khashy
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If you follow my 'Japanese Knives Collection' account on Instagram, you will have no doubt noticed that I have been using the beautiful White1 steel 240mm Gyuto, made by Nakagawa-san (of Shiraki Hamono fame) and sharpened by Kawakita Hamono for Migoto Cutlery for a while now and I think I have enough of a feel for it to write a review.
Full disclosure before I begin: I have known the owner of Migoto Cutlery for years and we talk knives and stones and everything related almost on a daily basis - He is one of the most knowledgeable people about all things knife and stone related and in addition to be one of the nicest people I know, he is also an insanely talented polisher who shares the entire wealth of his knowledge with everyone.
This review however is entirely objective other than the parts that relate to my personal taste; Migoto have not asked me to write it and they have had no input into it - I think after all these years of my forum activity, my Instagram content and the privilege I have had to write the very first reviews of a good number of knives, we can all agree that this is an impartial review.
About the blacksmith and the sharpener:
This blade is made by Satoshi Nakagawa of Shiraki Hamono fame. I think the majority of Japanese kitchen knife aficionados have heard of Nakagawa-san. He was trained by the legendary Kenichi Shiraki and would have been responsible for forging a significant amount of Shiraki Hamono baldes even when Shiraki-san himself was active. He has proven his skills in the incredible steel coming out of the workshop that is now rebranded under Nakagawa-san's own name (formerly Shiraki Hamono), both in clad and also in honyaki form. I don't think there is much more to be said of Nakagawa-san, his steel speaks for itself and it really is incredible.
The blade is sharpened by Kawakita Hamono. Now, for those of you in the know, you'll immediately realize the significance of that. Kawakita Hamono are master sharpeners and responsible for training some of the best sharpeners we have heard of. I think the most prominent example is Morihiro-san. Konosuke made a video interview with Morihiro-san (search for "Morihiro's World" on YouTube) where Morihiro-san kept referring to his master, Kawakita-san, in reverence and stating that he had wished to be as good as his master.
The reason Kawakita Hamono is not as well known to our community is because they choose to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible. There are reasons for this and this is not the place for those discussions, suffice to say that Kawakita do some of the most insane, unbelievable, complex and thin grinds. More on this later in the review.
The geometry and dimensions:
The profile of the blade is well thought out; it is a Sakai 240mm, which means the blade length itself is just under 230mm and sports a wonderfully usable flat spot for straight chopping. The heel height of the blade is 52mm with the spine just under 3mm above the heel. In typical Sakai fashion, the spine remains more or less at around the same width until it gets to the wonderfully thin tip at 0.7mm at around 10mm from the tip
The curve towards the tip is gentle and lends itself perfectly to push and pull cuts. I am not a fan of rocking blades on cutting board because it causes unnecessary wear on the cutting edge, but if that’s your game, this blade will rock just fine.
The tip is thin thin, thin, thin thin thin. Thin. It ghosts through onions with next to zero pressure. I can keep saying it, but it’s easier to show on video:
Migoto White1 vs Onion
have to excuse my lackluster cutting skills, I actually used to be a bit better but lack of practice in these lockdowns has obviously had its effect. Hopefully you can see how the tip glides effortlessly.
The way Kawakita have ground this blade is just so utterly good; Even though the grind is so immaculately thin behind the edge, it still has a lovely convexity to it. Then they take the grind an extra step further and incorporate a very slight hollow S ( cast your mind to a Shigefusa grind re-the hollow). Again, as thin as the grind behind the edge is, it is still possible to feel these nuances of the geometry - Kawakita magic and sorcery.
I cannot photograph the grind for the life of me, so we’ll have to make do with just a choil shot:
You can see that the cutting edge just thins to a whisper, sexy, just sexy.
Aesthetics:
Well, I think the photographs speak for themselves - it is a very beautiful blade. The cladding is has a matte satin finish and the core steel is nice, shiny and bright. The scratch patterns on both the cladding and core are very fine and very uniform. The organic cladding line looks wonderful and as you would expect from a talented blacksmith like Nakagawa-san.
The handle is octagonal and is made from Morado, aka Brazilian Ironwood, aka Bolivian Rosewood. It is beautifully figured and feels lovely to hold. I actually think this is a very clever choice of material for the handle - The wood looks like rosewood/ironwood but it is lighter, which results in the balance of the knife being absolutely perfect to a tee! I can balance the blade on my finger pretty much exactly at the location of the Migoto Cutlery stamp.
The spine and choil are polished and are nice and smooth. I can't call the spine rounded but it is definitely eased - i.e. the edges are not sharp at all and it is very comfortable to hold on to.
I also need to say a word about the box the knife came in - I think this is actually the nicest looking knife box (I am not counting wooden kiri boxes here) I have ever received a knife in - the wood grain pattern on the box has this wonderful texture to it. I don't know exactly how they've achieved this effect, but basically it's as if the box is made from un-lacquered wood veneer.
Performance:
I have been using this blade exclusively since it arrived. I have used it on all the usual things we use in our every day cooking - Onions, Bell Peppers, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Herbs, Garlic, Fruit, Spring onions, Carrots, ... I have also used it for slicing boneless chicken and meat. I have to say that I could not find anything that the knife could not handle well.
This is all on the out of the box edge btw, which was hair splitting razor sharp (Migoto actually put an incredible edge on every knife before sending and an edge put on by the master polisher that is the owner of Migoto was a pleasure to experience).
The concept of wedging is an entirely alien thing as far as this knife is concerned. Go back to the choil shot above and remind yourself how thin behind the edge this thing really is. We do not tend to eat huge and fat carrots here, but I tried the blade on the largest one of the bunch and it still ghosted through. I have videos of these produce being cut, which I will be posting on my Instagram and I'll make sure to update this thread too.
Migoto White1 Cutting
And
Playing around
Potatoes were dealt with nicely. Again as you'll see in the videos to come, the subtle Shigefusa inspired 'S' in the grind results in the blade having very little to no sticktion. Similarly it deals with hard sweet potatoes with ease without needing any excessive pressure.
I think one of the reasons I am finding this knife such a pleasure to use is the balance of the blade which I touched on before. It is genuinely nothing short of having the perfect balance, which combined with the thinness behind the edge and the ridiculously sharp edge means that I actually have to exert very little pressure in cutting just about everything. I think you'll see what I mean in the videos, where the knife actually compensates for my silly and lackluster cutting skills.
I also have to stress on just how good the tip of the blade is. It is whisper thin and glides through onions on vertical slices. Tip draws on cucumbers, peppers etc are effortless, just lovely.
Full disclosure before I begin: I have known the owner of Migoto Cutlery for years and we talk knives and stones and everything related almost on a daily basis - He is one of the most knowledgeable people about all things knife and stone related and in addition to be one of the nicest people I know, he is also an insanely talented polisher who shares the entire wealth of his knowledge with everyone.
This review however is entirely objective other than the parts that relate to my personal taste; Migoto have not asked me to write it and they have had no input into it - I think after all these years of my forum activity, my Instagram content and the privilege I have had to write the very first reviews of a good number of knives, we can all agree that this is an impartial review.
About the blacksmith and the sharpener:
This blade is made by Satoshi Nakagawa of Shiraki Hamono fame. I think the majority of Japanese kitchen knife aficionados have heard of Nakagawa-san. He was trained by the legendary Kenichi Shiraki and would have been responsible for forging a significant amount of Shiraki Hamono baldes even when Shiraki-san himself was active. He has proven his skills in the incredible steel coming out of the workshop that is now rebranded under Nakagawa-san's own name (formerly Shiraki Hamono), both in clad and also in honyaki form. I don't think there is much more to be said of Nakagawa-san, his steel speaks for itself and it really is incredible.
The blade is sharpened by Kawakita Hamono. Now, for those of you in the know, you'll immediately realize the significance of that. Kawakita Hamono are master sharpeners and responsible for training some of the best sharpeners we have heard of. I think the most prominent example is Morihiro-san. Konosuke made a video interview with Morihiro-san (search for "Morihiro's World" on YouTube) where Morihiro-san kept referring to his master, Kawakita-san, in reverence and stating that he had wished to be as good as his master.
The reason Kawakita Hamono is not as well known to our community is because they choose to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible. There are reasons for this and this is not the place for those discussions, suffice to say that Kawakita do some of the most insane, unbelievable, complex and thin grinds. More on this later in the review.
The geometry and dimensions:
The profile of the blade is well thought out; it is a Sakai 240mm, which means the blade length itself is just under 230mm and sports a wonderfully usable flat spot for straight chopping. The heel height of the blade is 52mm with the spine just under 3mm above the heel. In typical Sakai fashion, the spine remains more or less at around the same width until it gets to the wonderfully thin tip at 0.7mm at around 10mm from the tip
The curve towards the tip is gentle and lends itself perfectly to push and pull cuts. I am not a fan of rocking blades on cutting board because it causes unnecessary wear on the cutting edge, but if that’s your game, this blade will rock just fine.
The tip is thin thin, thin, thin thin thin. Thin. It ghosts through onions with next to zero pressure. I can keep saying it, but it’s easier to show on video:
Migoto White1 vs Onion
have to excuse my lackluster cutting skills, I actually used to be a bit better but lack of practice in these lockdowns has obviously had its effect. Hopefully you can see how the tip glides effortlessly.
The way Kawakita have ground this blade is just so utterly good; Even though the grind is so immaculately thin behind the edge, it still has a lovely convexity to it. Then they take the grind an extra step further and incorporate a very slight hollow S ( cast your mind to a Shigefusa grind re-the hollow). Again, as thin as the grind behind the edge is, it is still possible to feel these nuances of the geometry - Kawakita magic and sorcery.
I cannot photograph the grind for the life of me, so we’ll have to make do with just a choil shot:
You can see that the cutting edge just thins to a whisper, sexy, just sexy.
Aesthetics:
Well, I think the photographs speak for themselves - it is a very beautiful blade. The cladding is has a matte satin finish and the core steel is nice, shiny and bright. The scratch patterns on both the cladding and core are very fine and very uniform. The organic cladding line looks wonderful and as you would expect from a talented blacksmith like Nakagawa-san.
The handle is octagonal and is made from Morado, aka Brazilian Ironwood, aka Bolivian Rosewood. It is beautifully figured and feels lovely to hold. I actually think this is a very clever choice of material for the handle - The wood looks like rosewood/ironwood but it is lighter, which results in the balance of the knife being absolutely perfect to a tee! I can balance the blade on my finger pretty much exactly at the location of the Migoto Cutlery stamp.
The spine and choil are polished and are nice and smooth. I can't call the spine rounded but it is definitely eased - i.e. the edges are not sharp at all and it is very comfortable to hold on to.
I also need to say a word about the box the knife came in - I think this is actually the nicest looking knife box (I am not counting wooden kiri boxes here) I have ever received a knife in - the wood grain pattern on the box has this wonderful texture to it. I don't know exactly how they've achieved this effect, but basically it's as if the box is made from un-lacquered wood veneer.
Performance:
I have been using this blade exclusively since it arrived. I have used it on all the usual things we use in our every day cooking - Onions, Bell Peppers, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Herbs, Garlic, Fruit, Spring onions, Carrots, ... I have also used it for slicing boneless chicken and meat. I have to say that I could not find anything that the knife could not handle well.
This is all on the out of the box edge btw, which was hair splitting razor sharp (Migoto actually put an incredible edge on every knife before sending and an edge put on by the master polisher that is the owner of Migoto was a pleasure to experience).
The concept of wedging is an entirely alien thing as far as this knife is concerned. Go back to the choil shot above and remind yourself how thin behind the edge this thing really is. We do not tend to eat huge and fat carrots here, but I tried the blade on the largest one of the bunch and it still ghosted through. I have videos of these produce being cut, which I will be posting on my Instagram and I'll make sure to update this thread too.
Migoto White1 Cutting
And
Playing around
Potatoes were dealt with nicely. Again as you'll see in the videos to come, the subtle Shigefusa inspired 'S' in the grind results in the blade having very little to no sticktion. Similarly it deals with hard sweet potatoes with ease without needing any excessive pressure.
I think one of the reasons I am finding this knife such a pleasure to use is the balance of the blade which I touched on before. It is genuinely nothing short of having the perfect balance, which combined with the thinness behind the edge and the ridiculously sharp edge means that I actually have to exert very little pressure in cutting just about everything. I think you'll see what I mean in the videos, where the knife actually compensates for my silly and lackluster cutting skills.
I also have to stress on just how good the tip of the blade is. It is whisper thin and glides through onions on vertical slices. Tip draws on cucumbers, peppers etc are effortless, just lovely.
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). Superb performers that feel great in the hands and on the stones as well, easily one of my favourite knives overall. As far as I know, the OUL brand is discontinued and the knives sharpened by Maruyama will appear under the new brand name "Hado" (刃道 = way of the blade).
