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If I recall correctly, Moritaka chukas are very flat indeed. You need a very pure chopping action to avoid the heel or tip digging into your board. If you're okay with that, it might be a good choice; but if you like a little belly on your chuka, then look elsewhere.

You're not going to get many responses expressing yourself in those terms, but I'm curious. The DP is clearly unorthodox: the profile with the double flat spot and the non-conformist wa handle (I quite like the looks of Dan's Western integrals, but I can see why somebody might not like that...

I have a cheapo mag-strip from IKEA or something. Small blades try to shift to horizontal unless blocked and they all rotate easily. But in 5 years, none have ever fallen off or even come close to doing so. It does the job. So yours sounds fine to me, but if you paid a small fortune for it...

When Xoomg can contain his fiery temper, he's the wriest contributor to this forum. I would also like to see Jamie in action. For the performance.

You can get a fabulous edge on a sabatier, very fast, and the profile is perfect, but the edge won't last and it'll always be much more wedgy than a good j-knife.

Wow. I wish I could thin a knife so it looked like that.

I have found that if you give a non-knife-nut one of the thin slicers and a ceramic rod or pull-through sharpener, they are happier and their lives are better than if you give them a gyuto they can't sharpen. Yeah, the edge dulls quickly, but you just swipe it and it's sharp again. And I meant...

Kom kom/kiwi cleaver and ceramic rod. The kom kom is so thin that it just takes a few swipes to be serviceable. I keep one at my my parents' house.

The "office" is a little room that buts onto the kitchen in a grand house. So a couteau d'office is originally the knife used by some kitchen dogsbody, probably to prep vegetables.

Glad you liked it. It's a nice piece of steel for the price.

Basically, the Toyama is a lovely knife and a great cutter, but there's minimal distal taper.

The Moritaka nakiri is too short (though you said 165 might do), but it's utterly flat and within budget. Some people have had problems with overgrinds, but mine works a treat.

Yeah, in my experience, people are astonished and troubled by anything sharp enough to cut paper. I sharpened my sister's knives and left them fairly blunt to be on the safe side. A week later, my brother-in-law was in A&E.

Where do you get kom kom carbon? I thought they only had a stainless line.

I have. I bought one for my father's house and one for my mother's. They can destroy them if they want to, but if they don't, then at least there's something that sort of cuts for the two weeks a year I'm there. I also have a bunka bocho shaped cleavery-thing at home for cutting tarts and pies...

Those structures like "serpent's breath" and wasp's sting" are called kennings. They're a Saxon poetic device. The idea is not to use the actual names of things but a variety of allusions that people can understand and appreciate. So the sea might be called "whale-road" or mist "sea milk". What...

That's the sort of knife I was referring to. When I said they cost next to nothing, I was looking at the Spanish website, where they're 30 euros. It might be worth buying direct rather than through Amazon: http://store.arcos.com/productos/cuchillos/cuchillos-jamoneros/?p=12.

Nice looking knife, but not the budget option. You can get a cheap "cuchillo jamonero" from Arcos. They cost next to nothing and do the job . If you want something nicer, get a fuguhiki.

Iranian rice (tah dig) is the natural home of saffron. Also mughlai korma. Also fabulous in Middle eastern orange cakes which use whole oranges (peel and all). For a more Western take on the spice, try a milky saffron bun. A childish sort of pleasure for a winter weekend.