Sorry for the late feedback, I was planning on posting my first time user experience 2 days ago, then I got distracted by work.
Before you read the feedback below, please consider that I am only a hobbyist home cook, my reviews only speak for myself. The knife has been around working hard for few month now, the bevels might not speak true as if it was right out of the box.
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I will describe my first time user experience as shocking.
The knife performed excellent against soft protein and veggies. Especially during push cuts, you can go through large chunks of beef with ease. The 275mm cutting edge with extra long flat belly definitely helped.
On harder surface veggies like Carrots and Leeks however, the performs was shockingly poor. As I have to push for it to cut through.
My first impression of this knife can be summarized as:
The look:
A good looking KU gyuto, feels great and balance well in hand. I haven't used a 270mm blade for a while, so this was a big knife for me.
The cut:
Jiro cuts soft proteins and veggies very well. The knife has difficult time to cut through harder objectives like Carrots and leeks.
The blade geometry and design:
I like the extra flat bevel for push cuts, I didn't get to use the tip much but 1 onion. To use the tip on this 275mm beast, I had to raise the heel off the cutting board for about 9mm, on a 240mm shige I will only need to bring up 6.5mm. With my kitchen table setting at 90mm off the ground and I am 5'8ish (175cm) tall, it was not very convenient for me to use. However I believe this is more so a 270mm vs 240mm kind of deal than Jiro.
The bevel on this Jiro for sure will need to be thinned. If I own this knife and had the option to thin it down on the stone for an hour, it will be a totally different beast.
Is it worth the price?
the 270mm knife might not do it justice, as in many way (other than push cutting large chunk of meat) I didn't find the length comfortable.
If you would ask me base on my own usage, rather I will pay for the price today, I will say no.
However it's a cool knife, there are many things Jiro is doing great at. I think if you priced the knife right, one day it can get there in the 800 range, but to start at 850 is a far reach.
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I personally believe that the blade needs to be thinned. If you run your thumb along the bevel from edge to spine you will feel a big hump? and it's pretty thick behind the edge. The bevel is designed like an Axe (quoting someone on KKF
) seems like its designed for heavy use.
To confirm the under performance wasn't caused by deviation of the testing subjects and edge sharpness, I performed the actions below:
1. I compared the cuts with 4 other gyutos; 220 Tsourkan, 240 Shige, 240 Munetoshi honyaki, 240 Toyama SS. They all performed well against the same carrots and leeks.
2. I repeat test 1 on a different carrot, result the same.
3. I touched the blade up on fine stone after getting Kevin's approval and repeat test 1. result got little better on the Jiro but I would still consider as poor.
In this photo below you will see where the carrot start to resist the bevels.
In this photo you can see where the carrot completely stopped the bevels.
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So I am planning on shipping the knife out on Friday to the next member.
If you guys believe I did something wrong here or there are more you want me to try, please advice.
I would love to consider.
