Recommend me a new knife, $400 or so budget

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THOR said:
Why would you consider a Mizuno any less traditional than a Heiji or Moritaka?!

The Mizuno is just considered a bit mainstream because it is easily available from Koki. If it was Shigefusa or Heiji's that Koki (or one of the other well known sources) sold - then maybe the Mizuno was the thing people were lusting for?
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In my opinion it is not about which knife is more available although the fact that Mizuno is readily available means it is a factory made knife. Shigefusa, Heiji, Moritaka, they have worked out the geometry for best cutting performance that does not require modifications to the knife.From my talks with people that had Mizuno carbon guytos, Mizuno used to have fat convex profile that required thinning to get it to work best, now they have seemingly moved to geometry similar to those traditional smiths, and that makes a difference in performance i bet.
 
i know for a fact that my Mizuno was made when i ordered it, because it was delayed a couple times. i don't think that they are factory made the way most people think of factory made knives. whether or not the geometry has changed, i can't speak to. mine has a very good geometry, being just enough thicker than a laser that i don't worry about the edge so much, but i only received mine last month.
 
I am pretty sure that my Mizuno is pretty much as handmade and as factory made as my shigefusas and my Heiji (all being 240 gyuto's). When that is said my Mizuno is from 2011. The knives all have their advantages and disadvantages. So I think it is as much a question about preference as it is about quality. I consider these to be very very close in perfomance with the Mizuno being quite a bit cheaper than the other two - at least where I come from.

By the way - I have a 5-6 year old Shigefusa 210 gyuto, and a 1 year old Shigefusa 240 gyuto. It might just be me who got unlucky but the newer 240 is not finished to the same leves as the old one. The choil was black (kurouchi like), the handle was a bit rougher and the edge not at the same level ootb. So the big succes of the Shigefusa knifes might come with a price that is not just measured in $$$. Something that might be worth noting if the OP is looing for a Shigefusa. It could be a good move to look for an "old" one!
 
Yeah, I don't think you can call Mizuno a "factory knife". It probably isn't quite finished by hand to the degree that a Shig is, but then nothing is. Mine also took about a week to complete. Mizuno is fast and efficient, but the process is no different (for the most part) than a Shig, Carter, Doi, etc. The work is just split up among more people. Personally I think Mizuno now has a different polisher than they did a few years ago. The way the blades are ground and finished are completely different now (both in terms of style and F&F) than what I've heard or seen of them a year ago or so.
 
Let me go look up the measurements real quick.

*UJ brushes through old "other forum" stuff*

Blade length, tip to handle: 276

Edge length: 261

Spine thickness:
@ handle: 3.46
@ choil: 3.20
@ half-way point down the blade: 3.14
@ approximately 1 cm from the tip: 1.80

Thickness at bevel line:
@ choil: 2.12
@ half-way point down the blade: 2.00
@ approximately 1 cm from the tip: 1.10

Thickness at approximately 5 mm from the edge:
@ choil: 0.82
@half-way point down the blade: 0.64
@ approximately 1 cm from the tip: 0.64

Blade height at the choil: 50.90

Weight: 198 g

I got my Miz in late January, early February (can't remember exact date). The 270 is slightly thicker (from other's measurements that I have seen) than the 240. It has a really cool distal taper, as most of the taper happens in the last third of the blade. Taper from spine to edge is slow at first, then it thins really fast from the "shinogi" line to the edge, and is extremely thin behind the edge. Performs great.

I'll eventually get a laser, though it probably won't be a gyuto. A laser suji just makes a lot more sense to me...
 
mine is about 3.25 at the handle and 2.85 at the heel. assuming my cheapo calipers are accurate. that's pretty much all i measured. i'd do a complete measurement of mine when I got home, but it's currently in the mail going to a friend to have the handle swapped. mine definitely doesn't feel amazingly thicker than my thinner knives, maybe a tad thicker than my Hattori FH, though the Mizuno has a better geometry and cuts better, imo. i was really expecting it to be thicker than it was. i'm not complaining. :)
 
THOR said:
I am pretty sure that my Mizuno is pretty much as handmade and as factory made as my shigefusas and my Heiji (all being 240 gyuto's). When that is said my Mizuno is from 2011. The knives all have their advantages and disadvantages. So I think it is as much a question about preference as it is about quality. I consider these to be very very close in perfomance with the Mizuno being quite a bit cheaper than the other two - at least where I come from.

By the way - I have a 5-6 year old Shigefusa 210 gyuto, and a 1 year old Shigefusa 240 gyuto. It might just be me who got unlucky but the newer 240 is not finished to the same leves as the old one. The choil was black (kurouchi like), the handle was a bit rougher and the edge not at the same level ootb. So the big succes of the Shigefusa knifes might come with a price that is not just measured in $$$. Something that might be worth noting if the OP is looing for a Shigefusa. It could be a good move to look for an "old" one!
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Interesting about your new shigefusa.
Mine is finished superbly, it is also custom made a bit thinner than usual stock, it also has cloudy appearance in the soft iron when polished with natural stones. I got it a few weeks ago.
 
correction, i just remoted in to my home system to check my initial use notes, and the thickness over the heel on my Miz is 2.95mm. when i get the knife back i'll do a full measurement. if all the dimensions are .2 mm off of yours, UglyJoe, then i would say that quality control is pretty decent, for a knife manufactured this way. of course, they may also just be basically identical and we measured in slightly different places or in slightly different ways. that's not as much fun as obsessing about it, though. :)
 
Hah. Sounds good. You have the 270 as well? I'll have to see the pics with that new Keller handle on it... I think it's gonna look pretty sick...
 
yeah, i have a 270, too. i'll definitely post pics once i get the knife back.
 
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