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Edit to clarify: The prices listed in the headings are the price I paid and a stat I consider useful (might try to go back and add purchase dates if I can sort that out). I will be selling some of these knives later, and will probably link back to my thoughts here, but this is not a for-sale thread and I am selling nothing here in this post. This is solely to review the knives as it makes them easy to compare to each other and I don't feel all of them really warrant an individual review post. If I leave anything out that you want to know about a specific knife, feel free to ask, I'll do my best to get it added.
This is the list of knives I plan on reviewing in this thread (in no particular order).

1. shihan aebl petty
2. takada reika
3. yoshimi echizen
4. irongull carbon
5. hitohira ashi
6. msicard magnacut petty
7. hvb carbon
8. geshin kagero
9. hado junpaku
10. ryusen blazen

A couple years ago, when I was first getting into knives I'd heard some whispers about a maker, "Shihan". Taking a quick look at his website, my first impression was "These are beautiful, but I'm never spending that much on a knife!" Anyways, I kept hearing about how wonderful his work was, and I kept drooling over his knives, until one day I decided I had to see if his work was actually worth the money. So I bought a petty, expensive but still about half the price of his other knives, to see if he lived up to the hype. He certainly did, I know own 3 of his knives, all of them a pleasure to use. It also sparked an interest in petties and other knives breaking me out of my gyuto craze. So like any hobbyist, I bought a bunch of them, used them, and eventually reviewed them.

1. Shihan 150mm petty in AEB-L. $280
Tip to heel of handle: 285mm​
Tip to heel of blade: 150mm​
Tip to handle: 165mm​
Weight: 77 grams​
Thickness out of handle 3.1mm​
Thickness 1cm away from tip .9mm​
Heel height: 28.7mm​
IMG-0712.jpg
This is a great knife. Early in my collecting I had decided I was only really interested in carbon steels, this largely still holds for all knives that don't fall into the category of petty. But the utility of this particular knife is spectacular and the stainlessness adds to the usefulness here. It was the one knife I just never had to worry about. From opening packages to cutting citrus, even letting people who aren't really knife people but want to try something off the rack. I've used this to pit avocado's before, though I've stopped that now. I have 4 kids so I'm constantly cutting up fruits/veggies for snacks, and I'm also often pulled away from the board for small emergencies. It's easy to forget this knife and leave it out sitting wet in some fruit juice... no problem. This knife pretty much serves all purposes up until you are limited by it's size. The thermory ash handle still looks and feels as good as it did day 1. I originally thought it was a little on the slim side, but I adjusted to that pretty quickly. I also thought the choil looked pretty thick on arrival. Again this ended up not being a problem. I've not yet needed to thin this, but I've sharpened it several times. Honestly, this was one of the first few knives I learned to sharpen on, and it was one of the first knives that made me feel like I knew what I was doing (even when I didn't). The steel is easy to sharpen and maintain, quick to touch up and burr removal is easy unlike other stainless I've worked on. I think I might have rolled the edge once, but I suspect that was more my sharpening then anything else. If you know anything about shihan's you know the F&F is top notch. The spine/choil are rounded, the handle is pretty much perfectly centered and straight. I probably used this 3 or more times a day for going on about 2 years, the thought of wanting to thin this is what really prompted me to look for an alternative. If you get a chance, buy one of these, mine is staying on my rack.​
 
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2. Takada 135mm petty in white #2. $290

Tip to heel of handle: 255mm
Tip to heel of blade: 125mm
Tip to handle: 135mm
Weight: 77 grams
Thickness out of handle 2.7mm
Thickness 1cm away from tip .9mm
Heel height: 27.1mm
Handle: Octagonal Rosewood w/ Ebony Ferrule

Takada Reika pics

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This is a pretty nice knife. Purchased for $290 from somebody on r/chefknifeswap (turns out this was @enrico 👋) who said it was NIB purchased from Carbon Knife Co. I was excited as it was my first carbon petty and I was looking forward to developing a nice patina on it. Unfortunately it's just not that reactive. Pictures show the patina as it stands currently and that's after using it on all the stuff that usually leaves a nice patina (sausages, banana's, strawberries, etc). The handle is nice and well done, but I personally believe it's too large/heavy for this blade and puts the balance point at the ferrule and seems to dwarf the blade. Blade has a decent amount of convexity for it being a petty. Not sure exactly what it is, but in comparison to my 210 Takada suiboku, this blade feels more sturdy? Definitely feels a little thicker and almost feels like a different steel. Edge retention is decent for a simple carbon steel, used it for over a month before I needed to touch it up. Profile has a little more belly then I'd prefer and the blade length is a little shorter then I'd like personally. Fit and Finish is well done with the standard Takada choil rounding. Here again the size gets me, I wished there was more space between the handle and the heel of the blade.
 
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3. Yoshimi echizen 150mm stainless clad white #2 migaki petty. $215
Tip to heel of handle: 279mm
Tip to heel of blade: 150mm
Tip to handle: 163mm
Weight: 66 grams
Thickness out of handle 2.7mm
Thickness 1cm away from tip .9mm
Heel height: 28.9mm
Handle: Octagonal American Cherry

Yoshimi Echizen pics

Yoshimi echizen 150mm - Imgur.jpg

Purchased from JKI (so as expected no issues). Another petty that fits my preferences, probably because it's very close to the Shihan. True 150mm cutting edge, slightly flatter profile, light weight, just enough heel height for me. This thing is a razor. I've not sharpened it yet, still on the edge as it came from JKI. It does patina pretty quickly. Knife looks good with the migaki finish in my opinion. No real issues with stiction but I find that common with knives of this size. Balance is just after the ferule. The fit and finish is very good, with rounded choil and spine, you can see the glue around the handle but it is flush. The handle itself is also up my alley. I like ho wood handles a lot, they are simple and effective. This cherry seems to be very similar. Slightly rough feeling, the grain raises when it gets wet. My ho wood handles can start to look a little dirty after some time of use, this may be better in that it's darker to start with?
 
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4. IronGull Carbon C$360.00/$260 USD
Tip to heel of handle: 285mm
Tip to heel of blade: 146mm
Tip to handle: 164mm
Weight: 136 grams
Thickness out of handle 4mm
Thickness 1cm away from tip 1.5mm
Heel height: 41.5mm
Handle: Curly Maple

Irongull carbon

Irongull carbon - Imgur.jpg


I believe this is 52100, but I can't find the specifics on the knife anymore. I have an email out to the maker and will update if I'm incorrect. Purchased directly from IronGull through their website. I don't know much about this maker or their knives but got an email about a drop and decided to grab this petty. Seemed like a lot of knife for the price. Lots of interesting things about this knife, but not all of them are to my personal preference. I think the edge could be a little thinner. The blade starts out thick and is a pretty large and heavy piece of metal which makes cutting nice as the weight will do a lot of the work for you. It's also thick enough to feel very sturdy. Grind seems kind of flat, not usually an issue for me but coupled with the finish and amount of bevel it seems to help create some stiction. I touched it up once as I wanted it sharper then it came and it did sharpen up nice and quick. The profile of the blade didn't work for me, never really seemed to have enough of a flat spot. Kept leaving me with accordian cuts. The handle is really pretty but again, not my personal preference. I will say it looks like it was done very well. A nice piece of curly maple, with some additional details near the top. I believe there is G10 in there. The spine doesn't feel like it has a hard edge in a pinch grip but it's not really rounded either and the choil has hard edges, though the finger notch is a nice touch.
 
5. Hitohira Ashi Swedish Stainless Petty 150mm. $190
Tip to heel of handle: 280mm
Tip to heel of blade: 138mm
Tip to handle: 150mm
Weight: 59 grams
Thickness out of handle 1.8mm
Thickness 1cm away from tip .8mm
Heel height: 28.2mm
Handle: Ho Wood & Buffalo Horn Ferrule Octagonal

Hitohira Ashi 150mm

Hitohira ashi 150mm petty - Imgur.jpg

I understand why Ashi Stainless is so often recommended. This is also my first Hitohira knife. The ho wood handle with buffalo horn ferrule is really beautiful (in particular the ferrule). You can just barely feel the line where the two meet. Spine and choil aren't really rounded. The whole knife feels very small and lightweight. The balance point is at the ferrule. Slightly convex grind. Surprisingly, the blade wasn't very sharp on arrival, so I got to sharpen it on an oouchi. Burr raised easily enough, though not quite as fast as most carbons, but I had no issues deburring like I've experienced with other SS. No noticeable effect on the edge yet with my limited usage, it's survived it's time in my kitchen admirably without any scratches or tarnishing. Cuts well but a fair amount of food sticks to it. At first glance, I really thought this was going to be my Shihan backup, but it's just a little too small and not quite as comfortable. I'd like this knife more if I had gone with a 180mm petty or maybe even the 210 gyuto. I also would have preferred a JKI or Bluewayjapan version with a basic ho/horn handle. Generally I'd say the value is really at the lower price points vs the Hitohira version. They were just all sold out at the time I was looking and this was the only version I could find.
 
Yeah I've always been more of a 180 (or even 210) petty man, but especially on the Ashi it just makes sense because they run short. You're really just getting a 140 petty if you get the 150.
I wonder to what extent the Hitohira versions are different (if at all). Like... are they 61 HRC for example? What I did notice is that they sometimes have the classic ebony + white bolster versions, you don't really see those anywhere else anymore.
Regarding handles, my standard versions from BWJ also had the bolster nice and flush with the wood part of the handle on all 3 of my specimens.
 
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