Hi from New Jersey

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Avincent52

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Joined
Oct 20, 2023
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Location
Montclair NJ
Happy to join the fun here.

I've taken a bit of a deep dive into the Japanese knife world in the past couple of months.
I'm a reasonably serious home cook and have a knife block full of nice Shuns that I bought from Williams Sonoma on sale with Amex points.
Then I realized my knives were getting kind of dull, so I bought a King 1000/6000 stone from Korin...and started watching sharpening videos on YouTube.
Which led to watching Japanes knife videos and...
I bought a Masakage (Kato) 135 mm Aogami Super ko-bunka, figuring that it would slot in nicely among the larger Shuns.
That was the gateway drug as I realized what I was missing.

In the coming weeks I bought a Kato 210mm Aogami Super Gyuto at MTC in Manhattan
I stumbled upon the Shiro Kamo Black Dragon Jinari that had just come in at Clearcut
And realizing I needed something for carving at the holidays, I just bought a Yu Kurosaki Senko 270mm sujihiki with an ironwood yo handle.
(I got a deal.)

So yeah, I guess I have an affinity for the blades from the Takefu Knife Village. Echizen FTW!

More to the point, I'm proud to report my sharpening game has gone from non-existent to semi-passable and the Shuns will now shred paper just like on YouTube.

And having these great knives has encouraged me to refine my already decent knife skills.
Thanks again, and when the Kurosaki arrives next week I'll take a family portrait.
 
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Welcome.

We did a survey of sorts once about what was a users first Japanese knife. Shun was the predominant brand and seems like about half of us started there. Your in good company.
 
I actually started out with the Shuns when I decided that for their 13th birthday I'd get each of my kids a kitchen knife.
I went to the Williams Sonoma up the block and I liked the 5.5 inch Shun Santoku best.
Still a really nice knife, when it's sharpened.
I bought a couple more with gift cards from Amex when the knives were on sale.
They're nice knives and way better than what 95% of people use.

That said, I'm glad I went down the sharpening rabbit hole and bought some even nicer knives.
 
The other thing I love about these knifes is the artisanal nature of them.
I admit that I bought into the story of the Takefu Knife Village, and it's cool to see Kato-san, Kurosaki-san, and Kamo-san at work.
 
Welcome from NJ. I just moved out of Bloomfield a few months ago.
 
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