You can ask for that. Someone got A Cleaver tip dead flat nakiri from him. I asked for a cleaver tip, but when going this big not sure he was able to make that happen or it got lost in translation. Other than the toe it is flat.
Knife Japan: What's notable, worth buying, etc.?
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Ask for a Kaku Nakiri, mine was nice, not dead flat but quite flat, dead flat is also bit troubling to use for me
Guess I should have used the correct terminology when ordering. Good to know I had seen a few of these and even saw the Kaku custom order that was sold out of Australia a while back, but only said cleaver tip when ordering. My bad oh well still really awesome blade.
I ordered my Christmas present and it is on its way this week. The last Yoshimitsu Kajiya Nakiri-bocho 155mm that was available. I guess Ide San didn't have anymore in that size either so until more are made it is no longer on the site. If anyone is interested though I heard Ide San has some 180mm x 75-80 if they haven't already been bought out. I wanted the 155mm since I only have a bunka that is close to that size, but prefer the taller blade heights of these.
I have a couple of 180/200mm nakiri coming from Junichi Ide, he said they're left over from the carrot harvest.
I've ordered these two from Michael. The Okubo was first and I was clear to state exactly what I wanted. The second one I made a quick mock up of what I was after. Also Michael knew exactly what I was after when he ordered from Kusunoki san. The Okubo had some slight curve but the Unshu is properly flat.
Okubo top, Unshu Yukimitsu bottom (has a new handle now). The pic I sent when ordering.
Okubo top, Unshu Yukimitsu bottom (has a new handle now). The pic I sent when ordering.
How do you like them? They look great. I've always loved that kaku look but am not sure how I'd like it in use.
I keep returning to this thread - it's bloody brilliant!
I ended up selling the Okubo as I was trying to keep my collection relatively sensible. The steel was something else, it's gotta be 65+ hrc and took a crazy keen edge. It was a 180 but I've been tempted to reorder as a 210 as the workhorse sort of nature would be awesome at that size! The Unshu is almost my perfect nakiri though. Thinner than the Okubo and super flat. I really dig it. Steel seems good and is super easy to sharpen like any carbon. A word of warning though is don't be surprised by some wabi sabi. For the price they are awesome but they aren't the prettiest knives.
This is the Unshu now with a K+S teak handle. It's 210x65 mm 221 g.
Thanks. I had an Unshu and still have several other knives from KJ so I'm very accustomed to and okay with the rustic nature of them. That is a cool looking knife for sure!
What's the size of that one? Looks great!
Missed this one! Awesome! I reckon a 270 would work pretty well too
180 x 60mm, same as a Wat pro
Can you post a choil of this?
A few more from Yosimitu Kajiya.
The nashiji are san mai, stainless clad Shirogami 2, I prefer the iron clad that Ide-san makes as the distal taper/forging is better. He works mostly with warikomi Shirogami 2 but does work with san mai in various steel, outsourcing stainless steel heat treatment.
Honestly the choil shot isn't very representative of the rest of the knife since there's a hollow on the flat at the heel, above the wide bevel so I'm not going to post it here. It's all straight and cuts great, just part of the wabi sabi I mentioned before.
BillHanna
Gotta get ready for ARM
DitmasPork
Senior Member
Those look sweet!
Anyone have experience with the smith and/or this particular knife?
https://knifejapan.com/yoshimitsu-hamono-black-forged-gyuto-210mm-aogami-super/
https://knifejapan.com/yoshimitsu-hamono-black-forged-gyuto-210mm-aogami-super/
I have a White 1 240 from ~2015 and the pictures on KJ look similar enough to say: rustic F&F, but at least all the sharp corners are knocked down. Forged in hollow above a low wide bevel grind, KU is applied with/covered in laquer. It's been sitting waiting for a re-handle and I'm still getting around to it.
Haven’t used it yet, but got this Yoshimitsu Kajiya Nakir-Bocho 155mm shirogami #2 for Christmas. Guess I need to use some acetone to clean off the blade first. Not sure what the blue sack is for, but hell of good packaging.
The plan is To make it like the last pic looks like. Either with the current handle or maybe an olive wood handle I have.
The plan is To make it like the last pic looks like. Either with the current handle or maybe an olive wood handle I have.
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BillHanna
Gotta get ready for ARM
So. Fancy.
Congrats! I look forward to seeing what you do with it.
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So after asking Michael at KJ I got an answer to blue cloth.
The cloth cover is a gift from Ide san and made by his mum, when he ships a single knife he includes one for slipping the knife box into for shipping on to the customer. Very kind. Some of them are very luxurious! With your unusually shaped nakiri there was no box, but I imagined you might re-wrap the nakiri in some fashion for the big day and if so the cover could add something. Otherwise it's a little difficult to think of a practical use for it.
Well already found a use for it. The Thai machete has a new home. I love that it is made by ide-San’s mum too.
The cloth cover is a gift from Ide san and made by his mum, when he ships a single knife he includes one for slipping the knife box into for shipping on to the customer. Very kind. Some of them are very luxurious! With your unusually shaped nakiri there was no box, but I imagined you might re-wrap the nakiri in some fashion for the big day and if so the cover could add something. Otherwise it's a little difficult to think of a practical use for it.
Well already found a use for it. The Thai machete has a new home. I love that it is made by ide-San’s mum too.
Let me just say yet again that Michael is an awesome guy and without question the gold standard of vendors!
We've got a lengthy (ocassional) back and forth email that spans many months. Back in the summer when I got my Homi nakiri and santoku I wrote to Michael to tell him how much I liked the performance of the knives and to nudge him to ask Homi san about the possibility of a 180 nakiri. Michael said he'd ask him when next he went to see him and that was more or less that and the subject didn't come up again. Then in October Michael emailed me out of the blue to tell me Homi agreed to make some 180's and he hoped to have them in late November. Well, late November came and went without word but I understand the nature of these things and it didn't bother me at all.
A few days before Christmas I was just curious and emailed Michael asking if he knew if any of his smiths made honesuki's? I got a quick response that he'd think on it because he was quite spent from rushing to get all his orders out before the holiday closures. He also said that my email had been flagged for potential phishing.
Xfinity had a massive hack sometime ago that they only recently decided was important enough to tell the 30+ million people affected.
Anyway, I replied that perhaps that had something to do with it and set about trying to research it. I hated the idea of either not being able to get through to Michael or causing him discomfort each time he saw something from me. I waited until last night to email again and just briefly said that from my research it was likely something with his software seeing something in the string that triggered the flag and hoping we could find a way to keep it from being a problem.
I awoke this morning to find, in typical fashion, a lengthy and lovely email from Michael. In a fair amount of detail he explained software updates and changes he's been needing to make. He then addressed the honesuki inquiry saying that he didn't believe any of his makers did them but saying how he had a very commercial, mass produced offering in the shop. He told me the entire story behind how and why he had it. He then made me a ridiculously generous offer if I wanted it. He concluded by saying that he'd been in touch with Homi san who was out of commission for a bit but hoping to have the 180's done early in the new year.
It's always like reading an email from a friend. Always eloquent and well written with an upbeat tone. A part of me feels guilty emailing him back because I know he's so busy and his nature is to not just give a one or two line response but I sure do like it when he does reply.
We've got a lengthy (ocassional) back and forth email that spans many months. Back in the summer when I got my Homi nakiri and santoku I wrote to Michael to tell him how much I liked the performance of the knives and to nudge him to ask Homi san about the possibility of a 180 nakiri. Michael said he'd ask him when next he went to see him and that was more or less that and the subject didn't come up again. Then in October Michael emailed me out of the blue to tell me Homi agreed to make some 180's and he hoped to have them in late November. Well, late November came and went without word but I understand the nature of these things and it didn't bother me at all.
A few days before Christmas I was just curious and emailed Michael asking if he knew if any of his smiths made honesuki's? I got a quick response that he'd think on it because he was quite spent from rushing to get all his orders out before the holiday closures. He also said that my email had been flagged for potential phishing.
Xfinity had a massive hack sometime ago that they only recently decided was important enough to tell the 30+ million people affected.
Anyway, I replied that perhaps that had something to do with it and set about trying to research it. I hated the idea of either not being able to get through to Michael or causing him discomfort each time he saw something from me. I waited until last night to email again and just briefly said that from my research it was likely something with his software seeing something in the string that triggered the flag and hoping we could find a way to keep it from being a problem.I awoke this morning to find, in typical fashion, a lengthy and lovely email from Michael. In a fair amount of detail he explained software updates and changes he's been needing to make. He then addressed the honesuki inquiry saying that he didn't believe any of his makers did them but saying how he had a very commercial, mass produced offering in the shop. He told me the entire story behind how and why he had it. He then made me a ridiculously generous offer if I wanted it. He concluded by saying that he'd been in touch with Homi san who was out of commission for a bit but hoping to have the 180's done early in the new year.
It's always like reading an email from a friend. Always eloquent and well written with an upbeat tone. A part of me feels guilty emailing him back because I know he's so busy and his nature is to not just give a one or two line response but I sure do like it when he does reply.
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I got my Okubo Santoku in just before Christmas. No surprises on Fit and Finish. My first cut was disappointing and I was a little dismissive of the zeitgeist surrounding this smith. Then I took it for another spin and quit keeping the tip in the cut and it cut beautifully. It seems the tip was ground a little thicker behind the edge on mine. Not sure if that is intentional or not. Anyways, the I'm on the Okubo train now.
After I ordered mine, I discovered we could order Gyutos and other profiles, so I think I will do that soon. I mentioned this to Michael said he was going to update his site with some more Okubo offerings so we know what options there are. He also gave me a play-by-play of what they're doing for New Years (I asked) in the typically awesome Michael fashion.
After I ordered mine, I discovered we could order Gyutos and other profiles, so I think I will do that soon. I mentioned this to Michael said he was going to update his site with some more Okubo offerings so we know what options there are. He also gave me a play-by-play of what they're doing for New Years (I asked) in the typically awesome Michael fashion.
My first outing was similarly not amazing but not bad. I then decided to use it to practice polishing and after flattening the bevel on a venev and taking to SG500, SP1000, naniwa 2k then jnats, it looks cool and cuts great. I’d say mid weight with lasers tip. Feels really solid on the board but still falls thru produce. Took it from 208 gm to 203 gm
I really like it
Looking for a kuwabara next
My 195 Okubo gyuto was a little thick behind the edge for the whole length, and yes, maybe a little more so at the tip. I’ve taken it from 187 to 182 grams. It could use a little more, but I am going to go very carefully (later) because it sheds cut ingredients better than any knife I have. This was a custom, and I didn’t discuss anything but length with Michael, because I like to see how a smith makes a knife their way. The more I use it the more I like it (a lot), rarely reaching for anything else in the last six weeks or so.
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Interested in this one here
https://knifejapan.com/nakamura-hamono-o-bocho-180mm/
https://knifejapan.com/nakamura-hamono-o-bocho-180mm/
