Me pondering over my collection making sure I was okay with selling some...
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Lacking my Sukenari HAP-40 K-Tip 210mm Gyuto, at this moment with a friend of mine, but soon to come home and not up for grabs anyway...
So... Bottom to top, right to left (yeah Right to Left, so beware you're following it adequately) :
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S. Tanaka S3 150mm petty, Yoshikane SKD-12 165mm Bunka, Kaji-Bei A#2 SS Clad 165mm Santoku, M. Kurosaki SG2 180mm Bunka...
Yeah had a fit with the Bunka shape. Also a few Nakiris and this picture is just but timely lacking a Wakui Migaki W#2 Nakiri (sold to a lady friend of mine) that stayed with me for 3 months. Wakui was superb but she loved it so much more than I that it was quite an easy decision to let it go to a low price.
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... Wakui A#2 iron clad 210mm, S. Tanaka A#2 SS Clad 210mm, Sukenari AS 225mm, Shi.Han 52100 mono 210mm, HSC/// AEB-L mono 225mm.
I've come to a point where EVERYTHING there was likely for BST up to 4 units overall, and had to start choosing...
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Yeah even those two precious at the left. Even my Shi.Han is considered up for grabs until only my heart can weigh in otherwise. And I'm heartless these days. Too much money into it, not enough use, the name of the game every year around.
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A decision was made. BST up and running as I'm writting this. Sukenari HAP back home something like tomorrow and I can't wait for its return.
Lending knives is disquieting. Don't know in what state they'll be back in. But real showing... do I really miss that knife? Is it tougher than I pegged it for (good test really)? What do I care so much about any knife I own.
Lending units around even my most prized ones have done destroying the very last illusion left with me.
I am no collector. This is no collection. This is up for grabs stuff at any moment but my very whisms...
I am not a collector... I am a buyer of something else, ready to try a bit of everything, ready to sell it back at any point. Some knives have convinced me they're great AND adapted to my style, and stayed with me the while, and yet they still end up for grabs at some point.
Next are yet another two or three of these going BST... IDK but it'll come.
Following on that lead, yesterday I made sure both Shi.Han and Wakui were tip top sharp. T'was time for making up my mind about my favorite workhorse.
It's right in time since both would need thinning on a next session. I've burned what little thin BTE the Wakui had OOTB, and the Shi.Han is just starting to get fat BTE. Less than how it came to me, more than I can ignore.
Wakui
Shi.Han...
...First a bit of proteins and a board that would ensure my edges were true... the crappiest bamboo of my collection that dutifully serves as a board to cut processed raw meat. Back bacon 4 slices stacks for each knife = roughly 15mm tall stack first sliced long way, then diced short way.
Hard to tell a winner but profile where the Shi.Han undoubtedly win... I'll come back on that because it's a bit unfair and needs clarification. Also, the Wakui's propension to throw food off shows well here with the less tidy dice pile, just as well as it's capacity to throw whole segments of a dice aside like a single piece. The Shi.Han's food release is somehow calmer and steadier, on par with its competitor and most of any I've experienced but controlled. I had one long stack slice stick to it slightly (fell off before I could push it off) though whereas the Wakui got none. I'd have a hard time to say what it can even mean but being honest. Tidiness of the Shi.Han for the whole operation makes up for it nicely.
... Then onions... one med size of roughly the same size for each knife to turn into a fine dice as well.
Despite how the Shi.Han proves its tidiness again here, I prefer the Wakui for that job. The dicing that is. Because surprisingly enough the Shi.Han melted through halving its onion, whereas the Wakui just went through steadily. Subtile differences we all get in a big way when working up those inevitable onions. Edge angle plays a bit here as we'll see, but mostly it's an effect of the Wakui's crisper Shinogi. Which is also why I prefer it for the dice: a bit less controlled release for sure, but there's never much of the dice hanging on to the blade at once... aaaand it's narrower, straighter stance - compared with the slightly taller but mostly much more slanted stance of the Shi.Han - does a better job of an almost chopping push cut I like to do on onions. A trend starts to come out.
But I still prefered the Shi.Han slightly for cutting horizontals and verticals of those halfs.
... Then a rough slice of garlic, and a fine slice of carrots.
Difficult, really difficult. Don't be fooled by how the piles look this time BTW, because that for the Wakui was spine scraped clear of my working space both times, but the pile of the Shi.Han is "as is" adding me pushing off remnants of cuts. There the thicker more convexed edge on the Shi.Han played its part in releasing a bit more of it all than the Wakui. Just as well as my preference with it for slicing and more slicing push cut was obvious with the carrots. Added to that, I always found the Shi.Han, as thick as it is tip included (vs. the Wakui aaaaand a LOT of Gyutos out there) to be the better garlic processor of them all...
As for tipping and halving the carrots, both had a slight cracking and similar resistance, and tip dragging rough batonnets out of the halfs a very similar effeciency. These were not big carrots at all... roughly 3/4 of an inch thick Nantese starting to get old but still very rigid and springy. I must give the palm to the Shi.Han here, but the Wakui followed along rather excellently. A smaller third carrot when to the Shi.Han for good behabior, and to make sure it was really it. In the end it's not food release but me knowing the Shi.Han well in tip garlic processing, and preferring it's profile (again to be discussed) in slicier motions -- for the carrot stacks.
... The reason why I was cutting these was an attempt at the ultimate umami tomato sauce.
Which worked outstandly well I must add...
The winner's moment of contemplation of the work done:
Beer was a Moretti, to keep in line with the italian mood.
Add-on: I prefer the Shi.Han's profile in many things, but then again it's mine profile. Where it is now is FAR from being what it was when it got to me.
It's born of my sharpening it about 6 times and thinning it about three times. It's the knife I know best and did my best work by.
In this extreme situation of thickness BTE it's been convexed-relief beveled and sharpened still almost as acutely.
And it can sustain that form for a long time if I want it too. Not the first time I've been there,
Aaaaaand not the first time it's been drawned up against another Gyuto I loved and win the game. Two TF Mabs went that way among others and I really loved both Mabs which I find to suit me better in terms of handling ultimately... but they could not dislodge my Shi.Han out of its spot of whatever I like best for a Gyuto if it's going to be so expensive.
Be well folks!
