Master & Apprentice

[Budrichard]

These knives are separated about 40 years in time.
The Ebony handled 270mm Yanagabi was made by Kenichi Shiraki about 40 years ago and commissioned for me.
The Nakagawa VG10 Mirror 330mm Sakimaru Takohiki was recently acquired by me. The Shiraki is of Hitachi Steel and the Nakagawa VG10 is a stainless.
I am seeing more and more commercial chefs using stainless and I decided to give this one try.
As you can see the mirror finish on the Shiraki does suffer somewhat with use and time.
The Mirror on the Nakagawa can’t compete with the Shiraki which was absolutely brilliant when I first received it.
The Shiraki was my second Sashimi knife and I was not yet comfortable with a longer blade. My first was a commercial 240mm sold to me by Yamasho in Chicago.
Over the years I have become comfortable with longer blade and I now use a 330mm Takeda custom made for me.
The Kanagawa is much heavier!
I have some wild Pacific BlueFin Akami in the freezer cut from a 4# block I ordered and the next time I cut a piece I will compare the two knives.
More to come!
-Richard

 

[NotAddictedYet]

commissioned 40 years ago wow... glad you found us OG

 

[Budrichard]

I don’t recall a Kitchen Knife Forum, 40 years ago?
40 years ago there was little knowledge of these knives.
I commissioned Murray Carter who was in Japan at the time to broker ”The best Sashimi Knife Maker” at the time to make this knife.
Murray who is a knife maker himself understood my desire.
Back then I had no idea who Kenichi was and these knives very rarely made there way out of Japan.
40 years later I realize what a good job Murray did!
It was VERY expensive at the time and even in todays $$ would be considered expensive.
Today similar knives are available all over the Internet.
So who is considered making the best knives today for Sashimi in Japan?
-Richard

 

[Budrichard]

Well, I should not have worried about the weight!
Sliced through this block of Akami with no problem.
Combination of weight, mirror finish and sharpness cut effortlessly!
-Richard

 

[Naftoor]

Pretty awesome bit of knife history, thanks for sharing them!