Any experiences with blue-super single-bevel knives?
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no one wants to experience sharpening it.
Blue 1 Tanaka and Nakagawa Wide bevel is already painful enough.
Blue 1 Tanaka and Nakagawa Wide bevel is already painful enough.
I think Jon once wrote that they are more of a piece for foreign customers than actual practical, I might misremember tho.
I saw that post, yes, but I'm not so certain about that when I'd been seeing them for sale on Japanese-language sites (especially from companies who were selling such on Japanese-language sites years before they ever set up their English-language sites).
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DO NOT get a TF single bevel, worst grind I’ve ever seen on a single bevel and I buy random auction single bevels with **** grinds. Yes his steel is very good, but stick to double bevels from TF. Tanaka has a line of single bevel AS, go for that. Or if you’re feeling spendy hunt down a Takeda single bevel AS. One day I’ll have one of those
Have a blue Wat deba (not sure of flavor), 180mm. Works fine, sharpens readily. Not as robust (intentionally)as my Toyama.
Sharp Knife Shop has the project knife for you:
https://sharpknifeshop.com/collections/flash-sale/products/teruyasu-fujiwara-denka-sujihiki
They’re not showing a picture of that ura on purpose I imagine. TF ura are garbage and if they’re calling KT out as bad in the description I bet it’s truly horrendous. Uras aren’t like wonky bevels on a gyuto, you almost certainly working out the wabi sabi on an ura
If you watch the video, at the 36 second mark he flips the blade and you can catch a glimpse of the ura. I have no context to judge however if it is any good or not.
There is a much longer shot of the ura in the video on the 230 they are selling:
https://sharpknifeshop.com/collections/flash-sale/products/teruyasu-fujiwara-denka-yanagiba-230-mm
https://sharpknifeshop.com/collections/flash-sale/products/teruyasu-fujiwara-denka-yanagiba-230-mm
i have a Tanaka AS Wide bevel, I can assure you it is a nightmare to polish. even at low grit
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@ethompson
I agree and have said before too. TF uras are the worst WORST uras I've ever worked on. The most inconsistently ground AND with koba on the URA side.
But they've been straight so ehhhhh
I also have gotten many auction knives just like @ethompson. The majority of knives are Sakai ground and thus have good uras but even the obscure makers have better uras than tf. They're bent often but that comes with all knives, the dealers just know how to do it
MAYBE the denka yanagibas are better ground and the one on the sharp knife shop looks that way. But my denka deba and maboroshi usuba single bevels were not good. Both had fat spine contact 1/3 close to the tip where the ura was too shallow there and an island of cladding contacted. And both had koba on the ura. . . Pretty large koba. The denka also had the heel unsharpened and quite darn thick ... Makes sense but still ...he does what he wants
Anyhoww, denka deba, aogami super single bevel
It's just what it is, or says it is. I wouldn't get it again, as for edge stability . . . For me, too hard for a deba unless there's a bigger koba
I agree and have said before too. TF uras are the worst WORST uras I've ever worked on. The most inconsistently ground AND with koba on the URA side.
But they've been straight so ehhhhh
I also have gotten many auction knives just like @ethompson. The majority of knives are Sakai ground and thus have good uras but even the obscure makers have better uras than tf. They're bent often but that comes with all knives, the dealers just know how to do it
MAYBE the denka yanagibas are better ground and the one on the sharp knife shop looks that way. But my denka deba and maboroshi usuba single bevels were not good. Both had fat spine contact 1/3 close to the tip where the ura was too shallow there and an island of cladding contacted. And both had koba on the ura. . . Pretty large koba. The denka also had the heel unsharpened and quite darn thick ... Makes sense but still ...he does what he wants
Anyhoww, denka deba, aogami super single bevel
It's just what it is, or says it is. I wouldn't get it again, as for edge stability . . . For me, too hard for a deba unless there's a bigger koba
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WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTF
Thanks for that info all. Yeah, the ones I was looking at was were the Kikumori [Tanaka] and the Kirameki [I don't know who makes them]. I only mentioned the TF because I would have thought that his cult on the board would've had a lot of experience with blue-super, but they've seemed to have fallen eerily silent. And when TF's own vendors openly question the quality of their ura's, it's pretty clear why.
I believe the sakura line from Yamahide is blue 1. It's made by Iwai Takeshi and while I haven't personally used them (I'm a lefty), I do have a friend who is a sushi chef that has a few yanagiba and said it's been his favorite. I found it to be super tight work overall. The ura is super consistent and balance between everything is spot on. He only brought it in once to me for sharpening and it wasn't too bad.
