When is price justified to buy a custom handle/saya/sharpening?

Hello all, noobie here,

I'm curious if there is a certain price point that you justify yourself to get custom handles, sayas, and if you're not good at sharpening, a custom sharpening job?


I was curious, as a noobie, if getting a custom sharpening, OOTB(Unless the knife will be really good OOTB), that I should maybe get it professionally done?

I was thinking that if I know the feel of "how it should be" then when I do it myself, and learn to sharpen, I will try to get that same "feeling" once again, and that will help me with sharpening, imo.

I'm curious if anyone else has any opinions on this, and think it's a good idea, or not? I guess that also means I need to find someone who is really good, because if I find someone who doesn't do a good job, then I'm SOL, and am copying bad technique...

So thoughts on this?

ALso curious, at what point do you get a Custom Saya/Handle? I think that a custom Handle would be nice on some knives, but not too sure what price point. DO you do it ona knife that is expensive, or a knife that you really love, regardless of price, and want to make it even betteR?

Thoughts?

Thanks all

I like your way of thinking regarding sharpening. Having a good example should definitely help.

As for the handles, I think there could be diffident motives. Sometime you can find a good Japanese knife that is fairly cheap. But with some basic work applied and with new handle it can became a great knife.
Another reason for custom handles is a simple desire to make knife look a bit fancier. Let's say you bought stock Shigefusa guyto. It's nice, but imagine that same blade having Mike Henry handle and it immediately became awesome.

Or maybe you are going to make a special present for someone, so a matching custom handle and saya would really make the knife unique.

Or maybe (just maybe) you always wanted a knife with pink Hello Kitty handle. You'd be hard pressed to find such a knife in stock anywhere... while there is one guy on this forum who could help you with all embarrassing handles desires

Thanks for the tips. I'm getting a few knives as a gift, and was thinking about custom handles, but since they are the first "real knives" the person will be using, and have no prior sharpening experience, I figured that customs might not be a good idea right now, but maybe later.

As for sharpening, yeah, I thought it was a good idea to get it done first, since I hear so many "OOTB" complaints, but the knives I am getting might not have that issue... Still, would be god to jhave it pre-sharpened.

Does anyone on here do that, or does Jon @ JKI sharpen for us if we buy from his site?

Thanks

i sharpen for people when they ask me to

JBroida said:

i sharpen for people when they ask me to

Click to expand...

Thanks, do you think that people should get their knives pre-sharpened first when they are new to this all?

Thanks, maybe I'll take advantage of that offer, thank you . Not to decide what to buy .

LasagnaBurrito said:

Thanks, do you think that people should get their knives pre-sharpened first when they are new to this all?

Thanks, maybe I'll take advantage of that offer, thank you . Not to decide what to buy .

Click to expand...

I think it also depends a lot on the knife, if you buy knives from more reputable sellers like Jon, he ensures they have a great edge on them and you can ask him to throw an edge on their done by him with his expertise. When you buy cheaper knives, the factory edge sometimes may not be as good, and if you aren't super comfortable with sharpening having a pro throw on a good base edge helps.

Jon sharpened my kochi knife before sending it out. Didn't know it was an option before.
Until that purchase I didn't care much for ootb sharpness since I figured I was gonna put my own edge on the knife anyway, but this knife came so sharp I've been just stropping on balsa wood with chemical it and has not even hit the stone yet after two months. Just awesome.

I don't think the justification is based just on cost. I'm getting a handle made for a Shig KU Nakiri that's gonna cost about the same as the knife itself. This is going to be special though following the rationale of icanhaschzbrgr

When is price justified to buy a custom handle/saya/sharpening?

Handle/Saya--when you're pretty sure you'll be keeping the knife.

Sharpening--If you purchase from Jon and have it sharpened you will know how sharp the knife can be made--a goal if you wish for your sharpening journey.

Thanks all, much appreciated on the comments.

I should have made the title "When is it justified to buy a ...." instead of putting "price" in there, since, as some mentioned, it might not be about price.

Thanks all

LasagnaBurrito said:

Thanks, do you think that people should get their knives pre-sharpened first when they are new to this all?

Thanks, maybe I'll take advantage of that offer, thank you . Not to decide what to buy .

Click to expand...

it depends... i prefer to do it myself when buying things and a lot my customers feel the say way. But for those who dont, it can be nice to have it done for you. Either you will end up doing it as soon as you receive it or have someone do it before shipping. OOTB stock edges are rarely great.

I don't think there's anything wrong with rehandling a cheap knife that works well... lots of sexy forgecrafts out there to back that statement up. Also I think alot of people here would consider the Hiromoto Tenmi Jyuraku AS with dave's care package a worthwhile buy, and I think 180USD is really on the low end for a decent carbon 240

I think the handle/ saya replacement it's worth it regardless of cost if you like the knife and will be keeping it long term.

As for sharpening, I always like to have knives sharpened prior to delivery (especially Japanese knives) so that the bevels are properly set and I have a guide to follow.