Fit and Finish

[Sparhawk]

After seeing the quality control thread I was wondering what other members would say are their favorite brands for excellent fit and finish.

I'm still relatively new and learning so would love to get some more brands to consider.

 

[rmrf]

I'm not big into fit and finish, but there are some knives that I feel worse when I scratch them and stain their handles with my grimy little fingers.

Frederick spare has good fit and finish for the price but he's a small producer. You can probably find a lot of small producers that have great fit and finish.

I will always recommend yoshikane whenever I have the opportunity. I also have a konosuke sanjo thats pretty good. I think anything konosuke is probably a good bet but you should see what other say.

I've gotten a few things from JKI and they all seemed good to me.
Its easier for me to name the knives that have worse fit and finish. Munetoshi, kaeru, & mazaki immediately come to mind. They are also my favorites so

 

[tostadas]

The knives I've tried by Myojin and also Nakagawa are so far my top in terms of F&F out of the box. Wakui is a great budget option too. I think I've had 5 or 6 now and have yet to come across a bad one. Anything from Konosuke is top notch in the F&F department. Yoshikane has great consistency in their grinds, but I think the edges of the spine/choils are uncomfortable without some additional rounding.

But most of my favorite knives are ones that come with more wabi-sabi. Then I can tweak em as I see fit.

 

[Dull_Apex]

My Kei Kobayashi has every edge that isn't for cutting fully rounded and the "plug" over the handle installation matching the grain of the surrounding wood.

 

[adam92]

Furin Kazan. My top 1 F&F. Perfect rounded choil & spine, great ho wood handle. I have many experience with others ho wood, including aritsugu, mizuno, masamoto, ichimonji & others. Furinkazan give me best value.
I said the 300++ USD yanagiba value is same level to others 800++USD knives.

KNS, James does great job for quality control, I got my Yoshimi kato AS nashiji gyuto Ebony handle with silver ring from him, same perfect choil & spine.

My friend got the Y.Kato AS nashiji gyuto some where else, the F&F is really big difference.

 

[sansho]

so far, top for me has been hitohira tanaka x kyuzo. the taihei handles they come with are part of that.

newham looks nicer, but i don't have one.

 

[bahamaroot]

Nearly all of them. Harder to find bad fit and finnish than good. The quality control thread was overblown about one possibly questionable but more than likely a very acceptable knife.

 

[chefwp]

Kagekiyo comes immediately to my mind as a step above in the f&f dept.

 

[nexus1935]

I'd agree with Kagekiyo being among the top of the list - quite a few makers will have rounded spines and choils, but Kagekiyo has a very nice chamfered spine.

 

[chefwp]

I almost forgot, but Takada is also up there.

 

[Feiii]

Nearly all of them. Harder to find bad fit and finnish than good. The quality control thread was overblown about one possibly questionable but more than likely a very acceptable knife.

Well some people do tend to have lower standards in life. good for you

 

[Delat]

I agree with @bahamaroot - the vast majority of knives will have good f&f once you get over the $150 price point or so. When you jump up over $500 with the likes of Myojin, Nakagawa, Hitohira Tanaka, Konosuke, etc then the f&f generally does take a step up. Almost all Western makers will have very high levels of f&f as well. Of course there’s always exceptions like TF and CM.

It’s kind of like suits - you can get a perfectly good suit from Macy’s or Men’s Wearhouse for $300. Jump to $600 and there’s a step up in quality, and again over $1000. But they all work fine and many people probably couldn’t tell the difference just from looking - it’s just your personal preference and budget that determines what you end up buying.

Really a better question might be which knives at a certain price point, like say under $200 have the best level of f&f. But then you’d have to specify which aspects of f&f matter the most to you. Do you care about the handle, rounding of the spine/choil, the level of polish on the blade, no over/undergrinds, etc? (Well actually I don’t think you’re going to get a handmade blade with no over/undergrinds for <$200.)

 

[Brian Weekley]

Priced accordingly but the top of the list has to be Will Newham. Gone are the days when you could get one for sub $400.

A pic …

 

[bahamaroot]

Well some people do tend to have lower standards in life. good for you

Ah...did you feel insulted and need to lash out...I'll try to be more sensitive to your delicate feelings.

 

[Pie]

Konosuke is pretty close to gold standard to me. Nothing at all to complain about, every detail I can think of they paid attention to. Some I didn’t even know about too. Myojin gets at least some of that credit.

Togashi’s single bevels under hitohira are excellent too. Less “fancy”, but pretty close to perfect.

I still prefer roughly finished knives, as damage will inevitably occur and I feel less bad when it does on things that I don’t mind working on and scratching up.

 

[Brian Weekley]

I still prefer roughly finished knives, as damage will inevitably occur and I feel less bad when it does on things that I don’t mind working on and scratching up.

+1 … which is why I have a few TF’s on my rack. They cut like banshees, sharpen easily, hold an edge and aren’t so pretty that I fear the odd scratch or nick.

 

[blokey]

Most things JKI sale have good F&F, Kobayashi Kei knife definitely one of the best F&F in the game. Shi.Han is really nice too, but expected at that price point.

 

[sansho]

markin knives also come to mind

 

[ModRQC]

It's part of the charm...