mm or so behind the edge.

 

[Carl Kotte]

As already said, thinning is the way to go. I have the DP 240. Good knife, good ootb sharpness but a little thick. (Not that Tojiros are always thick: the Pro series in sg2 steel is thin and nice.) Go for it!

 

[DanDan]

I just thinned a family member's Tojiro right behind the edge on the pink brick and saw a solid improvement in performance. Start right behind and work your way up if needed I say!

 

[Benuser]

Thinning a DP is always a good suggestion. Wouldn't be surprised if it were a fat burr that causes the problem, though. Especially if it never has been sharpened and is still suffering from the factory edge.

 

[dafox]

Could also add a relatively inexpensive knife do use on large hard squash, I use a Victorinox fibrox 10 inch chef knife.

 

[ma_sha1]

Either thin it, or get a laser like already suggested & accept the thin spine, but real long term solution is to upgrade to a Toyama

 

[KenHash]

Definitely thin the DP, it makes an enormous difference. And as others point out, push/pull through vegetables like Kabocha. Do not force straight down. The Tojiro R2 powder steel series need no thinning at all, a completely different experience.

 

[Ruso]

Apparently its Tojiro Dont Penetrate

 

[NotAddictedYet]

Thanks everyone, off to watch Jon's thinning video and practice push pull cutting.

but real long term solution is to upgrade to a Toyama

Is this how KKF initiate newbies like me?

 

[Benuser]

Have sharpened quite a bit of DPs. Nothing wrong with it. Have seen knives of four times the price that needed much more work out of the box before only getting usable. Remarkable the OP could use the factory edge that long.

 

[Carl Kotte]

Fwiw I was surprised by the factory edge on my DP; it was much better than I expected. I have thinned mine quite a bit and now it’s a great cutter.