Best Gyutos Under-$200. What're your favorites?

Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
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MarcelNL said:
my motto is 'better buy used quality products then new garbage' , so I'd vote for a higher end used Gyoto
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Oh totally agree with that approach! However, many newbies seeking new knife advice from me, want new stainless stuff—that would survive being dragged through an electric sharpener, or sharpened once a year by the dude at the hardware store. Seriously.

Often an almost an impossible expectation asking a newbie to cruise through BST listings, they'd not know what to look for. Easier to get them to buy something new, mass market, ...from a Williams-Sonoma or Sur Le Table store in-person. Buying a used knife online from a person, outta the comfort zone of a lot of people I know.
 
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Munetoshi or S Tanaka if you can still find it sub-$200 for carbon. Tsunehisa ginsan is a surprisingly good cutter, would have no problem recommending that as a first high performance knife. Oh and Matt Sicard might still have one or two older 52100/AEB-L lasers available at $200 or less which would be hard to beat!

Obviously cheating, but a CCK or similar is king here for someone flexible on the 'gyuto' requirement...
 
timebard said:
Munetoshi or S Tanaka if you can still find it sub-$200 for carbon. Tsunehisa ginsan is a surprisingly good cutter, would have no problem recommending that as a first high performance knife. Oh and Matt Sicard might still have one or two older 52100/AEB-L lasers available at $200 or less which would be hard to beat!

Obviously cheating, but a CCK or similar is king here for someone flexible on the 'gyuto' requirement...
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I've got two CCK cleavers—fun do-it-all knives, but haven't been into cleavers for a while.
 
Perhaps it’s still possible to find a Masashi Yamamoto gyuto for less than 200$. I know cleancut still has some in shirogami and somebody in the forum was selling one recently. I have 2 knifes from him, great maker. He forges and sharpens his knifes. The gyuto has Great fit and finish, great grind and good heat treatment as well. I can’t put a defect on it really. It is also probably most straight knife I have.

Also, the knife is tall so should survive loads of sharpening and thinning 😁.
 
Akifusa SS clad AS core wa handled 165mm santoku can be had under $200, the 180mm gyuto is right at $200 and the 210's are around $225 and they are excellent knives with a foot strongly in the laser camp.

Tadafusa is another nice step up and intro to carbon core.
 
coxhaus said:
You know me I would buy a Wusthof 10-inch chefs knife or a Henckels 10-inch chefs knife. No carbon steel for me in the kitchen.
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If you're righty, what do you think of a Kanehide PS 240mm?
 
Kyohei Shindo, I really enjoy his gyuto profile and blue #2 steel. Silly thin BTE.

Shiro Kamo also makes very affordable knives, I particularly like his gyutos as they're taller and have a good all-round profile. I've had a few different gyutos in blue #2 and AS from him, they range from heavy-lasers to midweight with good f&f and heat treat.

Makoto Kurosaki VG7 Ryusei is $170 for the 210, I have it and love the curvy flowy profile, elegant subtle beauty, and toughness of the VG7.


In my research for this I see Cleancut is listing the Munetoshi 240 at 143€/$153 and the 210 at 122€/$130 and good God just stop now and go with that. The 240 just does everything, great steel that takes and holds a great edge, cuts better than the choil shot would have you think, surprisingly thin tip for delicate work. It's probably the knife I'd keep if I could only have one. I travel with it for that reason.
 
Jovidah said:
Sorry, but even at 50% off I consider my Wüsthof chef's knife one of my worst purchases, and the worst value of all the knives I own. Pretty much everything else runs circles around it, even in a similar - or lower - price range. And plenty of them are stainless.
I do agree that if I was to recommend someone their 'one good knife', I would make it a stainless one.
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It's all relative though. I brought a Wüsthof le cordon Bleu to a help make food for a function recently. Another volunteer asked me if he could use it and I said sure. He said, "wow, this is the best knife I've ever used." I just smiled and thought to myself, "oh you sweet summer child, you have no idea..."
 
Fujiwara FKH, it was my first introduction to Japanese knives and for well under $200.
 
They've all been suggested already but I would suggest three makers: Takamura, Shigeki Tanaka and Shiro Kamo.

Sure they all make more expensive knives but in my experience, none of their cheaper output has ever disappointed. Find something on BST and you'll come in well under $200.
 
jaydee said:
Hatsukokoro Kurosagi series. AS and not too thin. If i should get one, i will report back
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I have the 180 bunka. Very nice and another excellent value.
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DitmasPork said:
IMHO, my mom's best knives are her ancient Mac knives. I believe they were purchased not long after the Mac Knife Corp launched. Still being used.
View attachment 225847
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I've sharpened so many of these in Hawaii. With the hole to hang the knife on a slim head nail. I think years ago could buy at
Longs drug stores. Even seniors in Janice yoga & Zumba class at the Y most Japanese & Chinese have these knives. I'd sharpen them spiff up the handles no charge. They would give me a Longs gift card.

Students would bring their grandparents Mac's for me to sharpen. Even saw Mac's in the Hotels over the decades.

Longs back in the 1970's would bring in Japanese knives & sell them cheap. I know because bought some when started out in kitchens. They were good cutters on smaller side. I used a white plastic handle slicer that cut really well & could put a sharp edge on it. Bought a couple of those got a ton of use.

This was a round nose Mac with a hole that
IMG_20230216_172235008.jpg
had been sharpen a lot over the years. I dropped it broke the nose off reshaped it.
It was with a bunch of other Mac's gave her a nice Forschner petty & put sharp edge on it.
We kept this tiny sawed off Mac.

For a thin good cutter that falls through food
The Ikazuchi at JKI is still 200.00 last I saw.
With a saya. Knives like everything else have gone up in price. I posted here when first started teaching around 2013 looking for best bang for the buck knives. Tanaka G3 240 Nashiji was 120.00 at the time I bought one was impressed. We would wipe out metal master stock of 240 & 210 Nashiji stocks as soon as he would get them in. Shipping to Hawaii was cheap.
 
Couple other bang for buck knives.
Blue Moon at JCK. 240 Nashiji blue #2 core. They were selling 210 for 98.00 at the time.
Sold couple of them to students at cost. I emailed him asked if could bring in 240 better for students going into production kitchens. He brought them in & sold for 130.00. Used this as pass around & 240's got sold out at JCK. He raised the price.

Second is Kanetsugu Pro M 240 also JCK.
100.00. This is one of favorite basic stainless knives. Good grind for the price, easy to sharpen. Used this as pass around he sold out of 240. When COVID hit stopped teaching left with these two pass around knives probably give away to relatives.

IMG_20230216_182518836.jpg
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Jovidah said:
Sorry, but even at 50% off I consider my Wüsthof chef's knife one of my worst purchases, and the worst value of all the knives I own. Pretty much everything else runs circles around it, even in a similar - or lower - price range. And plenty of them are stainless.
I do agree that if I was to recommend someone their 'one good knife', I would make it a stainless one.
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If it really has to be Krupp's 4116 — wondering why — I rather would suggest a Burgvogel, because I can't stand a handle heavy balance. Otherwise, if it has to be a stainless with Western handle and a Ryusen Blazen is out of the reach: get a Misono 440.
 
SK-steel offerings from Sakai Kikumori, pricetag +- 100usd. One of the easiest steels to sharpen. Nothing special about the grind, left side pretty flat and right side convex. Might need some thinning depenning on preference. Other ones that been mentioned here Munetoshi, Takamura, Ohishi.
 
Keith Sinclair said:
Couple other bang for buck knives.
Blue Moon at JCK. 240 Nashiji blue #2 core. They were selling 210 for 98.00 at the time.
Sold couple of them to students at cost. I emailed him asked if could bring in 240 better for students going into production kitchens. He brought them in & sold for 130.00. Used this as pass around & 240's got sold out at JCK. He raised the price.

Second is Kanetsugu Pro M 240 also JCK.
100.00. This is one of favorite basic stainless knives. Good grind for the price, easy to sharpen. Used this as pass around he sold out of 240. When COVID hit stopped teaching left with these two pass around knives probably give away to relatives.

View attachment 226146View attachment 226145
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I'm fairly certain the Blue Moon knives are rebranded Tadafusa. Though I've never used one they have a lot of really nice and interesting looking stuff at very good prices. Worth a look in this price category.
I've seen similar praise about the Kanetsugu on the German forums; they might look dull but apparently they perform well.
Benuser said:
If it really has to be Krupp's 4116 — wondering why — I rather would suggest a Burgvogel, because I can't stand a handle heavy balance. Otherwise, if it has to be a stainless with Western handle and a Ryusen Blazen is out of the reach: get a Misono 440.
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Well the main reason I ended up forking out the money for some Wüsthofs was that I wanted some beater / axes for heavy duty abuse and due to the rebranding all the outgoing lines went out for 50% of the price or less.
In the category of 'cheap soft stainless' I was pleasantly by some Arcos knives I got recently; far from perfect knives either (they came with crap edges), but generally speaking superior to my Wüsthofs, at a significantly lower cost.

The issue with some of the big German brands is that they're simply priced too high. If a Wüsthof was 30 or 40 bucks it would be okay, but the problem is that they're trying to sell them at 150 these days; at that price point there are a lot of far more appealing alternatives.
 
Funnily I just saw this post in the reddit, alot better looking grind than the Xinzuo-https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/cheap-new-knives-test-and-recommend-thread.61929/#post-947561, I reviewed here tho I can't be sure about QC and longevity. I don't want to try tho since you can't return a used blade and there's just no point for me to add another cheap beater.
 
I Have owned several stainless-steel knives and they are not all the same steel. I have owned lower end stainless steel knives and including the MAC PRO the stainless is different than Henckels 4 and 5 star knives. They require more frequent sharpening. My Wusthof Classic knives seem about the same but are different. I have only owned my Wusthof Classic knives for maybe five years, so they don't have all the prior testing. But over the last 5 years they are close enough to please me.
 
Jovidah said:
I'm fairly certain the Blue Moon knives are rebranded Tadafusa. Though I've never used one they have a lot of really nice and interesting looking stuff at very good prices. Worth a look in this price category.
I've seen similar praise about the Kanetsugu on the German forums; they might look dull but apparently they perform well.

Well the main reason I ended up forking out the money for some Wüsthofs was that I wanted some beater / axes for heavy duty abuse and due to the rebranding all the outgoing lines went out for 50% of the price or less.
In the category of 'cheap soft stainless' I was pleasantly by some Arcos knives I got recently; far from perfect knives either (they came with crap edges), but generally speaking superior to my Wüsthofs, at a significantly lower cost.

The issue with some of the big German brands is that they're simply priced too high. If a Wüsthof was 30 or 40 bucks it would be okay, but the problem is that they're trying to sell them at 150 these days; at that price point there are a lot of far more appealing alternatives.
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Yes the Blue Moon knives same under different names First bought one off eBay at time sold with different handles. CKTG has their version. It is part of nature series at JCK says the Nashiji finish looks like craters on the moon. 😁. It has Chestnut handle with resin ferrel. Oval handle is comfortable.
Also price is best at JCK. For right handers thick up top with Nashiji assem. grind below.


.
 
Keith Sinclair said:
I've sharpened so many of these in Hawaii. With the hole to hang the knife on a slim head nail. I think years ago could buy at
Longs drug stores. Even seniors in Janice yoga & Zumba class at the Y most Japanese & Chinese have these knives. I'd sharpen them spiff up the handles no charge. They would give me a Longs gift card.

Students would bring their grandparents Mac's for me to sharpen. Even saw Mac's in the Hotels over the decades.

Longs back in the 1970's would bring in Japanese knives & sell them cheap. I know because bought some when started out in kitchens. They were good cutters on smaller side. I used a white plastic handle slicer that cut really well & could put a sharp edge on it. Bought a couple of those got a ton of use.

This was a round nose Mac with a hole thatView attachment 226137 had been sharpen a lot over the years. I dropped it broke the nose off reshaped it.
It was with a bunch of other Mac's gave her a nice Forschner petty & put sharp edge on it.
We kept this tiny sawed off Mac.

For a thin good cutter that falls through food
The Ikazuchi at JKI is still 200.00 last I saw.
With a saya. Knives like everything else have gone up in price. I posted here when first started teaching around 2013 looking for best bang for the buck knives. Tanaka G3 240 Nashiji was 120.00 at the time I bought one was impressed. We would wipe out metal master stock of 240 & 210 Nashiji stocks as soon as he would get them in. Shipping to Hawaii was cheap.
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I was bummed when Don Q stopped carrying Mac knives, I wanted to buy my mom a replacement—ended up getting a rebranded Mac from Aframes.
In Hawaii, I find it remarkably difficult convincing people of the value of prioritizing spending a bit more on a good kitchen knife—when they’re content with a $10 kai pure komachi knife.
 
I hear ya. As you know places like Liberty House would sell Heinkels & other soft German block sets to thousands of households in Hawaii. Pull through sharpeners honing steels after a while couldn't cut worth a damn. My relatives here showed them how to sharpen those knives to use as beaters. Would give them a good blade that would end up being used the most.

Then came the Shun invasion.

Most students thought 100.00 for one knife is a lot of money. Their complete Mercer school kit with large bag to hold it all was around 200.00.

I checked out the Wakui at Aframes

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Nice dark Nashiji 240 for under 200.00. stainless clad white steel core..
 
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