Highlander tells you, "there can be only one!" Which do you choose? 🤔

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Tanaka ginsan or the Makoto Kurosaki Ryusei in VG7. The VG7 is tough as hell and the profile accommodates rocking, slicing, or push cutting happily. The Ryusei has become my wife's favorite knife and I even got my mom the santoku version. I think it's a great family friendly one that can handle abuse but also grow with them since the profile is fine with whatever technique you want to try out. The Tanaka ginsan is much the same but mine is a 240 so it scares off guests/family and hasn't been abused as much.

https://realsharpknife.com/collections/makoto-kurosaki/products/makoto-kurosaki-ryusei-210mm-gyuto
 
I have to say I am not excited about spending money on a knife that doesn’t give me joy per se.

Has anyone tried Güde or Messermeister? They seem similar, but aesthetically a little more palatable to me.
 
Lightfall said:
I have to say I am not excited about spending money on a knife that doesn’t give me joy per se.

Has anyone tried Güde or Messermeister? They seem similar, but aesthetically a little more palatable to me.
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Then can you tell us more about what is it that you consider joyful in the use of a knife?

Out of what's been discussed here, I can vouch for CaptainCaed's choice of a Kanehide TK as fitting both descriptions in your original post; plenty tough enough, and a very good all-around knife.
 
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Joy is tied up in the intangibles of the choosing process, loosely put a beautiful tool that involved care and expertise without necessarily being tied to a specific aesthetic.

In other words not helpful whatsoever.

I will check out WI cutlery as I’d not, thanks for the tip I didn’t think anyone carried them locally.
 
blokey said:
The Alder looks pretty good, I’ve seen many ads for the Warther, do you know how they perform? The pattern choice unfortunately reminds me of CM.
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Again, no firsthand experience but the feedback I recall for both was positive. These were users comparing to standard German fare.

I agree on the Warther. I've never been a fan of jeweling. It was big in the gun community for a while and I didn't like it there either. But I know a lot of people who love it. 🤷‍♂️
 
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Honestly all the ones I really like are the Japanese blades. I am going to go see the messermeister blades in person soon.

I may end up with a gyuto shaped blade in a stainless steel around 60ish hardness with a western style handle as a compromise. The good news is they all seem to be low price probably because what people really want are the trad gyutos and that’s where they’ll allocate the enthusiast money.
 
There’s nothing wrong with a Western handle on a gyuto… it is arguably more authentic than a wa handle.

I say this coming from a place where top French bakeries and Italian restaurants are as likely as not to be obsessive Japanese reinventions of European traditions.

One strain of it goes back to Perry in 1853, and shows up in reproduction military jackets, as William Gibson remarks:
Japan had a more radical experience of future shock than any other nation in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. They were this feudal place, locked in the past, but then they bought the whole Industrial Revolution kit from England, blew their cultural brains out with it, became the first industrialized Asian nation, tried to take over their side of the world, got nuked by the United States for their trouble, and discovered Steve McQueen! Their take on iconic menswear emerges from that matrix. Complicated!
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Similarly complicated, in 1872 the Emperor eats beef in public for the first time, and 150 years later we have the Wagyu and the gyuto.

I’d go so far as to say that “traditional gyuto” is as much of an oxymoron as “traditional salmon sushi” 🤪😜🤪
 
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Lightfall said:
Honestly all the ones I really like are the Japanese blades. I am going to go see the messermeister blades in person soon.

I may end up with a gyuto shaped blade in a stainless steel around 60ish hardness with a western style handle as a compromise. The good news is they all seem to be low price probably because what people really want are the trad gyutos and that’s where they’ll allocate the enthusiast money.
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Tojiro DP 21cm gyuto or MAC Mighty MTH-80 would be the best affordable “compromise” choices then, and both are great stepping stones into Japanese knives. MAC has a more pronounced belly curve and is better for rocking, while the Tojiro is flatter and better for push pull. If you are interested in the MAC, PM me and I’ll sell you mine way below current MSRP.
 
If I quit the knife hobby and had to sell all but 1 gyuto for money and space, the one I’d keep would be my Birgersson. After soaking in coffee it has a reasonably stable patina so I don’t worry about rust. Cost about $350 with a wa handle I think, and is actually one of the cheapest knives on my rack these days. He did a recent run with full-tang Western handle in the $550 range. Tied for 2nd would be either my Myojin R2 (stainless) and my Brian Hanson, both under $400 but with wa handles.

For a pure stainless beater for family and random guests, hands-down would be my Wusthof.

Sounds like you prefer Western handles and maybe a plain brushed finish so one more interesting choice in brushed stainless + semi-Western handle is this run from Herde for $360 + shipping
 
HumbleHomeCook said:
@mengwong and @blokey I think in fairness it is more accurate to say the modern version of wa handles and wa handles on gyuto's are a modern thing.

If you look at these pictures @KenHash shared, the knives look to have simple curliclaur, but wa-style handles:
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/no-such-thing-as-a-cow-sword.52047/post-790059
I know this notion gets repeated a lot, and maybe I'm completely wrong or misunderstanding something but it doesn't seem accurate.
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I think that's what they meant - wa handles are traditional, but when the Japanese made gyuto by adapting the western chef knife, they adapted the entire thing, handle included. It's not until recently that people started sticking wa handles on gyutos
 
Delat said:
If I quit the knife hobby and had to sell all but 1 gyuto for money and space, the one I’d keep would be my Birgersson. After soaking in coffee it has a reasonably stable patina so I don’t worry about rust. Cost about $350 with a wa handle I think, and is actually one of the cheapest knives on my rack these days. He did a recent run with full-tang Western handle in the $550 range. Tied for 2nd would be either my Myojin R2 (stainless) and my Brian Hanson, both under $400 but with wa handles.

For a pure stainless beater for family and random guests, hands-down would be my Wusthof.

Sounds like you prefer Western handles and maybe a plain brushed finish so one more interesting choice in brushed stainless + semi-Western handle is this run from Herde for $360 + shipping
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I like my Birgersson, but tbh I might get a wa handled version later, the western handle is really nice but on the skinny side. One hybrid handle I really like is Newham’s, tho they are bit pricey. I’m in for the Simon Herde tho, will report back how it feels.
 
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