SOLD 270mm yanagiba with saya

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$75 shipped spf

272mm machi to tip
4.5mm at machi
33mm tall
156g weight

Saya is a bit loose, doesn't hold on by itself
Buffalo horn has chipped off on ferrule
Pitting on ura
Feels like white steel, age hardened a bit
Straightened and ura makes full edge contact without wobble.

Redid the blade face and blade road on bench stones. Sandpaper+sic on the blade face. Uchi fingerstone on blade road. Stone ready blade road, some low spots still near the middle of the knife shinogi. On the thinner side of yanagi, at least behind the edge. Less ura contact near the heel, which is a bit annoying, but still contacts. Ura does not contact at the spine behind the tip, but it doesn't affect function much. Blade road was very wavy when I first got the knife. Tiny delam on the ura near machi, which indicates forge welding by hand. Does not negatively affect longevity, at least this kind and size and location of delam. Steel is a bit more narrow in lamination line width than I usually see. Tip is very thin. Feels similar to most Sakai white but a little ... Plastickier? Age hardened white often feels this way to me. Not necessarily crisp or glassy but kinda more wear resistant, but not in an alloy sort of way, and not necessarily an SK impurity sort of way either. Edge taking is still very good and like a good white steel

Saya says katakana osaka

 

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[FlamesRecipe]

Excuse my ignorance if this is obvious, but is there any info on original purchase price or maker?

 

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https://jp.mercari.com/item/m90295024880
Selling at about breakeven, minus the sharpening work, haha. Came with a bunch of chips too not visible in the pictures

 

[FlamesRecipe]

Cool, just trying to learn more. I've been trying to pick up a cheaper yanagiba or sujihiki so I've been looking at what's posted here and have been trying to do some research.

 

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@FlamesRecipe

Visually, I can see the quality of single bevels is how fine the end finishing is on the blade road. If the finishing scratches on the blade face too are finer, that helps. Or choil relief or polishing, same with spine. Or engraved deeper kanji. Shallow stamped kanji, without KU inside them, usually indicate entry level knives. Buffalo horn ferrule ones usually are good knives.

There are tons of knife brands in Japan

All the yanagi I've gotten from the auctions needed straightening