• If you have bought, sold or gained information from our Classifieds, please donate to Kitchen Knife Forums and give back.

    You can become a Supporting Member which comes with a decal or just click here to donate.

WTS 240mm Honyaki White Steel Gyuto, Ebony Handle and Saya

Shop Knives and stones on ebay
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
R

refcast

KKF Supporting Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2018
Messages
2,071
Reaction score
4,212
278g
50mm tall
3.8mm spine
2.5mm spine near tip (doesn't get that thin)

Saya is friction fit and 150g. Knife goes almost all the way in, with 5mm or so more to go before. It gets very tight at this point
Supposed to be Sakai made white steel
Smith and sharpener are unknown
Unknown if Oil or water quench
Choil eased for a right hander
Two silver colored metal rings on handle, not sure the material
Lefty bias grind for some weird reason
(Left side has eased shinogi, right is flattish)
Distal taper not that strong

Scratch on the front most ring, and part of the handle.
Some tiny vertical scratches on the blade
Has a bevel set from the sharpener but it looks obtuse and doesn't feel completely sharp

$610 (yes, really. . .but that's why I don't know any more info about the knife, and I got it secondhand)

PXL_20211004_201116732.jpg
PXL_20211004_201147759.jpg
PXL_20211004_201336894.MP.jpg
PXL_20211004_201345352.jpg
PXL_20211004_201357605.jpg
PXL_20211004_201406133.jpg
PXL_20211004_200928759.jpg

PXL_20211004_201454495.jpg
 
Last edited:
This looks like a Shiraki Hamono (Nakagawa made) honyaki from aframes.

I know the blue1 honyakis from that run had a stamp, maybe the white steels didn’t
 
The handle is one of the nicest I've handled . . . and so is the saya. The saya is exceptionally nice. . . will take pictures. It seems to have carnuba wax of some kind. Pin fit is really good, too.
 
Tempting for sure, shame about lefty bias grind. Weird I look on aframes and even the white steel honyaki usually has kanji on it. Hmm.
 
If you're concerned about handedness, dm. I thinned and re mirror polished a really honyaki gyuto before to near laser in taper and grind and can explain more by message. It is a pain, but I can do something to lesser extent on this knife for a modest bit more if it will make the sale. The saya might not friction fit any more, but it gets tight at the spine at the handle with a little more to go it still may be good. I made a very assymetrical knife quite symmetrical. The grind is quite convex on this so there's a lot to work with.
 
Last edited:
refcast said:
If you're concerned about handedness, dm me . I thinned and re mirror polished a really honyaki gyuto before to near laser in taper and grind. I can do something to lesser extent on this knife for a modest bit more if it will make the sale . The grind is quite convex so there's a lot to work with.
Click to expand...
God it's tempting, I would definitely jump on it if I didn't pick up a shiraki 270 recently. Will definitely think about it.
 
Preminary edge taking so far is good.. around wat honyaki but i'd need to sharpen more to confirm. Not as hard as Mizuno honyaki, but I like the edge taking more so far. Mizuno seemed to emphasize retention
 
Last edited:
I just realized this is a BST thread. I hope the Mod can remove any clutter I may have caused.

Beautiful honyaki!! If I had more time it would be a neat one to polish. Also that choil does not look to be left favorable to me.

GLWS!!!!
 
Midsummer said:
So when you go to the Aframes honyaki page and it says here is the smith who made this blade. And then they link to a video of Shiraki in the forge, they have deceived the customer?

https://www.aframestokyo.com/tesshu-mizu-honyaki-wa-gyuto-210mm-blue-ii-steel-chef-kn210.html
And when they later talk of Mr Kenchi Shiraki as the smith; they are again misleading us?

I have two of these blades and I would be disappointed to find out that I have been deceived.

Thank you for your response!
Click to expand...
It's been known for the past couple years before shiraki retired that Nakagawa did lots of the knives coming out of the shop, especially honyaki. Regardless, they still have shiraki stamps on them. If it's good enough for shiraki it's good enough for me. This is how lots of the shops are ran
 
Midsummer said:
I am very aware of the apprentice Nakagawa. What I am not aware of is Aframes distortion of the truth. Thanks.
Click to expand...
The video in question is 7 years old. It could very well be that shiraki himself made them. I don't know much about aframes but I think they have been around for a long time and I'm sure that when they started selling/wrote the description they were all shiraki himself. Doesn't really sound malicious, they are still all shiraki knives.
 
Midsummer said:
So when you go to the Aframes honyaki page and it says here is the smith who made this blade. And then they link to a video of Shiraki in the forge, they have deceived the customer?

https://www.aframestokyo.com/tesshu-mizu-honyaki-wa-gyuto-210mm-blue-ii-steel-chef-kn210.html
And when they later talk of Mr Kenchi Shiraki as the smith; they are again misleading us?

I have two of these blades and I would be disappointed to find out that I have been deceived.

Thank you for your response!
Click to expand...
Aframes isn’t misleading anyone.

The original Tesshu line blades from 6 or 7+ years ago were made by Shiraki-san himself. Those blades were sold out a very long time ago. Since then Nakagawa-san has been making Shiraki hamono’s blades and has recently setup a shop under his own name.
 
Was requested exact length

heel to tip: 230mm
handle to tip: 246mm

If there's any interest in a thinned, more symmetrical, and more polished version of this knife, please message me. . . takes a bit of effort to thin a honyaki
 
Last edited:
Can I know why the polish will make the tang curved?
 
The tang was curved already. . . I removed it from the handle and found it that way. I'm not sure if I'd want to straighten it since it's already centered in this handle. I'm a bit worried it will bottom out inside the handle if I straighten it . . . and it's a bit hard to straighten, being monosteel. I imagine a hammer blow could do it, though, but I've been putting it off cause. . . I don't want to break it
 
The Hamon looks good, unfortunately there's no maker name in the tang, usually maker put the name under tang, I guess the maker & sharperner remain mysterious. GLWS😊😊
 
refcast said:
The tang was curved already. . . I removed it from the handle and found it that way. I'm not sure if I'd want to straighten it since it's already centered in this handle. I'm a bit worried it will bottom out inside the handle if I straighten it . . . and it's a bit hard to straighten, being monosteel. I imagine a hammer blow could do it, though, but I've been putting it off cause. . . I don't want to break it
Click to expand...
Yeah, no point straightening it if the tang fits well into the handle. It probably got bent while hot-burning it into the wood. Just make sure you don't put the handle on upside-down.
If anyone wants it straightened, you can heat it up and hammer it. Doesn't damage the knife, so long as the hardened steel doesn't get hot... and iron is a pretty terrible conductor of heat.
 
I tried straightening it and it became straight again actually really easy. Thanks for the help, too. . . Was a bit hesitant doing it until I tried it with another knife first
 
I think if you polish it up really well and lemon etch it we could find more details and thus information about the knife?

This maybe be an important lil piece of history and then it will sell very quickly
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top