Up for sale is a 180mm kurouchi Shigefusa nakiri. I’ve owned both a 165mm and a 210mm previously and find this to be the goldilocks size. As the weight (with a very light ho handle!) implies, it is a workhorsey knife. But unlike the 165mm examples I have used, this blade carries its weight gracefully and achieves a really fun balance of power and cutting ability.
The blade itself is older stock, I’d estimate based on comparing the forging and KU to other examples that it was made in the late ‘90s or very early ‘00s. When I got it, it was unused or used only sparingly - no evidence of food patina or sharpening. However, there was quite a bit of old age patina including some pitting. There was also multiple warps along the edge and an over-grind towards the heel. I straightened the blade and then set about reworking the bevels. This required significant work as the original grinding was done with the wave in the edge and was therefore uneven with the edge straightened. I evened out the geometry, did a necessary re-profiling, and brought the edge to my standards of behind the edge thinness.
As I reworked the bevel, I was diligent to maintain the incredible convexity the knife came with. Many wide bevel knives are flat from the shinogi about 80% to the way of the edge and then quite convex into the edge. This a good way to work as you get good performance, ease of grinding, etc. The other common way to see these bevels worked is totally flat. While this is fine for something very low bevel like Takeda, it can often limit performance and often causes issues with maintaining a crisp transition from polished bevel to KU. This knife, on the other hand, is one of the very few that is uniformly convex from shinogi to edge. From the choil the choil the knife looks more convex than wide bevel and looking at the reflections of the bevel there is no one area that is clearly more convex than the other. Over the last year this is the type of geometry I’ve been working to achieve, but until this knife I haven’t been able to pull it off. Though I took the last few mm above the edge thinner than other Shigefusa knives I’ve handled, the grind retains the soul of the original and has not been altered for expediency of grinding or polishing ease. I used the blade for some test cutting at 400 grit and I can confirm that the performance is superb.
As you can probably tell from my above horn-tooting, I’m really happy with the results here! The bevels were worked exclusively on bench stones and the convex bevels touch cleanly from shinogi to apex except for one small spot on the left side towards the shinogi/heel I decided was not worth chasing from a grind / material removal standpoint. The blade is currently zero ground (just as it would come from the factory) and should be sharpened before use. I am happy to sharpen the apex or leave it unsharpened, buyer’s preference. The iron has superb amounts of grainy character and the coveted Shigefusa clouds are on full display in good lighting.
Speaking of the materials, I was a bit surprised by the steel on this knife. I’ve voiced my opinion that Shigefusa’s steel isn’t my favorite for kitchen knives here in the past, even described it as “soft yet chippy” and taken flak for that from the Shig cultists. I stand by that assessment based on the dozen or so I’ve used or sharpened in the last 3 years. This was a different animal… the steel is unquestionably HARD. While it abrades cleanly and deburrs easily, there was no mistaking the glassy feeling during thinning that comes from hard steel. During coarse grind work I tested the knife multiple times for performance. Even with a 400 grit nail-flexing zero-grind with no relief bevel on a poly board it never chipped, so not a super fragile steel either. Sharpens really nicely too, taking a very clean edge with ease. It makes me wonder if the heat treatment protocol has changed in the last 20 years, because it doesn’t match my experience with new-release knives from Shigefusa I’ve used. @refcast, reminds me a lot of Ishido HT actually.
175mm true edge length, 55mm high, 240ish grams w/ handle
$700 including CONUS shipping
The blade itself is older stock, I’d estimate based on comparing the forging and KU to other examples that it was made in the late ‘90s or very early ‘00s. When I got it, it was unused or used only sparingly - no evidence of food patina or sharpening. However, there was quite a bit of old age patina including some pitting. There was also multiple warps along the edge and an over-grind towards the heel. I straightened the blade and then set about reworking the bevels. This required significant work as the original grinding was done with the wave in the edge and was therefore uneven with the edge straightened. I evened out the geometry, did a necessary re-profiling, and brought the edge to my standards of behind the edge thinness.
As I reworked the bevel, I was diligent to maintain the incredible convexity the knife came with. Many wide bevel knives are flat from the shinogi about 80% to the way of the edge and then quite convex into the edge. This a good way to work as you get good performance, ease of grinding, etc. The other common way to see these bevels worked is totally flat. While this is fine for something very low bevel like Takeda, it can often limit performance and often causes issues with maintaining a crisp transition from polished bevel to KU. This knife, on the other hand, is one of the very few that is uniformly convex from shinogi to edge. From the choil the choil the knife looks more convex than wide bevel and looking at the reflections of the bevel there is no one area that is clearly more convex than the other. Over the last year this is the type of geometry I’ve been working to achieve, but until this knife I haven’t been able to pull it off. Though I took the last few mm above the edge thinner than other Shigefusa knives I’ve handled, the grind retains the soul of the original and has not been altered for expediency of grinding or polishing ease. I used the blade for some test cutting at 400 grit and I can confirm that the performance is superb.
As you can probably tell from my above horn-tooting, I’m really happy with the results here! The bevels were worked exclusively on bench stones and the convex bevels touch cleanly from shinogi to apex except for one small spot on the left side towards the shinogi/heel I decided was not worth chasing from a grind / material removal standpoint. The blade is currently zero ground (just as it would come from the factory) and should be sharpened before use. I am happy to sharpen the apex or leave it unsharpened, buyer’s preference. The iron has superb amounts of grainy character and the coveted Shigefusa clouds are on full display in good lighting.
Speaking of the materials, I was a bit surprised by the steel on this knife. I’ve voiced my opinion that Shigefusa’s steel isn’t my favorite for kitchen knives here in the past, even described it as “soft yet chippy” and taken flak for that from the Shig cultists. I stand by that assessment based on the dozen or so I’ve used or sharpened in the last 3 years. This was a different animal… the steel is unquestionably HARD. While it abrades cleanly and deburrs easily, there was no mistaking the glassy feeling during thinning that comes from hard steel. During coarse grind work I tested the knife multiple times for performance. Even with a 400 grit nail-flexing zero-grind with no relief bevel on a poly board it never chipped, so not a super fragile steel either. Sharpens really nicely too, taking a very clean edge with ease. It makes me wonder if the heat treatment protocol has changed in the last 20 years, because it doesn’t match my experience with new-release knives from Shigefusa I’ve used. @refcast, reminds me a lot of Ishido HT actually.
175mm true edge length, 55mm high, 240ish grams w/ handle
$700 including CONUS shipping
