Benzie County, Michigan is glad to be here

[BenzieCook]

Hello. What a great forum. I’m here looking for a new knife. Inspired by Marco White’s videos

I like the western handle.

I use a big hard rock maple end grain cutting board. Mostly slicing veggies. Boneless meat. Chopping onions.

I have a 7” Shun Santuku and I like the idea of a shorter blade.

I have ceramic honing rods and also a Ken Onion Work Sharp sharpener rig

So overall I feel I’m prepared to care for a fine knife

I’d consider a carbon blade - don’t mind the small rust potential

Western handle. I love the idea of a visually impressive blade / handle. If a less visually impressive blade (carbon?) might work better than beautiful Damascus, I’d go for performance

I’d be delighted with any opinions or thoughts.

Glad to be here.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Welcome.

I would not recommend the KOWS on a thin Japanese blade. You can do it but less than ideal and easy to make mistakes.

Consider a bench stone or two.

 

[BenzieCook]

Appreciate that! I will look into that

 

[Qapla']

Welcome.

What do you think of these?

https://www.epicedge.com/shopexd.asp?id=90899
https://japanesechefsknife.com/coll.../jck-natures-deep-impact-series-santoku-175mm
https://japanesechefsknife.com/coll...roducts/japanese-blue-steel-knife-blue-clouds

 

[MontezumaBoy]

Welcome to the rabbit hole ... be fore warned ... B/S/T should not be taken lightly ...

Shun was my "gateway drug" as well ... LOL ...

Generally speaking 'shorter' blades are not the typical end result of this journey in my experience ... longer ... a lot longer ... are ... whatever makes your boat float at the end of the day ...

Sharpening your own with a stone is a big part of this ... we spend a lot (too much) time on knives but sharpening is a very cool / fullfilling important part of this experience ...

Carbon blades (caveat not san mai stainless) ... not so much ... LOL ... Let my "stoning" begin carbin folks ... LOL

Regardless - enjoy, learn, have fun & make big things into little things...

 

[Nemo]

Welcome.

I'd steer clear of honing rods on thin, hard Japanese steel as well.

Stick to bench stones, preferably water stones. If you can hone on a honing rod, you have some degree of angle control so you are half-way there.

The reason that many of us like longer knives is because we use the pinch grip,. This grip gives excellent control of the blade in all 6 planes (3 planes of rotation and 3 of translation). The knife is gripped above the heel so that the blade is pinched between the pad of the thumb and the second knuckle (proximal interphalyngeal joint) of the index finger. The index finger curls on the right blade face, just above the heel and the curled middle finger crosses the choil. The remaining fingers gently curl around the handle but are not providing most of the grip.

While it gives great control, this grip does take up 40-60mm of the usable blade length, so a 240mm is reduced to 180-200mm of usable edge. The other upside is that the grip is usually pretty close to the balance point for most Japanese knives.

 

[BenzieCook]

Thank you all for your replies. Really appreciated. @Qapla' that was generous of you to post some links.

After some reading sounds like I’m looking carbon. Gyuko. Probably 240mm or such. A nice western handle with a contoured belly

I’ve been look at different Damascus patterns. I also like the hand made idea.

Anyway, that’s where I’m at so far

 

[Qapla']

Definitely post a recommendation thread in the main forum (there's a questionnaire you can copy).

 

[Nemo]

Do be aware that while damascus patterns look very pretty they are a bit more effort to maintain at peak performance. This is because the amount of work required to bring a damascus blade back to it's peak aesthetic is much more than most other blade finishes. This tends to discourage thinning which means that the blade will gradually become thicker behind the edge with subsequent sharpenings (thus losing performance). @Benuser has an excellent graphic that explains why. Maybe he would be kind enough to repost it here?

 

[Benuser]

Do be aware that while damascus patterns look very pretty they are a bit more effort to maintain at peak performance. This is because the amount of work required to bring a damascus blade back to it's peak aesthetic is much more than most other blade finishes. This tends to discourage thinning which means that the blade will gradually become thicker behind the edge with subsequent sharpenings (thus losing performance). @Benuser has an excellent graphic that explains why. Maybe he would be kind enough to repost it here?

It's originally by Chad Ward, author of An Edge in the Kitchen.

 

[BenzieCook]

Definitely post a recommendation thread in the main forum (there's a questionnaire you can copy).

Done!

 

[BenzieCook]

So a Damascus blade inherently thicker to start with ?

 

[Nemo]

So a Damascus blade inherently thicker to start with ?

No, they can be thin to start with.

The issue is that as you sharpen, the edge gradually moves up in to thicker and thicker parts of the blade. The management of this is to periodically thin the blade. After thinning the blade, the blade face will be scratched up and will need to be refinished (often with a sandpaper progression). This isn't too big of a chore on many blades (which might need a finish in the 400 to 2000 grit range) but is a real pain in the proverbial for damascus blades (which require refinishing then etching in a strong acid such as ferric chloride) and mirror polished blades (which will require a 3000 plus grit finish, which shows up every little scratch that you didn't meticulously get out with the previous grits).

So Damascus and mirror polishes discourage thinning, which tends to make your blade perform less well in the long run.

 

[BenzieCook]

Thank you for your patient reply. That makes all sorts of sense