As cheap as can be please

Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
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if youve been practicing on junk stainless, just get a used beat up carbon and fix it/thin it/reprofile it however you want for practice. no use in being picky. hell, get a rusted up carbon sab and go at it til you're blue in the face.
 
In fact the goal is to lighten up on everything: refining my technique, correcting bad habits, and get down that newfound muscle memory improvement into something I can do with my eyes closed and the lightest touch needed. I know I could go used... but around here finding a decent used unit is not about to happen. People use whatever knife they bought at the hardware store or from a cheap 15 years old set. No point paying for that - I can borrow knives like these from friends and family already and bring them back sharp.

Also these will be the last I buy for a good while - will sadly have to start redirecting money elsewhere soon enough, and it won’t be for something fun - but it needs to be done. A couple of knives and a couple of stones will ensure I won’t die of boredom this winter.
 
ModRQC said:
In fact the goal is to lighten up on everything: refining my technique, correcting bad habits, and get down that newfound muscle memory improvement into something I can do with my eyes closed and the lightest touch needed. I know I could go used... but around here finding a decent used unit is not about to happen. People use whatever knife they bought at the hardware store or from a cheap 15 years old set. No point paying for that - I can borrow knives like these from friends and family already and bring them back sharp.

Also these will be the last I buy for a good while - will sadly have to start redirecting money elsewhere soon enough, and it won’t be for something fun - but it needs to be done. A couple of knives and a couple of stones will ensure I won’t die of boredom this winter.
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Please don't work on any knives with your eyes closed.
 
ModRQC said:
In fact the goal is to lighten up on everything: refining my technique, correcting bad habits, and get down that newfound muscle memory improvement into something I can do with my eyes closed and the lightest touch needed...

...A couple of knives and a couple of stones will ensure I won’t die of boredom this winter.
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If you speak of "not dying of boredom" to mean that this is purely recreational, then does it have to be two gyuto's? Maybe one gyuto, and one blade of some other type (carry-sized ulu? yanagiba/takohiki?) that might offer you something new?
 
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Qapla' said:
If you speak of "not dying of boredom" to mean that this is purely recreational, then does it have to be two gyuto's? Maybe one gyuto, and one blade of some other type (carry-sized ulu? yanagiba/takohiki?) that might offer you something new?
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Your suggestion is sound and I indeed thought about that some too. A slicer, perhaps I would try. However I have no real use of them - perhaps one of those days I’ll be tempted, for now I’m keeping to what I use and will see from customers. I did sharpened a couple of western carvers for customers. I don’t even own one myself. Moritaka takes care of dedicated meat slicing nowadays. I can’t even see another use to a slicer than that. Sad but true. :)
 
ModRQC said:
Searching for cheap Gyutos, one well-hardened Moly - ideally something like AUS would be awesome, but when asking for cheap better not start fancying up on details - and one carbon.
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Here you go:
https://www.globalkitchenjapan.com/...v-gyuto-knife-with-elastomer-handle-6-colours
You get to choose the handle color and blade length. The blade material is Molybdenum-Vanadium, but not sure about its hardness. Probably around 59-60 HRC.

Edit: Nevermind. Its hardness is only 56 HRC. Bleh.
 
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-Kiku- said:
Here you go:
https://www.globalkitchenjapan.com/...v-gyuto-knife-with-elastomer-handle-6-colours
You get to choose the handle color and blade length. The blade material is Molybdenum-Vanadium, but not sure about its hardness. Probably around 59-60 HRC.

Edit: Nevermind. Its hardness is only 56 HRC. Bleh.
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Yeah and also available directly from Canada for about the same price. These are the knives I automatically skipped on Knifewear when browsing Gyutos by price even when I was a noob. Perhaps trying a bit too hard here aren’t you ? 😉:rolleyes:
 
Thanks to all for your suggestions!

I've made... well... some choices in the end. :D

Incoming steels:

1.4110
SUS 440
SK5
52100

All monosteels.

And incoming stones:

Pride 220 (35$ - had to try while it was there)
Shapton Pro 320 (replacement)
Naniwa Pro 400

I think I managed to get VERY good prices for all of these. Still, near 1K down the rabbit hole. I really have to settle down now.
 
ModRQC said:
Thanks to all for your suggestions!

I've made... well... some choices in the end. :D

Incoming steels:

1.4110
SUS 440
SK5
52100

All monosteels.

And incoming stones:

Pride 220 (35$ - had to try while it was there)
Shapton Pro 320 (replacement)
Naniwa Pro 400

I think I managed to get VERY good prices for all of these. Still, near 1K down the rabbit hole. I really have to settle down now.
Click to expand...
Glad you found something that will work for you. I never followed thru after my last questions or the point I was getting at. You have a ton of nice knives so instead of buying something super cheap to improve your sharpening, I thinks it’s best to just buy a good knife that you will use a ton and just practice keeping it damn sharp. Which is where I’m guessing you kinda went with the whole thing.
 
Well yes... but I had to incur to these choices a notion of "carelessness". Even inexpensive, if I love it, I won't remove steel from a knife just for fun. And even using it every day of the week, I cannot really pretend it isn't sharp anymore EVERY day, or even after the whole week. And I have so many other knives that I care to bring into rotation. But I want to sharpen every day where and when I can. So I went with knives and more importantly steels that were decent, because I can't for the love of me bring myself to buy a Mercer or some inexpensive chinese 1.4116 or stamped Wusthof and whatnot (I assure you I tried, but when came the time to confirm such an order... I couldn't) but not knives I would usually have wanted, let alone shopped for. It's... kind of hard really, shopping this way.

1.4110 is a Victorinox 8" - one I knew I would buy one of these days, even if I don't need it, even if I have much better. And even that cheap, and that unessential, I already love it too much to sharpen it just to sharpen it.

The 440 and SK5... well I may fall in love, but had no particular attachment to either, except that steel and quality wise, they were not too expensive for how good they are.

Stupid... I could have paid 50$ for two knives... but there we are, the only 50$ market I wanted was the Victo, and any other... was the equivalent to buying hardware store knives. And I know I will NEVER pay for cheap anymore. Even if it saves me non negligible money. :D
 
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