Jknives

[Day]

Hi, it’s a pleasure to join here. My apologies for such a long post. But, to the point...so my wife and I had been paycheck to paycheck most our lives until a couple years ago. Thus we always had cheap knives, our best knives were some Alton brown angle classic shun knives but they have gone like 9 years without sharpening because the 15 dollar round trip was out of our budget

My wife is from Japan and has family in Japan(Fukuoka)

I decided she needed a good knife and at first bought a Miyabi Mizi Nakiri ($149after some initial research. However sharpening is a concern. Since I don’t personally cook but occasionally make simple meals largely involving ground beef or steaks there isn’t anything I can really use them for (though damn if I started using them I would really get into this). She on the other hand cooks a wide variety of meals everyday.

Thus, I don’t see myself committing long term to regular sharpening or currently want to spend the money on good whetstones and she isn’t there yet either. This led me toward nicer shun knives. she mentioned familiarity with the Santoku design but is also waxing nostalgic now for the Nakiri design as it brings back memories of her grandmother. I ended up purchasing a shun Kaji 8 inch chef ($199)and a hollow ground 7inch Kaji Santoku ($249) from WS

The plan is to keep one and return two (or switch out the nakiri for a shun) to benefit from sharpening unless she really loves two.


That was the plan. Then I spent another 20 hours reading online. I’m trying to control myself and admit that I probably won’t maintain a sharpening regimen which I believe would be the case. However I am also seriously looking at other smaller blacksmiths etc.

My family goes back to visit Japan every year also if that matters ( I stay to work).

So my question is, is my lack of desire to purchase quality whetstones and maintain a sharp knife sufficient reason to just go shun and forget it, or are there some excellent opportunities where we could have her family send us a great quality knife (or just wait till this summer) and still maintain it somehow without too much cost or effort. I’m not exactly working with a firm budget but mostly want great value that can be maintained reasonably.

 

[Nagakin]

A quality, hand-made Japanese knife with a hard steel will not need regular maintenance with home use. Honestly, I would return all three and spent half of the total on a knife that speaks to her.

If you don't want to sharpen you can always buy (or even make) a leather strop that'll keep the edge straight for a long time with minimal effort. When that loses effectiveness take it to a professional once or twice a year.

 

[dafox]

Maybe pack your knife in check-in baggage and have it sharpened in Japan?

 

[Day]

Maybe pack your knife in check-in baggage and have it sharpened in Japan?

yea I was thinking g about that when I was typing. I will discuss possibly just waiting until this summer and having her hit some shops in Japan, if the guys there can also sharpen each year. Not sure how to even start searching for good blacksmiths/shops near Fukuoka or where her grandmother lives (somewhere near Kokura I believe, supposedly her grandmother saw the bomber that had originally intended to drop the nuke on their city but for the cloud cover).

 

[ian]

“Just go with a Shun” seems a little off target, since most of the suggestions for a first knife you’d get around here wouldn’t necessarily be more expensive than the all the Shuns you’re buying, and Shuns need to be sharpened just as much as other knives.

It’s true that most of us would suggest just getting a single 210 gyuto instead, but if you’ve already bought some knives that’s fine.

If you’re worried enough about the sharpness of your knives to be posting on here, just learn to sharpen. It’s really not hard and is so much more convenient than sending them out. Really, the hardest part about learning to sharpen is convincing yourself to try it.

 

[VICTOR J CREAZZI]

There's got to be a member near by that could sharpen your knives once in a while for a small fee. If he does it while you watch, he could maybe coach you and get you into sharpening yourself. I find sharpening very enjoyable. Next you'll start wanting to do the chopping in the kitchen to use your edges. Chopping with a sharp knife that you sharpened yourself is a real joy. Your wife may like you doing the chopping. Mine does.

There are people here who chop a bunch of veggies just to test their knives...and then look for recipes to use the vegetables.

 

[Day]

There's got to be a member near by that could sharpen your knives once in a while for a small fee. If he does it while you watch, he could maybe coach you and get you into sharpening yourself. I find sharpening very enjoyable. Next you'll start wanting to do the chopping in the kitchen to use your edges. Chopping with a sharp knife that you sharpened yourself is a real joy. Your wife may like you doing the chopping. Mine does.

There are people here who chop a bunch of veggies just to test their knives...and then look for recipes to use the vegetables.

That would be ideal, maybe if they are into espresso we can make it a cooking and brewing party Of course, at only 3 posts or something I am probably not at that point yet. However, I am still tossing around my choices and either way have the Shun coming, may end up keeping one for now and then deciding to pursue some hands on Japanese knives in the summer if no one knows of some really great small blacksmiths in the Fukuoka region.

If we do keep a Shun, anyone have any idea about the Dual Core Hikari models? The real debate was I thought the Nakiri or Santoku, throwing a chefs knife out to see how it feels. I noticed the Hikari model is a dual steel, no core blade, at first I ignored it because the Kaji was a solid SG2 core, with the Hiakri alternating layers of SG2 and VG-10 so I thought, why would I want to get the lower grade steel? Then after some more reading today I have stumbled across some old threads on this forumn giving some pretty good praise to a dual steel shun. Is one of the Kaji vs Hakiri clearly superior in some way, or is it just slicing tomato top to bottom vs bottom to top? (if you tell me thats a huge difference.....) The Hakiri 7" Santoku is currently 199, which seems reasonable anyway.

 

[Day]

What kind of noticeable difference would there be in something like
Yoshimi SG2 Santoku 165mm

 

[ojisan]

As for local knife making in Fukuoka, Hakata, part of Fukuoka, has the Hakata Knife which is considered as the traditional knife in the region.

Ooba-san is the last smith who makes Hakata knives today. He makes only carbon steels knives so they rust.



Miyazaki-san, a younger smith who learned blacksmithing under Ooba-san makes Hakata-style knives as well in an island in Nagasaki. He makes stainless steel versions as well.


http://www.miyazakikajiya.com/

Side note: people here tend to be less interested in factory made knives, meaning less information about them.

My wife uses our Victorinox most of the time, just because she can throw it away to the dishwasher. She is not so interested in other expensive (hand-wash required) knives in the drawer. Less maintenance effort might be more important than slight difference of cutting performance.

 

[Day]

Tha is for that I was planning to ask about Ooba. Will probably keep a shin, but I will definitely have to try to get one, I can’t read the website myself but will have my wife take a look and figure out how. I see in google translate it takes two years, I’ll have to get my in laws to call and see if it’s the same for them.

 

[Yet-Another-Dave]

Regarding sharpening, it isn't as hard as you (probably) imagine and you certainly don't have to go the the extremes of some of the posters here to have a useful knife. The best advice I received about sharpening was related to woodworking saws, but really applies to any sharpening task: "Poorly sharpened is better than dull. Give it a try, keep at it, and get a little better each time."

To maybe break the ice, Michi RECOMMENDED a VIDEO for making basic sharpening approachable. I agree. Helen Rennie's video won't make you an expert, but should allay any fears and get you to acceptable. (I include the link to the original thread so you can read about everything she said that wasn't exactly correct and how to become more expert. *NOT* for the casual beginning sharpener to worry about.)

Jon Broida's sharpening video series, PLAYLIST, is one on the definitive online resources and ideal to help you progress if you want to proceed beyond the most simple basics.