What knife or knives would you consider underrated?
Name that one most underrated knife
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Severe_wrangler_5813
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Masamoto ks
Masamoto ks
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I have both a 210 and 240 from Mutsumi, I think theyre great great great knives. Especially the 210; even though I find the size a bit awkward I really like the profile. Ive brought my shinogi up a bit and flattened out the bevels a touch and it's the knife that lives on my board the most right now.
Corradobrit1
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Well depending who you talk to its this
I reckon this'll be unpopular but the Wusthof Gourmet line is a great bang-for-your-buck option. As much as I am enjoying my foray into Japanese knives and all the joy they bring, if you told me I could only have one knife for the rest of my days, it would be either the 8" or quite possibly 6" chef's knives from this line.
Comfortable, light, nimble, but tough and resilient. I thinned the full blade on my 8" and the edge bevel is probably around 17dps. Yes, it is a compromise in every way, but it is an excellent balance of all of them.
I don't ever want this to be my only option and these days it just serves heavy-duty action, but it is quite a capable knife at an incredibly good price.
Comfortable, light, nimble, but tough and resilient. I thinned the full blade on my 8" and the edge bevel is probably around 17dps. Yes, it is a compromise in every way, but it is an excellent balance of all of them.
I don't ever want this to be my only option and these days it just serves heavy-duty action, but it is quite a capable knife at an incredibly good price.
I wouldn't say trouble, but it did get chewed up some.
I did the bulk of the work on low grit sandpaper, I think 120 and worked from spine to edge. Right away you realize there are a lot of hills and valleys along the sides. I quickly surrendered any pretense of looking nice and focused on function. Once I had the primary grind somewhat thinned and smoothed I focused on behind the edge and knocking down the shoulders.
Then I went up to 600 to tame the scratches. It looks like a knife I sanded on, there's no doubt, but it works great.
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Another picture. This was early into the process. I cleaned it up a bit after but not a lot. Again, not pretty and could've used better technique but it was my first venture and the performance results are there.
spaceconvoy
Senior Member
Shun classic, very thin behind the edge, slightly convex, not a flat grind, good rendition of vg10 that's easy to sharpen and not chippy
humblehomecook: that's great to know about the process, and thanks for the extra pics. i've been wondering if i should mess around with an old one of those, a 6", or maybe an old wusthof classic, starting with getting rid of most of the bolster -- or whether to buy a half-bolster classic and not do that work. i wish they made a 10" half-bolster, actually, but it seems 9" is their biggest. as relates to this thread, however much japanese knives blow my mind, sometimes i pick up an old wusthof to do something and i'm stunned by pretty much every aspect of it, and stunned that i keep forgetting and putting it away.
spaceconvoy: have to agree about shun classic, too, based on a 6" utility i can comment on, but which has never seen hard use, so can't comment on other people's usual complaints re: chips. out of the box, that shun classic utility was probably the sharpest knife i've ever touched, or maybe tied for first place with a japanese zwilling sg2.
spaceconvoy: have to agree about shun classic, too, based on a 6" utility i can comment on, but which has never seen hard use, so can't comment on other people's usual complaints re: chips. out of the box, that shun classic utility was probably the sharpest knife i've ever touched, or maybe tied for first place with a japanese zwilling sg2.
I was sure you were going to go with your Sukenari Ginsan on this one.
My opinion hasn't changed since the last time such a question popped up: either Masahiro VC 210mm or Ittetsu KU 180mm (W#1) were amazing cutters for the price, easy to sharpen, could hold onto an edge for a while, if no Kings of any hill there. Neither I ever see advised to nobody about anything.
But to me the most underrated knife was underrated by myself: Konosuke HD2. I just always found gripe with buying it - too expensive, too light, profile too curvy, too plain, undisclosed steel grinding my gears etc. Then I got one from @esoo and before I even knew it, even as it was proposed on BST and used as a dummy for testing sharpening stones, it had secured a relative long term place in my lineup.
spaceconvoy
Senior Member
Sukenari isn't underrated though. The handle is cheap and roughly finished, it has no distal taper whatsoever, and the grind is slightly too thick ootb. It's a good value but needs some work to really shine. Plus I can't remember reading any bad reviews of Sukenari.
Yeah I know, but still Sukenari doesn't come up so often in suggestions, and is rather low profile around here, although yes never really criticized, and rapidly gaining a lot of love whenever they come up.
Obviously Shun was your best bet for having a punch with underrated... although yet again, isn't a Shun Classic king of overrated too?
Further to this, I have since bought the gyuto. It's a thin knife Not quite laser thin but almost.
A good performer and once again, brilliant value for money.
