It’s quite solid, especially at its price-point. Haven’t put it through the paces yet to speak for heat treat, but it came without much of an edge to speak of so it went through a couple passes on my ouka and it sharpened up quick since it’s a white 2.
Decent convex, maybe a bit biased for right handed. Not too thin behind the edge to feel fragile, but haven’t experienced much wedging. Wouldn’t say it cuts like a myojin, but it’s like half the price lol. The down pointed nose is a bit toyama-esque as noted above but it’s thinner at the tip. I like the height as well.
With the fit and finish, kasumi is a bit rougher as expected for a lower priced knife, compared to the more pricy knives from hitohira, but still, the beveled spine and choil is excellent. I hear the finishing is done completely separate from the smith/sharpener.
Also, I just noticed tosho mentions this about the duo - “Gorobei the blacksmith works out of Sakai-city with his sharpener Rikichi, the latter of whom was the mentor for another well-respected Sakai sharpener.” So maybe a bit different from what I thought I was told.
Worth it for me as someone who was looking for a tall-ish Sakai knife, iron clad, light-middleweight convex, with solid fit and finish. I’m sure if I wanted to, I can get uchi powder or something to really bring out the kasumi finish.
