Any Experience with Itou R-2?

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Rotary

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Does anyone have any experience with or thoughts on the Itou R-2 Damascus knives that Koki has up on JCK? I'm thinking about one of the small gyutos.

http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/Page3.html

I haven't been able to discover a lot about the properties of the R2 powdered steel. Also, it may be my imagination, but it seems from the photos that the blade geometry varies from gyuto to gyuto among those shown in the photos.
 
JCK said:
...and each blade and handle varies in size,shape and weight due to the hand made knives.

No experience, but they do vary a bit.
 
No experience with Itou but my Tanaka 240mm gyuoto is R2 powdered steel. There's not a lot of info out there about it, but lemme tell ya, it's grrrrrrreeeaaaattt!!! Takes a steep edge and holds it quite well for a while.

I'd like to one day maybe buy a 280mm flexible fillet knife from Itou or maybe a second honesuki. No abalone handles though. Maybe azurite or dyed camel bone. His newer coral stuff looks cool too.
 
I want one with the lapis handle. That was what I was looking at when I first wanted to buy a J-knife, but they were out of stock. I ended up with a Takeda instead, illogical, huh?
 
Might be my favorite SS?? Love the steel but his blade shapes are a little ehhhh. Blocky handles stubby tips.. I love the look of the abalone so I got a set, I don't use them too much these days but that's mostly B/C I have so many newer knives to play with. When I reach for a SS I go for a nenox 1st just because I love the way it feels in the hand (red bone) 2nd I go for a D.T. B/C I can bang on it all day and not give a F... R2 would come in 3rd but would get moved up to the top of the list when I'm in a open kitchen, it's got that flashy thing going for it...but so do the Burkes so the R2's sit in the draw.
 
She's a lucky girl! That is one killer chick knife, apologies to any female readers!
 
I just ordered an Itou Santoku with the abalone handle for my GF. (I ordered a Masamoto Honyaki for myself.) :thumbsup2:

Well yeah exactly. I can see that. Just too flashy for me in a pro kitchen. But the lapis is nice too. He had a cool red one a few months back too, spiny something or another.
 
Anybody know how the abalone is going to hold up in the dishwasher???
 
nice one evan :)

You got to have an amazing collection by now. Ive seen you do a lot of bargains the last year :)
 
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