I posted this in the show your new knife thread, but I want to put it here too for chatting purposes.
Some cleavers I got over the past few months but never posted
Vintage Sakai cleaver 220x110 mm, unknown carbon steel
I believe the seller found it NOS in an old warehouse. No makers mark of any kind. Very nice taper down the spine and a tapered tang which I’ve never seen on these types of cleavers. Better grind than my Kono FM blue 2 cleaver OOTB, but terrible sandblasted finish that needed to be worn down before the knife could be used. Typically, these are white 2, but the steel isnt quite as nice to sharpen and is more difficult to deburr. It does end up with a toothier edge and better retention than my other Sakai white 2 cleavers but doesn’t feel like blue 2 either. IDK, maybe it’s the HT.
“Sadamichi” Aogami 220x110 mm chuka bocho
Made by a smith near Gunma. Don’t know much about him, but he makes a lot of agricultural tools. Thick tang and spine at the handle with good distal taper. Very wabi sabi, crude grind, but cuts ok OOTB. I tried to regrind it myself, but the core steel did not want to abrade. I took it to District Cutlery and they shaved over 10 grams off the bevels. The smith had a little blurb on his page that mentioned he emphasizes hardness in the HT of his blue steel and you can feel it pretty easily. Glassy would be an understatement, it absolutely skates around on the stones. In my estimation, harder than Watoyama or Okubo, but the trade off being it’s more difficult to get as sharp as those two. But once you get an edge you like on it, it will hold it for a LONG time.
Vintage Masakane Carbon cleaver 210x80 mm
Picked this up as more of a collectible, it's maybe over 50 years old and I've never seen a cleaver from Masakane before, but it turns out it's a great home sized cleaver. The previous owner(s) did a great job maintaining a very thin geometry and keeping the profile intact. Very deep patina all over, but surprisingly, no actual rust.
Yuraku (Ashi Hamono OEM) 225x110 mm AEB-L #6 cleaver
Picked up from a random Japanese auction, profile was a little too flat, but good grind and steel. Not as nice as the Gesshin Ashi cleavers in terms of F&F, but not bad either and I really like the little AEB-L sticker. The steel lacks a little of the bite of carbon and feels a little less crisp on the stones, but gets very, very keen and sticky. Glides through everything.
Sugimoto #7 OMS 220x110 mm Chinese cleaver
Very thin grind, thinnest OOTB of any Sugimoto I’ve had, some wabi-sabi near the tip, but the price was good for one of these so I don’t mind. Still comparing to my other Sugimotos to see if the steel is any different.
Kono Blue 2 FM 225x110mm chuka bocho
I got the chance to try this knife out a few months ago and fell in love so when the owner offered to sell it to me, I jumped at the chance. Best all around vegetable cleaver I've used. I've pushed it a little thinner BTE than the stock grind and it has the perfect balance of ease of sharpening, edge taking and edge retention. I think this is the only Konosuke I’ve chased after. I don't know why they don't make more of these because they're so good.
