Picked up my new Itinomonn StainLess kasumi 210 gyuto from DHL. Shipping was very prompt from Maxim and JNS. Knife arrived very well packed, in perfect shape. This post is to share a couple quick, out of the box impressions.
First, the basics: This knife has an unidentified semi-stainless core with stainless cladding, and a ho wood D handle with buffalo horn ferule. It is a middleweight 210, clocking in at 145g. For comparison's sake, a laser 210 like my ginga weighs in at about about 108g. A more heavy duty 210 like the toyama naborikoi kasumi clocks in at about 180g.
One of the things that the itinomonn is known for is preserving some of the more favorable aspects of a 240, even in its 210 variant. That means having a bit more height (46mm) than many 210s, a longer flat spot, as well as a more dramatic distal taper.
I only have the profile pictured here, but Maxim's stock measurements reveal the taper that you can expect out of the 210:
Width of Spine at Handle: 3.5mm
Width of Spine Above Heel: 2.3mm
Width of Spine at Middle: 1.9mm
Width of Spine 1cm from tip: 0.6mm
So you have some meat at the spine, which is what lends this knife its middleweight heft, combined with a super thin tip.
A very pleasant surprise for me was the handle. I'm not generally hot on D handles, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But the handle is very comfortable and has some surprisingly interesting character--some grain in the ho wood, and a touch of marbling on the otherwise black buffalo horn ferule! I had difficulty capturing the marbling with my crappy cell phone, but it has a very nice quality.
Another note about the handle: it is short and light. If you have large hands, it may not be for you. But with small or medium hands, there is a major advantage: the lightness of the handle allows this knife to retain an excellent blade-forward balance; yet another quality typically associated with at least a 240, that you manage to get out of this 210.
And now we get to the grind. From my rather untrained eye, we are looking at a right-hand biased convex grind, which should lend itself to smooth cutting and relatively decent food release. The choil shot reveals more meat in the overall geometry than I was expecting, but my guess is that the choil shot is not a very good depiction of the grind as whole. Given the dramatic longitudinal distal taper on this knife, a snapshot at the heel is likely to be misleading, as it will thin out markedly toward the tip.
Anyway, so far the knife lives up to its reputation, which is a best at the price point (oh yeah, an insanely low $160 US, did I mention that??) mid-weight, which packs a lot of impressive qualities into a 'lil 210.
Gonna put it through the paces this weekend and update accordingly
First, the basics: This knife has an unidentified semi-stainless core with stainless cladding, and a ho wood D handle with buffalo horn ferule. It is a middleweight 210, clocking in at 145g. For comparison's sake, a laser 210 like my ginga weighs in at about about 108g. A more heavy duty 210 like the toyama naborikoi kasumi clocks in at about 180g.
One of the things that the itinomonn is known for is preserving some of the more favorable aspects of a 240, even in its 210 variant. That means having a bit more height (46mm) than many 210s, a longer flat spot, as well as a more dramatic distal taper.
I only have the profile pictured here, but Maxim's stock measurements reveal the taper that you can expect out of the 210:
Width of Spine at Handle: 3.5mm
Width of Spine Above Heel: 2.3mm
Width of Spine at Middle: 1.9mm
Width of Spine 1cm from tip: 0.6mm
So you have some meat at the spine, which is what lends this knife its middleweight heft, combined with a super thin tip.
A very pleasant surprise for me was the handle. I'm not generally hot on D handles, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But the handle is very comfortable and has some surprisingly interesting character--some grain in the ho wood, and a touch of marbling on the otherwise black buffalo horn ferule! I had difficulty capturing the marbling with my crappy cell phone, but it has a very nice quality.
Another note about the handle: it is short and light. If you have large hands, it may not be for you. But with small or medium hands, there is a major advantage: the lightness of the handle allows this knife to retain an excellent blade-forward balance; yet another quality typically associated with at least a 240, that you manage to get out of this 210.
And now we get to the grind. From my rather untrained eye, we are looking at a right-hand biased convex grind, which should lend itself to smooth cutting and relatively decent food release. The choil shot reveals more meat in the overall geometry than I was expecting, but my guess is that the choil shot is not a very good depiction of the grind as whole. Given the dramatic longitudinal distal taper on this knife, a snapshot at the heel is likely to be misleading, as it will thin out markedly toward the tip.
Anyway, so far the knife lives up to its reputation, which is a best at the price point (oh yeah, an insanely low $160 US, did I mention that??) mid-weight, which packs a lot of impressive qualities into a 'lil 210.
Gonna put it through the paces this weekend and update accordingly
