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Camatt29

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Hello everyone,
Looking to improve upon my knife collection and upgrade my sad supply. I have a catering buisness and have used wusthof professional series knives which I was proud to own and glad to use. Recently when I began to attend culinary school at ICE We received a knife roll including wusthof knives primarily a wusthof ikon which I realize the more I use it is a terrible terrible knife, I almost prefer the pro series knives I used to use daily. But now I have tasted what it's like to have a razor sharp blade for the short time it will hold one. I need a new every day blade I prefer to have a 240 and have been looking at nenox but upon reading reviews my head is spinning.
Thanks for your insight I'll be sitting through the forums
Cameron
 
Welcome Cameron! We are here to help. If you are looking to get a new knife and need some help, than the best way is to fill in the Questionnaire and post it in the "The Kitchen Knife" subforum.
 
Welcome to the forum!

I'm sure peoole here will find a way to help you
add new kinds of firepower to your knife roll...

...but, also Keep your head up about wustoffs,
they're very functional tools...
one the best single knife you could own
if you could own only a "single knife".

Thankfully, you can own more than one knife :)
 
I should clarify that I love my knives all of them. I was super excited to receive the ikon because I think it's truly beautiful. That being said I'm stone sharpening almost daily. I do run the knives about 8-9 hours a day at the moment if not longer so? The shape of the ikon for rock choping and the heal depth are somewhat of the issue. The sheep's foot also gets in the way although I love the look. As far as hardness goes I would like a bit more maybe an intense weekly sharpening?
 
Welcome! The Questionnaire is really helpful for us to choose which knife to recommend. . . please fill it out!

If knife edge retention is the main goal, I would definitely recommend powder steels. Compared to Whustof, almost all the Japanese steel heat treatments and grind will be sharper and sharper-feeling. They just emphasize different aspects like edge retention, toughness, sharpenability, and so on.

If you are fine sticking with Western handles, I hear Ryusen knives are excellent in fit-and-finish, ergonomics, sharpness, edge retention, and toughness. They have a VG-10 and SG2 (powder steel). The difference is that powder steel gets a little less sharp, and holds the edge a little longer. There are cheaper options out there, too, but this one is pretty end-game -- and by that I mean it's great for cutting, not for beating on hard things. . . which I think the Whustof is fine for. It's a bit on the medium thickness side overall, so that's why I feel fine recommending it, so it has some heft.

The two dealers I know of are Japanese Knife Imports and Knives and Stones.

There are things like if you like a taller knife, a super thin knife, a rustable knife, and so on. Please ask questions if you don't know how a factor on the questionnaire changes knife performance and use.

You said you were looking at nenox, which are around $450. The knife profile is flatter, like german knives, and the ryusen are more angled. If you can get used to this, the angling lets you press down with more force to get through wedging food. The Ryusen steel should be harder than the nenox, so it will hold the edge longer, and I don't know exactly, but I'm betting it gets sharper as well.

I am also assuming you still want to stick with western handles.
 
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Thank you so much. Yes I saw the questionnaire and will be filling it out hopefully tonight if I can make time. I've been responding on the run. I would prefer to keep a western handle and the blade will travel with me over 800 miles a week. I'm always moving so easy care is something to consider but I do take very good care. I am also the kind of guy that doesn't need new things and love my tools when they perform, If I find the right knife it will be used until it's destroyed lol. I sharpen on relatively inexpensive Norton 2k/6k stone and finish on Mac 12k ceramic.
 
Cameron -- if you can make it down to the DC area for the East Coast Gathering on Sunday, April 7 you can handle well over 200 knives from many different manufacturers. And there is produce to use for trying them out (assuming the knife owners give you the okay). It's a great chance to see a lot of knives and get performance info from their owners. There may be at least one other NYC forum member coming down for it (as a day trip).
 
https://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/collections/ryusen/products/blazen-ryu-240mm-gyuto

This is the Japanese Knife Imports page of the product in question. The "Blazen" knife has been around for like 10 years or something (or more), and has been one of the to-go western handled japanese knives, along with Takamura (thinnest, most brittle), and Ikeda powder steel (goodish balance of steel properties), which the Gesshin Kagero seems very similar to, but with better finish.

In the "measurements" tab you can see that the knife is pretty thick near the handle and then gets super duper thin near the tip, so you can go though onions well and peel thin with the tip, and go through root veg and rock chop if you have to, with the heel.

The handle is black pakka wood (resin infused wood), so it doesn't melt like POM, or delaminate, or dent or crack like wood. Comes with a nifty case. The knife profile is more french sabatier, if anything. Seriously, though, it's gonna be awesome. If I were looking for a western knife, this would be the first one I would get. The taper from heel to tip, and from spine to edge looks so good. How that feels is like the knife is one continuous triangle.

Anyway, the handle lookks pretty big too. Here's videos of the knife

1 hour demonstration and talk about the ryusen knives.



Product demo of a petty.


And if you have particular questions email jon, he's the super - helpful and knowledgeable owner of Japanese Knife Imports.
 
Hit up the questionaire with a budget for knife and new stones, to really get at it you'll probably want min $200-300 for the knife and $100 for stones. That being said, you can also do well for less (or more) but it really depends on just what you want to complement the wustie.

True stainless construction I would look for Ginsanko (G3) hitatchi steel or something similar.

This is because its easier to sharpen by a long shot than a wustoff, its harder and has better burr formation/removal, and won't piss you off everytime it hits the stones. Its not super available or cheap in bulk production, but if you look a round and/or flex your budge you can find some options.

The Ryusen line is also a very good value on sale sometimes and Knives & stones as well as JKI.

I'd also read this thread just for some context >https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/...s-sectional-geometry.40450/page-2#post-599102
 
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