Anyone used one of these Itsuo Doi gyutos?

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yep, i had one. Actually my favourite Sakai gyuto. Fit and finish is not the best, nothing rounded or polished. Profile is very good, handle is lil bit bigger but comfortable, grind is on the thicker side but i like it. But, the steel, definitely the best Ao2 san mai ever. It holds edge in pro kitchen for really long time, much longer than my old school Kono Fuji Ao2 or my Ikeda Ao2 honyaki. Really good knife for this price.
 
I’ve been playing around with one for a few months now. Very well done convex grind from spine all the way down to the very edge on the right side. On the left side, it’s like a wide bevel, a pretty flat grind for about half way down then there’s a “soft shoulder” after which a nice gentle convex kicks in down to the edge. Sakai knives tend to lean towards thin/lasery grinds and the Doi is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Definitely only suitable for right handed users, the choil shot almost looks like a single bevel. Almost nonexistent distal taper. The tip is usable, but kind of fat because there’s so much convexity right behind the tip area. Doi’s blue 2 sharpens up easily as anything, maybe not quite as hard as Watanabe, but above average edge retention for Blue 2 from my limited experience. Handle is nice quality ho wood and the Doi is VERY forward balanced. Not too reactive for soft iron cladding and the kasumi finish looks machine done, but still quite attractive. Choil is chamfered and the spine is eased a bit, no sharp corners. Smooth profile, not dead flat, but a bit of a flat spot with a very gentle curve that sweeps up to the tip. Above average food release after the patina sets in. Pretty much falls through soft product. On tall/hard product, you’re going to need to put some muscle into it, but the grind does a very good job of pushing the slices apart so you don’t get any dead stop wedging. I think a taller user would do better with the Doi through dense produce, just because they’ll have more leverage behind their cuts.

Does this sound right to you @hennyville ? I’ve wondered how consistent these are from knife to knife.

Not to generalize, but I think most people on this forum would like this knife’s performance way more after some thinning. I asked a few people about the KS style Doi gyuto from CKTG before buying this one and couple of them said they liked it a lot better after a bit of thinning. I thinned the crap out of the tip on mine and just a little bit behind the edge all down the knife, being careful to follow the original geometry. Still plan on thinning a bit more on the left side to reduce the “soft shoulder” and improve performance on dense produce. It may sound like I have a lot of critique about this knife, but I really love the overall grind and the feeling the Doi gives when you have it in hand. It’s like part gyuto, part battle axe. I’ve thinned on the entire face of both sides of the knife and I found only one small low spot that came out pretty quickly.

Anyways, sorry for being long winded, but here’s a couple videos from a few weeks ago after I thinned my Doi. This was the biggest onion and sweet potato I had on hand. The videos don’t indicate performance right out of the box, but they’re not far off. Please pardon my knife skills.😅



 
the one i had actually have very nice WH-ish convex, 50/50 grind, with absolutely no distal taper. Sharp corners? Yes, in the machi area, spine etc. Yes another project knife but with amazing steel, nice high heel and good profile. As i said, amazing knife in this price range.
 
i found picture of the machi :)
DSC01914.JPG
 
the one i had actually have very nice WH-ish convex, 50/50 grind, with absolutely no distal taper. Sharp corners? Yes, in the machi area, spine etc. Yes another project knife but with amazing steel, nice high heel and good profile. As i said, amazing knife in this price range.
How was the tip on yours?
 
does anyone have any experience with his HT? how good is his Blue 2? I know he is famous for his Blue 2 HT, but how good is it compare to other Sakai Blacksmith HT or even Sanjo maker HT? it looks interesting for the price, and is the grind is almost similar to Mazaki or thicker than Mazaki?
 
does anyone have any experience with his HT? how good is his Blue 2? I know he is famous for his Blue 2 HT, but how good is it compare to other Sakai Blacksmith HT or even Sanjo maker HT? it looks interesting for the price, and is the grind is almost similar to Mazaki or thicker than Mazaki?
thicker than Mazaki, its not laser at all, much more WH behind the edge. And his blue 2 is IMHO the best blue 2 i've ever tried. Pretty hard, not easy to sharpen as Tanaka or Shiraki blue 2.
 
does anyone have any experience with his HT? how good is his Blue 2? I know he is famous for his Blue 2 HT, but how good is it compare to other Sakai Blacksmith HT or even Sanjo maker HT? it looks interesting for the price, and is the grind is almost similar to Mazaki or thicker than Mazaki?
I’m not one of those people who can gauge hardness off of the stones, but I read somewhere that Doi’s single bevels are treated pretty hard for blue 2 so I’d assume the gyuto has a comparable HT. Thickness is similar to a Mazaki at the heel, but the Mazaki tapers off drastically while the Doi holds most of its thickness most of the way down the knife. It cuts better than I expected out of the box considering it’s thickness, but it’s definitely a thin-as-you-go kind of knife if you sharpen a lot because it’s thin right behind the edge, but thickens up quickly after that.
 
Thanks for the info, I see that the tip is a bit thick as well. I thin a lot of tip of several knives recently.
Since I use a lot of shallots and onion in my cooking, a thin tip is mandatory for me.
I might consider it with the extra thinning. I wonder why he's really underrated out of all of Sakai smith.

Maybe it could replace my Mazaki.
 
*strolls is late with a 30 brick* hey bois 🤙

Can anyone supply some choil and spine shots? Maybe patina shots too? Please and thanks
 
Since this already got resurrected--can anyone give a comparison to Watoyama (either stainless or old school iron clad)? From @kpham12 's write-up it sounds a lot like the older Wat Pros with a worse tip, a little thicker behind the edge, and a bit more to be desired on fnf. How about the profile--similar or a bit more curve?

Thanks!
 
For that matter, is there anywhere else to buy this besides CKC?

CKTG has the KS 240 mm version and the 210 which has a profile that looks more similar to the CKC 240 version which I think only CKC carries.


Since this already got resurrected--can anyone give a comparison to Watoyama (either stainless or old school iron clad)? From @kpham12 's write-up it sounds a lot like the older Wat Pros with a worse tip, a little thicker behind the edge, and a bit more to be desired on fnf. How about the profile--similar or a bit more curve?

Thanks!

I have a stainless clad Wat and that thing slides through dense product like it’s not even there. From what I’ve read, the iron clad Wat/Toyamas also dealt with dense product easily, but with better food release. I think both beat the Doi on that front, but the Doi probably has slightly better food release overall. Profile is a bit of flat at the heel, but then a very gentle curve until you hit the belly to the tip. Great for push/pull cuts and guillotine and glide, not the best straight up-down chopper.

I saw a couple people recently picked up Dois from CKC in the new knife thread, hopefully they can chime in about out of the box performance because I’ve been tinkering with mine for a while now.
 
Update:

I received my Doi today. This is the worst knife I’ve ever received. It’s basically a single bevel knife, the blade is bent, the F&F is terrible and the handle install is a joke. I can’t believe CKC let this into and then leave their shop. Pics for reference.
 

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Update:

I received my Doi today. This is the worst knife I’ve ever received. It’s basically a single bevel knife, the blade is bent, the F&F is terrible and the handle install is a joke. I can’t believe CKC let this into and then leave their shop. Pics for reference.
Wow, that handle install is bad. Crooked and there’s no machi gap like there’s supposed to be. Mine is a little off center, but on par with other J-knives. When you say the blade is bent, is the spine curved?
 
Wow, that handle install is bad. Crooked and there’s no machi gap like there’s supposed to be. Mine is a little off center, but on par with other J-knives. When you say the blade is bent, is the spine curved?

its not really the spine. The front belly kicks left and the heel kicks right. Spine seems straight, but it appears to bend left towards the tip, but that could be an illusion due to the asymmetrical grind.
 
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Update:

I received my Doi today. This is the worst knife I’ve ever received. It’s basically a single bevel knife, the blade is bent, the F&F is terrible and the handle install is a joke. I can’t believe CKC let this into and then leave their shop. Pics for reference.

@FishmanDE Sorry I never got a chance to add to this thread or send the pics you requested. After a day at work I took that Doi back home, grabbed another work horse, and forgot about it. I'll get in touch with CKC when I get a chance, they've made amends in the past.
On mine the machi hangs below the handle as well, F&F in general is not the best, and it was super reactive, like the most out of any carbon I've used. In general the balance, feel and grind of the knife would require a lot of work to fit in my rotation.
I bought this based on the specs and the two, old Doi single bevels I own, Keijiro and Itsuo.
 
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@FishmanDE Sorry I never got a chance to add to this thread or send the pics you requested. After a day at work I took that Doi back home, grabbed another work horse, and forgot about it. I'll get in touch with CKC when I get a chance, they've made amends in the past.
On mine the machi hangs below the handle as well, F&F in general is not the best, and it was super reactive, like the most out of any carbon I've used. In general the balance, feel and grind of the knife would require a lot of work to fit in my otation.
I bought this based on the specs and the two, old Doi single bevels I own, Keijiro and Itsuo.

All good. Like I said, Craig at CKC made it more than right with me. Hopefully he might be able to help you out too if you’re terribly dissatisfied
 
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