PleAse I need Help to pick best Gyuto for a professional chef

Advertise with us
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
M

Mat1893

Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
21
Reaction score
5
Location
Australia
Good day everyone ,
Mat here .

I am looking to buy a new knife and I am posting the questionnaire in order to get some precious advise and recommendations from you guys .
Thanks in advance .

LOCATION
What country are you in?
Australia


KNIFE TYPE
What type of knife are you interested in (e.g., chefs knife, slicer, boning knife, utility knife, bread knife, paring knife, cleaver)?

Gyuto- chef knife

Are you right or left handed?

Right handed

Are you interested in a Western handle (e.g., classic Wusthof handle) or Japanese handle?

Both will work fine

What length of knife (blade) are you interested in (in inches or

240mm

Do you require a stainless knife? (Yes or no)

Being a professional chef and working in quite busy environments I would say stainless is preferable ( easy care )

What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife?

I would say max 600 usd (1000 Aud)



KNIFE USE
Do you primarily intend to use this knife at home or a professional environment?

Professional environment

What are the main tasks you primarily intend to use the knife for (e.g., slicing vegetables, chopping vegetables, mincing vegetables, slicing meats, cutting down poultry, breaking poultry bones, filleting fish, trimming meats, etc.)? (Please identify as many tasks as you would like.)

Main use will be slice, chop veggies and basic meat prep. But in general I would like a knife that is good for all preps.

What knife, if any, are you replacing?

Henckels zwilling (made in japan) 240mm Le COrdon BLeu edition

Do you have a particular grip that you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for the common types of grips.)

Pinch grip

What cutting motions do you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for types of cutting motions and identify the two or three most common cutting motions, in order of most used to least used.)

I adapt cutting motions based on the prep I need to do

What improvements do you want from your current knife? If you are not replacing a knife, please identify as many characteristics identified below in parentheses that you would like this knife to have.

Comfort

Ease of use

Edge Retention

Easy to sharpen



KNIFE MAINTENANCE
Do you use a bamboo, wood, rubber, or synthetic cutting board? (Yes or no.)

Yes

Do you sharpen your own knives? (Yes or no.)

Yes ( wet stone Naniwa )

If not, are you interested in learning how to sharpen your knives? (Yes or no.)

NA
Are you interested in purchasing sharpening products for your knives? (Yes or no.)

No



SPECIAL REQUESTS/COMMENTS


I am not big fan of Damascus pattern .
I am not Big expert on knife but from my research I would say the best I have found would be the Fujiwara Denka ( although I am not sure about the easy to care factor and the easy to sharpen factor and I am not even sure is stainless )
I am open to every recommendations .
Please guys share as much as you can .
Thanks again
Mat
 
The Denka is a very high end knife and a killer in terms of performance. Not fully stainless if that’s truly a pre-requisite.

If you really want something stainless, I’d think Yoshikane SKD is a good bet and would cost you a fraction of what your budget is.
 
Thanks Elliot . I really appreciate your feedback .
I would like to know more opinions in order to make a final decision as 600 usd budget is a large sum of money .
Thanks again .
 
You have a bit of a decision to make about:
1) Do you want a thin knife that goes through hard produce (sweet potato, cattot, etc) effortlessly but can get stuck in wet foods (potato) or a thicker knife that ploughs through wet foods but can wedge in hard foods (or somewhere in between)
2) What sort of profile (shape of the edge when viewed from the side) do you like. This is the reason for the "cutting technique" question. Most Japanese knives are much flatter than German style knives but some are only moderately flat, others very flat. Flat tends to suit chopping and push cutting. Curved tends to suit rocking and walking. I'd caution against rocking and especially walking with Japanese style knives. They have thin, hard, brittle steel at the edge and the edge willchip easily if you apply lateral forces, as with walking. If you do rock chop, take care to not rotate the knife whilst the edge is in forceful contact with the board. For the same reason, avoid steeling them except in emergency.

Yoshikane SKD is a great knife although SKD is not a fully stainless steel, even if the blade is stainless clad. If you can wipe the blade intermittently, it will probably behave as though mostly stainless, though. Mine has a very flat profile and is quite a stout blade, with excellent food release. Note that it has a large, regular hammered pattern, which I like (you may not). It comes with a fairly basic ho wood wa handle but the fit and finish and comfort are otherwise excellent. Edge retention is very good and it's really nice to sharpen. Almost carbon steel nice.

Gesshin Gengetsu is a knjfe that has an excellent tradeoff between thinness and food release in a thinner middleweight. It's also stainless clad semistainless. Flattish profile. A rustic burned chestnut handle (which suits the knife's aesthetic). Lovely to sharpen, with decent edge retention. The spine and choil are not as rounded as most of the other knives here. This is pretty easy to fix with some wet & dry sandpaper and about 10 minutes of rubbing, though.

You should have a look at Ryusen Blazen. Beautiful balance in a yo (western) handled knife. Stainless clad SG2 (aka R2) steel, so it is a fully stainless knife (don't think that this means that you can neglect it though). It is on the thinner side of middleweight. Profile is moderately flat. Fit, finish and comfort are excellent. Edge retention is phenomenal. It's ok to sharpen- much better than Western stainless but not as nice as carbon steel.

Tanaka Ginsan Nashiji is also worth a look. It's stainless clad ginsanko (so also fully stainless). KnS sells it with some really nice handles. I really like the heart shaped handles that they do. Profile is quite curved (not German curved, though). Fit and finish on the KnS version is nice. You may or may not like the subtle pearskin (nasiji) pattern on the blade face (FWIW, I like it but not as much as I like the hammered pattern on the Yoshi).

For that price, you may be able to commision a custom piece.

Our own Kippington makes some really innovative blades in Melbourne. His hook grind is amazing. I think he has been using Nitro-V, which is in some ways similar to AEBL.

Chadd Smith of Tristone Blades (on the centeral coast) makes some great knives with innovative grinds and specialises in stainless.

Mert Tansu of Hunter Valley Blades makes both stainless and carbon knives. He is especially renowned for his workhorses.

There are many other custom options overseas. Robin Dalman for example makes some lovely S-ground knives.
 
Last edited:
Nemo said:
You have a bit of a decision to make about:
1) Do you want a thin knife that goes through hard produce (sweet potato, cattot, etc) effortlessly but can get stuck in wet foods (potato) or a thicker knife that ploughs through wet foods but can wedge in hard foods (or somewhere in between)
2) What sort of profile (shape of the edge when viewed from the side) do you like. This is the reason for the "cutting technique" question. Most Japanese knives are much flatter than German style knives but some are only moderately flat, others very flat. Flat tends to suit chopping and push cutting. Curved tends to suit rocking and walking. I'd caution against rocking and especially walking with Japanese style knives. They have thin, hard, brittle steel at the edge and the edge willchip easily if you apply lateral forces, as with walking. If you do rock chop, take care to not rotate the knife whilst the edge is in forceful contact with the board. For the same reason, avoid steeling them except in emergency.

Yoshikane SKD is a great knife although SKD is not a fully stainless steel, even if the blade is stainless clad. If you can wipe the blade intermittently, it will probably behave as though mostly stainless, though. Mine has a very flat profile and is quite a stout blade, with excellent food release. Note that it has a large, regular hammered pattern, which I like (you may not). It comes with a fairly basic ho wood wa handle but the fit and finish and comfort are otherwise excellent. Edge retention is very good and it's really nice to sharpen. Almost carbon steel nice.

Gesshin Gengetsu is a knjfe that has an excellent tradeoff between thinness and food release in a thinner middleweight. It's also stainless clad semistainless. Flattish profile. A rustic burned chestnut handle (which suits the knife's aesthetic). Lovely to sharpen, with decent edge retention. The spine and choil are not as rounded as most of the other knives here. This is pretty easy to fix with some wet & dry sandpaper and about 10 minutes of rubbing, though.

You should have a look at Ryusen Blazen. Beautiful balance in a yo (western) handled knife. Stainless clad SG2 (aka R2) steel, so it is a fully stainless knife (don't think that this means that you can neglect it though). It is on the thinner side of middleweight. Profile is moderately flat. Fit, finish and comfort are excellent. Edge retention is phenomenal. It's ok to sharpen- much better than Western stainless but not as nice as carbon steel.

Tanaka Ginsan Nashiji is also worth a look. It's stainless clad ginsanko (so also fully stainless). KnS sells it with some really nice handles. I really like the heart shaped handles that they do. Profile is quite curved (not German curved, though). Fit and finish on the KnS version is nice. You may or may not like the subtle pearskin (nasiji) pattern on the blade face (FWIW, I like it but not as much as I like the hammered pattern on the Yoshi).

For that price, you may be able to commision a custom piece.

Our own Kippington makes some really innovative blades in Melbourne. His hook grind is amazing. I think he has been using Nitro-V, which is in some ways similar to AEBL.

Chadd Smith of Tristone Blades (on the centeral coast) makes some great knives with innovative grinds and specialises in stainless.

Mert Tansu of Hunter Valley Blades makes both stainless and carbon knives. He is especially renowned for his workhorses.

There are many other custom options overseas. Robin Dalman for example makes some lovely S-ground knives.
Click to expand...


Thanks Neo for your textbook answer . Very exhaustive.

I will try to give you a more comprehensive detail as you had recommend.

1) Do you want a thin knife that goes through hard produce (sweet potato, cattot, etc) effortlessly but can get stuck in wet foods (potato) or a thicker knife that ploughs through wet foods but can wedge in hard foods (or somewhere in between)

I would say something in between, not a laser but as well not too thick .


2) What sort of profile (shape of the edge when viewed from the side)

In this case I would opt for a moderately flat knife .
Most of the time I will use chopping but There might be some time I would need to use rock chop .

Based on this considerations would you short -list any knives ??

Thanks again for your help

Mat
 
Hard to go past the Ryusen Blazen (available at KnS and JKI, amongst others) or the Gesshin Gengetsu (JKI only) as great performimg thinner middlewights.

Gengetsu has a flatter profile and probably a little more taper and slighty better food release. Blazen has flawless fit & finish and beautiful balance. Both are excellent knives.

Gengetsu is nicer to sharpen but the core steel is semistainless. Blazen has even longer edge retention.

Or get a custom. I have knives from all of the custom makers that I mentioned. All are excellent.

That's not to diminish the Yoshi or the Tanaka, they are great knives. It's just that they don't exactly fit your preferences.
 
Lots of good choices at that price and a Denka is a great choice. I would normally not be one to advise against a Denka, however you may consider supporting a local blacksmith. I think some tansu 240s are just under $600.

theres at least one that I see online, but you can also try reaching out to him directly.
 
Agree With nemo, Ryusen Blazen is an awesome choice as an allrounder for a pro chef imo.
Honestly, Denkas are terribly priced imo, they have good Heat treatment and if you are lucky a great grind.
If you are willing to pay that kind of money, you are probably better off asking a talented western maker for a knife, eg Kippington, Luis Ermert, Hunter Valley Blades, Mathias ekman etc
Jannis Scholz aka Xerxes has a few of his semi production knives left available atm, wich are top notch in terms of performance, f&f, HT etc
https://www.xerxes-knives-shop.com/23er-seriengyuto-mit-hohlkehle-rechtshaender.html
 
Last edited:
JoBone said:
Lots of good choices at that price and a Denka is a great choice. I would normally not be one to advise against a Denka, however you may consider supporting a local blacksmith. I think some tansu 240s are just under $600.

theres at least one that I see online, but you can also try reaching out to him directly.
Click to expand...


I would love to have a Tansu and to support Australian craftsman but I cannot find any of his knives under 1000 usd dollar . It seems his prices are enormously increase recently .
 
Buy 2 good knives snd choose between them...600 is too much to spend for a stainless work blade...TF is totally hit or miss and carbon core...I'd suggest touching base w James at Knives and Stones (also down under).
 
Mathias Ekman: Great heat treated AEB-L blades (stainless/63hRC) Super nice F&F and great grinds. Three are available for more than reasonable prices...
https://mpekman.bigcartel.com
 
Mat1893 said:
I would love to have a Tansu and to support Australian craftsman but I cannot find any of his knives under 1000 usd dollar . It seems his prices are enormously increase recently .
Click to expand...

One at CKTG for $565
Mert Tansu 52100 Gyuto 230mm
 
Unfortutenly it’s carbon steel , I am looking for a stainless or semi stainless knife . Thanks anyway .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top