Recommended (and available) stone finished knives

[OkayMode]

I can't find a thread that acts as a resource for people wanting to buy knives that have been finished by hand on stones so thought i'd create one myself.

Not only do they tend to look nice, they're generally a easier to maintain with fewer high and low spots, and require less work to polish.

Used any knives that came finished on stones as stock? Post em here! Reviews and polish shots welcome!

 

[blokey]

Mazaki? I don’t own one so I don’t know, tho I do know Gesshin Heijis are hand finished by the fine folks at JKI, so they come very stone ready.

Funnily some of the flattest bevel I have comes from factories in Seki, Soligen and Yangjiang.

 

[tostadas]

Manaka
Komorebi (sorta, a stone was rubbed on it to differentiate from a media blast finish. But geometry can be much cleaner)
Raquin
Milan

 

[Scott]

I think it’s more common among Western makers- examples include Milan, Nine, Yanick, Halcyon, Comet (if you can find one)

Jiro on J-knives end. Not too sure on many others

Also I’m sure there are many more that I haven’t tried as yet and missed

But the ones I listed are all really good for polishing and performance (from my experience) and make a range of work

 

[tostadas]

Mazaki? I don’t own one so I don’t know, tho I do know Gesshin Heijis are hand finished by the fine folks at JKI, so they come very stone ready.

Funnily some of the flattest bevel I have comes from factories in Seki, Soligen and Yangjiang.

Mazaki seems to be stone finished, but there are still low spots in the bevel on the ones I've had

 

[ZeeVee]

The 9 (good luck)
Halcyon Forge (he has a 230x49 wrought clad available now)
Raquin (good luck)
Milan (good luck)
Yanick (good luck)
Merion Forge (message him on instagram for availablilty)
Bazes (good luck)
Catcheside (Watch his instagram for availability, maybe also message him?)
Joel Black (has regular drops and knives are somewhat attainable)
Heldqvist?
Simon Maillet (regular drops through newsletter, fairly attainable)
Adonis (more rare for him I think)

Do Isasmedjan and Spare stone finish?

 

[mockit]

I think many makers dabble with it even if it is not their calling card. I believe @Illyria does stone-finished work. I think Jonas @ Isasmedjan as well. Anything touched by Ivan the Sharpener aka the Kaiju FM (not that it's available lol).

 

[Matt Jacobs]

Two Sticks Forge ( I think )
I will say I had a Milan and that thing was so easy to sharpen, it took the best edge of any knife I have ever used. I find stone finish VERY desirable and will be watching this thread

 

[NickMinton]

Maxim finishes off a lot of the knives on JNS

 

[mockit]

JKI and JNS will probably both stone finish a knife by request and payment. Potentially Strata as well.

 

[deltaplex]

The low bevels on Unshu come stone ready, watoyamas come more or less stone ready, I believe Takadas are stone ready...

 

[Pie]

Maz might stone finish, but his geometry are kinda wacky. In my example at least. Couple lows and the shinogi is pretty wavy.

At least it’s better than having to convert to your own convex.

 

[shobudonnie]

Mazaki? I don’t own one so I don’t know, tho I do know Gesshin Heijis are hand finished by the fine folks at JKI, so they come very stone ready.

Funnily some of the flattest bevel I have comes from factories in Seki, Soligen and Yangjiang.

All Heijis are finished on jnats

 

[dragjp]

Tadokoro? Haven't got hands on it but looking at his site and ins, it is. @jedy617 what would you say?

 

[blokey]

All Heijis are finished on jnats

The one directly from him does not have a stone ready bevel, there are many people can attest to the experience of hours of bevels flattening.

 

[jedy617]

Tadokoro? Haven't got hands on it but looking at his site and ins, it is. @jedy617 what would you say?

The kasumi definitely isn't blasted. I doubt that it's a full stone polished bevel, probably classic sakai slight concave with a kasumi painted on, but wouldn't know until I try polishing myself

 

[Choppin]

The one directly from him does not have a stone ready bevel, there are many people can attest to the experience of hours of bevels flattening.

true

 

[Markcg]

Interesting, was just talking about this with a retailer this morning.

If talking about bevels that have been worked on at some point with a bench stone, but the final touch is loose abrasive, there are probably a decent number of makers in Japan. I feel like this is a marketing term to mean either the bevels have touched a stone at some point, or even more questionable, that the cutting edge was sharpened with a stone.

If the meaning of a stone finish is both the shape and final look of the bevel done on bench stones without any powders, pastes or other finishing techniques, I’d say there are none coming stock from Japan. Maybe Tsukasa is the closest to a true stone finish- you can see the transitions and putting his single bevel on stones- 0 low spots. Some retailers like Nenohi will shape bevels on their slicers for professional use, but that really isn’t stock.

I’m not trying to take away anything from these wonderful makers- the tradition of bench stone finishing for kitchen knives just isn’t Japanese.

 

[refcast]

Bench stone finishing is more of a single bevel honbadzuke service the knife shop does.

 

[jedy617]

Also havent seen it on here but...

Shigefusa

(oh forgot about the available part, that being said I got a kasumi from JNS, was just online at the right time. They are harder to find but not exactly unicorns, especially the single bevel and KU)

 

[EShin]

Bench stone finishing is more of a single bevel honbadzuke service the knife shop does.

That’s exactly it, and that’s why it’s common to buy knives at reputable shops and not from makers directly.

Tadokoro? Haven't got hands on it but looking at his site and ins, it is. @jedy617 what would you say?

As jedy already said, stones are used but that doesn’t mean their bench stone finished. In fact, very far from it. Still incredible cutters though.

 

[jaydee]

Correct me if I am wrong:
Stone finished bevels, as in flat bevels you can lay flat on the stones,
only have the advantage of being easy to maintain, thin and polish, right?

After what seems like years, I got my Carter to the point of having ~ flat bevels and this kinda perfect triangular section obviously is the perfect wedge and creates lots of suction with dense and wet foods.
The performance of the knife and grind used to be spectacular and now it is like any other good/OK knife.

 

[Neutri]

Doesn't Birgersson finish knives on stone?

 

[blokey]

Doesn't Birgersson finish knives on stone?

The garasuki, yea, his gyutos are concave and no way stone ready.

 

[Hamesjo]

The one directly from him does not have a stone ready bevel, there are many people can attest to the experience of hours of bevels flattening.

I was expecting mine to be that case but it was surprisingly clean and flat. Exceedingly so actually

 

[Neutri]

The garasuki, yea, his gyutos are concave and no way stone ready.

oh okay thanks

 

[blokey]

I was expecting mine to be that case but it was surprisingly clean and flat. Exceedingly so actually

Hmm, interesting, the one I got is noticeable concave

 

[M1k3]

The one directly from him does not have a stone ready bevel, there are many people can attest to the experience of hours of bevels flattening.

Definitely not. I had an example that was decently shaped, but, definitely not stone flattened and even.

 

[Delat]

Adding Adonis Forged Arts; I think his books are open. I believe he offers a couple options - stone-ready (bevel is flattened on stones) and stone-finished (stone-ready plus final finish on stones).

As an aside since I see Catcheside mentioned above - in photos his finish always appears uniquely glossy. How does he achieve that? The section above the shinogi seems too irregular to be stone polished even if the blade road is.

 

[superworrier]

Adding Adonis Forged Arts; I think his books are open. I believe he offers a couple options - stone-ready (bevel is flattened on stones) and stone-finished (stone-ready plus final finish on stones).

As an aside since I see Catcheside mentioned above - in photos his finish always appears uniquely glossy. How does he achieve that? The section above the shinogi seems too irregular to be stone polished even if the blade road is.

The primary bevel (which is small) is supposed to be stone finished.
The section above the shinogi is definitely not stone polished, and shouldn't be. I've been wondering about his finish too. It almost looks like a KU finish that has been buffed or polished but with not with a stiff backing or anything.