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Koop

Koop

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New guy om the forum. I've decided I need a Honesuki, so please don't try to steer me away. I'm looking for a knife in the $100 -$150 range and I think I want to use this as an opportunity to try something other than stainless steel - that's all I've used for 30 years. I'm not a chef - just an amateur. I'll mostly be breaking chicken or separating smoked pork ribs. I see JKI has a knife called Rinkaku that's reported to be semi-stainless, whatever that means. It looks like the handle is a bit rustic, but it's a low-cost knife. I'm also interested in the JCK CarboNext KC-4 honesuki or the Misono Swedish steel 141 boning knife. Bernal also has a vintage (1990s?) NOS SK Masakani at a great price. What to do? Any experience with these starter grade knives? Any advice is appreciated.
 
The Rinkaku serves me well, and the semi stainless has been very resistant to patina and isn’t a total bear on stones. Was a good honesuki to learn to sharpen I think. I won’t steer you away from a honesuki but I do think you should give a hankotsu a solid look as well, I prefer the shape for ribs and there are solid ones to be had in the sub $100 category. And the BST part of the forum is always there in case you decide it’s just not the knife for you. Hope this helps in some way, happy new year and good luck finding the right knife/knives for you!
 
Suisin, Masahiro and Misono offer Carbon Steel honesukis at fairly low prices. Masamoto does too but more expensive. Tojiro offers one with likely Aus8 stainless. Alot of choices at affordable price levels.
Trust you are aware that Honesukis are nearly, if not all, single bevel knives though and often come in right hand(default) and left hand versions.
 
I have the Misono Swedish 165mm honesuki. Not much more I could ask for. It's sharp and rugged, and feels very good in the hand. Haven't tried any other honesuki. Bought mine from japanesechefsknife.com

I had a same thread a few months ago and someone here steered me away from getting a more expensive one (I was considering a Toyama). He said some knives (butcher) should be rugged. That said, I can't/won't use my Misono to cut through e.g. the ankle of a chicken, I use a beater for that.
 
I have the Carbonext. Quite satisfied with it. Sharpens easy, easy to maintain, takes a beating without problem. Going semi-stainless doesn't necessarily bring a whole lot for something you only really use to break down meat. You're basically missing out on a really great patina.
Were I to do it over again I would strongly consider the Misono. Haven't actually used it though so I can't really say which of the two I'd prefer in actual usage.

Like Wahnamhong said... there's something nice about having something utilitarian. Personally I like having something with a full bolster and pakkawood scales where I know I can basically sink it ballsdeep into chicken and not have a care in the world about sanitizing it, or how well the wood will hold up to my cleaning, or how much gunk starts building up under the handle scales.
Admittedly, better technique should allow one to keep one hand clean at all times, but as a home user technique is not necessarily always ones strong suit.
 
Thanks for the responses. Ken, I'm a righty and I've used single bevel santoku, so no worries there. Thanks again.
 
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