Edit to clarify: The prices listed in the headings are the price I paid and a stat I consider useful (might try to go back and add purchase dates if I can sort that out). I will be selling some of these knives later, and will probably link back to my thoughts here, but this is not a for-sale thread and I am selling nothing here in this post. This is solely to review the knives as it makes them easy to compare to each other and I don't feel all of them really warrant an individual review post. If I leave anything out that you want to know about a specific knife, feel free to ask, I'll do my best to get it added.
This is the list of knives I plan on reviewing in this thread (in no particular order).
1. shihan aebl petty
2. takada reika
3. yoshimi echizen
4. irongull carbon
5. hitohira ashi
6. msicard magnacut petty
7. hvb carbon
8. geshin kagero
9. hado junpaku
10. ryusen blazen
A couple years ago, when I was first getting into knives I'd heard some whispers about a maker, "Shihan". Taking a quick look at his website, my first impression was "These are beautiful, but I'm never spending that much on a knife!" Anyways, I kept hearing about how wonderful his work was, and I kept drooling over his knives, until one day I decided I had to see if his work was actually worth the money. So I bought a petty, expensive but still about half the price of his other knives, to see if he lived up to the hype. He certainly did, I know own 3 of his knives, all of them a pleasure to use. It also sparked an interest in petties and other knives breaking me out of my gyuto craze. So like any hobbyist, I bought a bunch of them, used them, and eventually reviewed them.
1. Shihan 150mm petty in AEB-L. $280
This is the list of knives I plan on reviewing in this thread (in no particular order).
1. shihan aebl petty
2. takada reika
3. yoshimi echizen
4. irongull carbon
5. hitohira ashi
6. msicard magnacut petty
7. hvb carbon
8. geshin kagero
9. hado junpaku
10. ryusen blazen
A couple years ago, when I was first getting into knives I'd heard some whispers about a maker, "Shihan". Taking a quick look at his website, my first impression was "These are beautiful, but I'm never spending that much on a knife!" Anyways, I kept hearing about how wonderful his work was, and I kept drooling over his knives, until one day I decided I had to see if his work was actually worth the money. So I bought a petty, expensive but still about half the price of his other knives, to see if he lived up to the hype. He certainly did, I know own 3 of his knives, all of them a pleasure to use. It also sparked an interest in petties and other knives breaking me out of my gyuto craze. So like any hobbyist, I bought a bunch of them, used them, and eventually reviewed them.
1. Shihan 150mm petty in AEB-L. $280
Tip to heel of handle: 285mm
Tip to heel of blade: 150mm
Tip to handle: 165mm
Weight: 77 grams
Thickness out of handle 3.1mm
Thickness 1cm away from tip .9mm
Heel height: 28.7mm
This is a great knife. Early in my collecting I had decided I was only really interested in carbon steels, this largely still holds for all knives that don't fall into the category of petty. But the utility of this particular knife is spectacular and the stainlessness adds to the usefulness here. It was the one knife I just never had to worry about. From opening packages to cutting citrus, even letting people who aren't really knife people but want to try something off the rack. I've used this to pit avocado's before, though I've stopped that now. I have 4 kids so I'm constantly cutting up fruits/veggies for snacks, and I'm also often pulled away from the board for small emergencies. It's easy to forget this knife and leave it out sitting wet in some fruit juice... no problem. This knife pretty much serves all purposes up until you are limited by it's size. The thermory ash handle still looks and feels as good as it did day 1. I originally thought it was a little on the slim side, but I adjusted to that pretty quickly. I also thought the choil looked pretty thick on arrival. Again this ended up not being a problem. I've not yet needed to thin this, but I've sharpened it several times. Honestly, this was one of the first few knives I learned to sharpen on, and it was one of the first knives that made me feel like I knew what I was doing (even when I didn't). The steel is easy to sharpen and maintain, quick to touch up and burr removal is easy unlike other stainless I've worked on. I think I might have rolled the edge once, but I suspect that was more my sharpening then anything else. If you know anything about shihan's you know the F&F is top notch. The spine/choil are rounded, the handle is pretty much perfectly centered and straight. I probably used this 3 or more times a day for going on about 2 years, the thought of wanting to thin this is what really prompted me to look for an alternative. If you get a chance, buy one of these, mine is staying on my rack.
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) who said it was NIB purchased from Carbon Knife Co. I was excited as it was my first carbon petty and I was looking forward to developing a nice patina on it. Unfortunately it's just not that reactive. Pictures show the patina as it stands currently and that's after using it on all the stuff that usually leaves a nice patina (sausages, banana's, strawberries, etc). The handle is nice and well done, but I personally believe it's too large/heavy for this blade and puts the balance point at the ferrule and seems to dwarf the blade. Blade has a decent amount of convexity for it being a petty. Not sure exactly what it is, but in comparison to my 210 Takada suiboku, this blade feels more sturdy? Definitely feels a little thicker and almost feels like a different steel. Edge retention is decent for a simple carbon steel, used it for over a month before I needed to touch it up. Profile has a little more belly then I'd prefer and the blade length is a little shorter then I'd like personally. Fit and Finish is well done with the standard Takada choil rounding. Here again the size gets me, I wished there was more space between the handle and the heel of the blade.
