What were your first high performance knife choices?

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Those are some great handles. Normally I dont really care for black and white ebony, but those scales are really nice. And that is one of the better two tone handles I have seen. The woods look great together, not too different, not too similar. And I like the wide space double mosaics. Are there hidden pins as well?
 
New West Knifeworks 8" chef, a gift from a customer of mine, a MAC Superior santoku, Moritaka 240 gyuto, Konosuke 150 petty, and just this week a 1303 CCK cleaver and a Tojiro nakiri. I am developing a strange fondness for flat-edged knives :)
 
My first rather expensive knives were some henckels. Moved on to what I'm using now: Hiro AS and Fujiwara petty. Gonna get me some more soon haha
 
Bought a few Globals before thankfully I saw the light and stopped. Tojiro DP were my first decent knives, then Hattori then Masamoto and a few others
 
I had a whole kit of German blades, when I was introduced to the Mac over a dozen years ago. I've purchased many a Mac blade in my day. I also ventured into the Kyoceras, which I still use in my home, and still like, despite many peoples despise. I jumped to a 300mm Tojiro Pro, which I still use and love; which pushed me to try the Tojiro Flash line, which I'm not such a fan of; weird geo/ profile/ balance. I picked up a couple of the popular hammered damascus blades, and then was gifted a Takeda, which brought me to the world of hand crafted higher ended Jknives; Yoshihiro, Yoshikane, Moritaka, Watanabe, CCK, Sakai Yusuke, Togiharu, Konosuke. I think next I will get into customs, and/or a Mizu Honyaki.... they've caught my eye as of late.
 
First, I admit, I have obsessions! I was lurking around Voldemart's forum and heard magic names bandied about: Takeda, Hiromoto, Hattori, Tadatuna, Yoshigane.
Then all of the types: Gyuto, Nakiri, Suji, petty.

And, of course, I HAD to have one of each. So in the space of about 6 months I dived head first.

Bought a Gyuto: Takeda 240
Then another one: Tadatuna Wa 240 white steel
Of course I had to have a Hattori Gyuto...240.
Had to have a Nakiri: Takeda Banno Bunka. And another, Yoshigane
Then heard of a cache of Solid white steel #2 knives made many years ago....bought a 2nd, a 240.
As of today, that 2nd Hiromoto solid white steel is the BEST overall knife in my kitchen. I think I paid $97 with the stipulation that I couldn't return it as it was a 2nd.

And then the fever left me.....but then again, I found you guys again on THIS forum. Maybe a Devin Thomas in the future?
 
As a starving student, I found a rusty old Old Hickory 8" chef's in the basement of the house I was renting. Cleaned it up on a wire wheel and it was my knife for a couple of years.

I then bought a "box lot" of kitchen odds & ends at an auction which included a very old Wusthof 8" chef's (Sabatier/french style - virtually no belly) missing half of one handle rivet - it became my go to knife for years. I eventually acquired a fairly complete set of Wusthofs, although I rarely used anything other than the original chef's knife.

I then became intrigued by the Shun knives I was seeing at BB&B & picked up a wooden boxed set of 3 Shun Pro's including a Deba & two yanagis. I had no experience with single bevel knives, so my curiosity led me to the site which shall not be named.

Being a bottom feeder by nature, I started picking up other people's cast offs. My first acquisition was a Misono Swedish carbon 210 gyuto followed by a Konosuke 240 Swedish stainless gyuto, a Hiro Shiki 120 damascus petty, a Kumogoro blue #2 hammered 165 nakiri, and most recently a Nenox type G 240 gyuto.

Most of the Wusthofs went on Craigslist - except for the original 8" chef's - which I'm still quite fond of.

Since the Nenox is the newest, it's currently getting the most use while I get used to it, but I think the Misono is going to end up being my "go to" knife.

I think I'm good for awhile.

James
 
Korin 300mm Yanagiba / Masamoto 180mm Usuba Love both ! Before that a cheap ss yanagiba, but learned to sharpen on that:thumbsup2:
 
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Hope that link from FB works....

Dillard's low-end Henckel's 8" Chefs, ~1997
Masamoto VG10 210mm Gyuto, 2009 (thanks Cook's Illustrated!)
Suisin Inox Honyaki Gyuto 240mm (thanks to this forum + a buncha hours)

Very seriously eyeing the Gengetsu wa-petty 150mm in stainless clad white #2 from JKI right now....more of a when than if, really. :doublethumbsup:

The Henckel's was my first proper knife and I got a lot of hours out of it.

I ran across the Masamoto Gyuto from a cook's illustrated article...I had researched jknives before, but only knew about deba/suji/etc. and those were way more than I was willing to pay, esp for such narrow use items so I had given up on having a jknife in the kitchen until this article. This knife was a huge eyeopener...I was amazed for 2+ years at how this thing cut...even w/o sharpening it in 2 years. Just the geometry was such a huge advance over the Henckel's.

I started teaching some cooking classes for the local university extension office--2 hour demo type things--which created a very small income for kitchen goodies...which is how I summoned up the courage to spend the dough on the Suisin. I was pretty shocked to have my eyes opened all over again with this. I'm now sharpening my Masamoto to build skills to sharpen this w/o killing it.

I'm looking to the Gengetsu as a "beginner's introduction to carbon"...and hoping the patina behind the stainless cladding will be as cool as my imagination.

I'm also starting a program of giving away my older knives as I acquire newer ones...I need to avoid a collection--even if I fail to avoid acquisition. (is it just me or did that sound like a reluctant Ferengi?)
 
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Compared to the crappy knives I grew up using at home, and the even crappier knives I had after moving out, the knives with which I started my married life were a definite move sideways. My first real upgrades were the 8-inch Henckels slicer and 3½-inch Sabatier parer (my first real carbon blade). But the biggest leap up was this year when I brought the Masamoto KS 270 gyuto home with me from Tokyo.
 
This year I bought a Suisin Inox Western 240 Gyuto and 150 petty. The petty handle was too small for my hand so I recently just sold it. Purchased the Inazuma 150 petty from JCK and so far I like it very much. I think it's a good bang for your buck knife. Now on the hunt for a suji. Also thinking about a rehandle for my Suisin gyuto.
 
They might not be some of the high end j-knives but they were nice upgrades over the Calphalon and Tools of the Trade knives I had.
 
I inherited a motley crew of old Sab's some 20 plus years ago, which served me well for many many years. Then two years ago my wife, who at the time knew nothing about knives, found Koki on line and bought me a Hattori damascus Gyuto for a gift. That opened my eyes and the proverbial floodgates....
 
I spent years with Henckels and a cheap stainless Chinese cleaver. Then, earlier this year, I got a CCK 1303, a Tojiro white #2 petty, and a Fujiwara FKM petty, along with some water stones. I should have done this years ago! I LOVE the CCK, rustic looks and all. I mean, it looks like a lawnmower blade... but it cuts great, sharpens easily, and I actually really like the handle. The Tojiro is nice, too- that white steel does love to get sharp! But I'm not so hot on the handle. Next up- a nice wa gyuto. It'll be interesting to see if I'm a gyuto guy or a cleaver guy. I'm leaning cleaver, but I've never had a nice gyuto. The largest knife I had in my Henckels stuff was a 6" "chef" which was pretty much good for nothing.
 
I started Culinary School Last year graduated oct they gave me full Mac Set.
I then saw on craiglist a Corian Dupoint Nenox Gyuto and Sujihiki for 350 I went to see they guy he threw in the Corian petty.
I took it and went home happy months later

I just bought last week

Hiromoto Tenmi Jyuraku Limited Edition Gingami No.3 Damascus Gyuto 240mm.

Also bought the

Konosuke Petty Sakura etched 150 mm.

Arriving Monday will be

Suisin Hayate Limited Edition Kiritsuke on korin.

Haha I love knives I am in search for Hattori Kd knife or cowry x steel knife been trying for couple months :O.
 
Welcome Autobot! Sounds like you have some nice blades!
 
My first Japanese knife was a Hattori KD santoku. That was 11 years ago.
 
My first was a Tanaka nakiri in R2. Stunning knife that made me feel like I could do things I never could before.
 
My first step up from random crap and kiwi knives was a tojiro santoku, followed by shun and global. They were certainly big steps up performance wise, but my first introduction to how good a knife can be probably came from my 27cm carbonext; still a great product line.
 
My first was shun ken onion>Kikuichi vg-10>shun kramer>Konosuke >.................>now :yatta: Yoshikane SLD
 
The one that got me onto Japanese knives was a mac utility. My first high perfOrmance was a 210 mm carbonext gyuto.
 
I've already told about my progression from cheap, bad knives to a couple of decent European knives and finally to high-performance Japanese blades. But people laugh and roll their eyes when I admit that my real eye-opener knives were a couple of <$10 KAI PureKomachi 2 "colored" knives (serrated/bread and santoku). I use the bread knife every day; the santoku I've used maybe three times -- it's now the wife-knife.
 
Not exactly "high performance" but,6" Kasumi boner and 7" santoku..
 
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