Review: Hitohira Tanaka Yohei Blue #1

[ModRQC]

This is a third Y. Tanaka for me. It’s the one I should have got in the first place, too. Back when I purchased the first in 210mm, even the prices for that length in White steel from him I found pretty steep – let alone prices for 240mm Blue #1. When I purchased the second one however, some amount of money was involved similar to prices for the more basic Blue #1 iterations – but I thought the workhorse grind of the Kawamura/Y. Tanaka 260mm would be nicer to have instead. Well it was nice – perfectly ground powerful wide bevel very thin behind the edge from Nomura-San – but 243/54 232g was just too much blade for me to feel fully comfortable with. So I knew it did no good circling around the one I wanted anymore. Just had to decide which iteration to buy. Ultimately decided to buy new; nice offers went along on BST with me passing despite my eagerness to save a hundred bucks.

I almost went for the Kurouchi Kyuzo directly from Hitohira Japan – slightly beefier blade, nicer handle, and I never tried the Kyuzo grind which is quite lovely. Just wasn’t sure if I wanted my Tanaka to be of the wide bevel kind. If one thing, my first from Takada No Hamono was one of the nicest grinds I had ever worked with – and the Yohei was much more of this ballpark. Especially where the KKF consensus seemed to be inclined to identify Yohei as Takada, indeed.

Knife findings
Kono Fujiyama FT Sharpener Revealed?

Or as so simply put in the Unpopular Opinions thread…
Unpopular opinions

It may prove interesting to take my review of the Takada into account as this one unravels...
Show your newest knife buy
… but for the gist of this present discussion, I want not just to repeat, but actually add to the association with yet another idea: after seeing many iterations of choil smoothing, I would sure say most are of a generic kind (a means to an end, simply rounded or roughly eased), but the “high-vaulted” variation on the Takada No Hamono or Yohei is particular, has somewhat of a signature to it.

I don’t want to delve into the identity of Hitohira sharpeners as much as explain why I decided I would give Takada as the sharpener of this Yohei in the specs grid. I find the prototype – a speedier half-version of it – of such choil work also on my Konosuke HD2. Not saying Takada does those too: possibly more a matter of who taught who, who learned where, and other possible correlations in the Sakai trade, but I also see similarities with Kono’s grind. Ashi Hamono could be central to such teachings, since we can be sure Mitsuaki Takada is a factor for such choil smoothing and such grinds, and does it awesomely. We also know for a fact that he left Ashi to start his own business – meaning he sure at least thought he’d get enough work of his own. Yohei is Takada is a given for me. As for the Kono HD2 it’s a wild guess.

 

[ModRQC]

RESELLER/SERIES​	Hitohira Yohei​
BLADESMITH​	Yoshikazu Tanaka​
SHARPENER​	Mitsuaki Takada​
TYPE & LENGTH​	Gyuto 240mm​
STEEL & BLADE​	Aogami #1 Iron Clad​
FINISH​	Kasumi ​
WEIGHT / BALANCE​	165g / +30​
HANDLE MATERIAL​	Cherry wood & Ebony​
​	​
TOTAL LENGTH​	385​
BLADE LENGTH​	240​
EDGE LENGTH​	226​
​	​
HEIGHT AT HEEL​	49​
HEIGHT AT MID BLADE​	41​
HEIGHT 35mm TO TIP​	26​
​	​
SPINE​	THICKNESS
HEEL​	2.9​
MID BLADE​	2.3​
35mm TO TIP​	1.8​
10mm TO TIP​	0.9​
​	​
THICKNESS OVER THE EDGE​	@ 10/5/1mm (Choil=True*)
HEEL + 10mm​	1.1 / 0.7 / 0.1​
MID BLADE​	1.1 / 0.6 / 0.1​
35mm TO TIP​	1 / 0.6 / 0.1​
TIP**​	0.9 / 0.5 / 0.1​

* True in line with Heel +10mm. False is significantly different - see choil shot.
** Nearest to tip with still 10mm perpendicular up the edge just below the spine.

Ahem… ok so definitely not in love with boxes from Hitohira’s “higher end” knives so far, aesthetically speaking. Still like this one much better than the Hinode, also offering better protection with the carton sheath fitting snugly on the blade’s plateau, and the handle snugly in its depression – nothing moves. However, the box is still quite too long and rather mellow under pressure.


Handle: 1/1
Aesthetics & Balance

Nice and good enough: well-sculpted, perfectly fitted, balance at the right place especially with the finger rest digging forward the heel. With no reason to complain it sure deserves full marks.

Blade: 1/1
Choil & Spine

An even higher level of vaulted-smoothing than on my Takada No Hamono, on both sides, no least. Let’s pop some champagne for lefties integration with a pure Sakai knife. For the price, better be, mind you… Ah yes, lest we forget the perfectly rounded spine and forged/cut to shape blade. As always, clad line with Y.Tanaka forges is natural, high up the core and well defined, yet with that haze of nice iron welds that I find particularly sexy.

Finish: 1/1
Aesthetics & Maintenance

It may prove important, when encountering an iron cladding in my reviews, to take into account that “Maintenance” here concerns as much daily maintenance as maintenance on the stones. I won’t give any particular about which accounts for score to which extent, because it allows me basically to still give a full score to anything if pertinent. Where points are taken away for maintenance is because an element presents itself that I consider deranging or problematic. If from aesthetics, not much the beauty inherent as to if it’s inconsistent whatever it is, or impairs either performance or maintenance. The score will thus reflect a middle ground that is primarily tailored to the knife under review.

Here… well “kasumi” has that artificial media-blasted looks to it, but I wouldn’t declare myself an expert eye enough to bank on that assertion. Whatever the case may be, nothing much to complain about once again: it looks nice enough, consistent and quite dark which isn’t a bad choice with iron cladding. Moreover, it should be an easy one to work with different lighter Kasumi on the bevel in maintenance, or easily imitated enough with a stone like Cerax #320 if ever feeling the need to recreate it. Iron cladding most easy to quickly sand to a nice migaki, too. Possibilities are endless and rather easy there, basically an empty canvas to evolve from fluidly as needed, while being an acceptable aesthetic presentation for a lower price tier.

Performance: 2/2
Geometry & Grind

When I had reviewed it, I remember having spoken highly of the feeling in cut of the Takada, and I would say just the same for the present Yohei: it really behaves like a bigger brother. It does need the kind of edge I now give myself though, and there will make for a very interesting comparison of W#2 and B#1 for me in terms of keenness out of the stones, and edge retention down the road. Basically, they’re a same grind to a same bladesmith, and extremes of those predominant steels with J-knives: as personal experience gets one to various different places, what’s not to like about this one here?

Now this is a chosen, “already tried” knife to some extent. It got perfect scores so far from the categories which were unsure until inspected, handled and tested, but getting to performance criterion the outcome is pretty much written in the sky, except for the different length. But since Tanaka’s profile was a given with me, even with the taller and longer Kawamura/Tanaka, there wasn’t any suspense where I knew that I would be at home with a 230mm edge and this kind of weight and balance for it.

Grind is nice with this unit, expected ballpark of its grinder, not crazy thin behind the edge which I appreciate grandly. To me it isn’t the best I can get from most grinds to be super thin there: I don’t like the feeling against/digging into the cutting board of them. But I think what really turns me off is that once you’re passed the first 10-15mm up the edge, it’s still geometry running the show, and going any length beyond being thin enough doesn’t make for any more spectacular abilities with most geometries, while it does impart the knife with a greater liability to deformation or chipping. This one does nicely thin with a ballpark that would suit most knives very well. I’d see it being 0.1-0.2mm thinner at 5mm and 10mm behind the edge for maximum performance, but it’s not like it’s not cutting well where it is.

As for geometry, it’s a pretty simple slight yet stringent convex, which to me resembles grind of mine Konosuke HD2. I said it in the intro, and looking at that choil again here I can’t help but feel it’s just about the same as the HD2. As for a comparison with the Takada, the latter did seem a beefier more pronounced convex, but with good reasons: spine was basically 0.2mm thicker at the heel for a blade 3mm shorter. However, looking at specs for thickness behind the edge, both Takada and Yohei are about the same. I didn’t take behind edge measurements back when I reviewed the Takada, so here they are, slightly thicker overall, once again explained by a thicker blade to start with:

HEEL + 10mm​	1.2 / 0.7 / 0.1​
MID BLADE​	1.1 / 0.7 / 0.1​
35mm TO TIP​	1.1 / 0.6 / 0.1​
TIP**​	1 / 0.7 / 0.1​

I don’t remember much how the Yohei fared with food release so far, which means it fared about perfectly – something I also said of the Takada and the Konosuke. I have a recollection of wiping some cuts once or twice off the finish where they had stuck – most easily when they pretty much all fell down as my fingers cleared the first few. Most cuts however were neatly aligned/stacked on the board. Minimal but unavoidable wedging with taller and denser produces as you would expect middle of the road blade thickness to impart, but less than wide bevels and a charm to use anyway.

Overall Score: 5/5

Personal take: the knife IS the personal take. After two trials and “partial error” Tanaka, it was just the easiest purchase ever, wouldn’t it be for the rather steep price. It’s ballpark money of many a custom maker diligently participating with KKF every day. I call that expensive - but to me that precise Tanaka Yohei feels like my own custom J-knife.

 

[Corradobrit1]

I've always been curious about these. They give me that Kono Fuji vibe without the undesirable Machi gap and awkward handle design. I'm going to enjoy reading this thorough review, especially given your experience with other makers/sharpeners.

 

[ModRQC]

Well you do seem well versed enough in your times, sir! Cannot say you'll get much in ways of comparison to other makers, except the obvious way they shaped my thinking about knives. Still, enjoy the read if you do!

 

[DavidPF]

Congratulations on finding a knife that really suits you!

And I'm very glad to see that it's actually well made and well finished, not requiring an acrobatic performance from the user just to get it to cut.

Thud. You've landed at the bottom of the rabbit hole.

 

[ModRQC]

Congratulations on finding a knife that really suits you!

And I'm very glad to see that it's actually well made and well finished, not requiring an acrobatic performance from the user just to get it to cut.

Thud. You've landed at the bottom of the rabbit hole.

I still hope no such thing exist.

But for a Tanaka blade I won't be looking further, which comes as a relief to me at last. One more position settled down in my Gyuto lineup, but it took two amazingly good Tanakas beforehand. Luckily enough I didn't lose much in the transactions ridding me of the second one - but the first one was a sheer 250$ loss to sell it. Making this one flirting with the 1K$ threshold - but I got to try a couple additional knives in the motion, which is worth gold to me.

Just take into account that I'm waiting for a truly custom made knife, and you'll get to see that the rabbit hole doesn't have such a definite bottom after all. If I like this custom I cannot see no limits to me having a few more made for me, and still buying some more J's on top of that.

 

[DavidPF]

People tend to forget that landing at the bottom of the rabbit hole is basically the place where the former world is gone, and the story can start.

Look around and try to take in your strange new surroundings.

P.S. beware of opium-addicted caterpillars.

 

[zizirex]

Nice, I do want another Takada/Yohei but seems like most of them are out of my budget and I have other hobbies to deal with.
I saw this one and it's really nice. I am just gonna wait for the newer series of Takada who knows they might be good. Also, I still want his Mono VG-10 western handle.

 

[big_adventure]

...and I have other hobbies to deal with.

That's your problem right there. Don't do that.

 

[Moooza]

It is such a perfect shape. Lovely knife.

 

[ModRQC]

People tend to forget that landing at the bottom of the rabbit hole is basically the place where the former world is gone, and the story can start.

Look around and try to take in your strange new surroundings.

P.S. beware of opium-addicted caterpillars.

It's really not like that, to me at least. I mean I appreciate the literacy of your answer, but where knives are concerned, the more you see through, the less magical they seem and you can really start opting for some in and most out. Position I'm in now is sure not new amongst KKF aficionados, but sure is out of reach to anyone having tried less than 10 different iterations of J-knives. Basically the threshold where you can start to "feel" how a knife will work from a bad choil shot and some basic specs. Moreover it took rather 15-20 iterations for me to feel fluent within makers/regions in Japan. Just the interaction between said bad choil shot and basic specs from many vendors, and having a first-hand unit measured and tested, blows Alice all through the cricket field to the end of a journey she basically had made already - but confidence of walking the path. So possibly a new world, but not strange. To you, browsing 15-30 different vendors will feel opium-based caterpillar. To me it's what I do every day for a year. Names, grinds, steels, usual prices... heck when you can recognize half the makers of the wide Hitohira or Yoshihiro offerings with a single pic, you're wedging your way through the most of the online browsing peels alright.

 

[ModRQC]

Nice, I do want another Takada/Yohei but seems like most of them are out of my budget and I have other hobbies to deal with.
I saw this one and it's really nice. I am just gonna wait for the newer series of Takada who knows they might be good. Also, I still want his Mono VG-10 western handle.

Sexy.

 

[ModRQC]

It is such a perfect shape. Lovely knife.

It’s basically perfect. With some knives you’d want taller, with Tanaka at least the traditional profile is a studied affair... just works flawlessly. From most of all one will actually use of a profile... mid blade to tip area is ballpark thick and wide through most variations of it. It took me a couple different knives to figure out I shouldn’t adapt height to length for 210-240mm Gyutos. Around 50mm hits it for me. I’ll more readily accept more height for a shorter unit than a longer one, within my experience. 210mm can hit 52-53 and work for me. 240mm over I’ll settle for 50-51 before anything else. 225/49 just works well, and finer tip of Tanakas is more of the « rarity » really. Not too thin, not snubbed. Always 24-26mm wide there or so. Just works!

 

[Bear]

Just wondering if you find the bead blast to be sticky, I know you said food release is good but does the knife want to drag while cutting, I know until I got rid of it on my Migaki it drove me crazy.

 

[Checkpure]

And they’re now sold out at strata. They are very similar to my Kikuchiyo 240 otherwise I would have pulled the trigger weeks ago on one. Absolutely love the Togashi, Tanaka, Kikuchiyo stuff from Hitohira.

 

[ModRQC]

And they’re now sold out at strata. They are very similar to my Kikuchiyo 240 otherwise I would have pulled the trigger weeks ago on one. Absolutely love the Togashi, Tanaka, Kikuchiyo stuff from Hitohira.

Sold out Direct too IIRC.

 

[ModRQC]

Just wondering if you find the bead blast to be sticky, I know you said food release is good but does the knife want to drag while cutting, I know until I got rid of it on my Migaki it drove me crazy.

Not that I could notice. At the other end of this spectrum, and as said in the review, dislodging food sticking to the finish is very easy, there's not real friction to hold it there, mostly a surface contact/moist ingredient thing in cutting some. I've seen seldom knives not to have a good deal of celery sticking, for one thing. Of course I always explore food release with a simple slow-ish push cutting motion, sort of the "natural" abilities of the knife. Most food releases when tap chopping or push cutting very fast.

When you say yours Migaki, you're meaning the Hito Yohei variation? Interesting to know...

Ah and BTW I'm still not sure that finish is media blasted. It has that tidy "porous" pattern and special silky-textured feeling to touch of blasted steel. I'm however guessing it was finished onto a fine grinding wheel afterwards, for there is a stroke pattern too, imitating natural Kasumi to some extent. Some DIY handheld T-bar thing like I've seen Toyama use on his blades... IDK... I'm not versed with the 1000 ways these guys can achieve a finish.

 

[Bear]

Hitohira Tanaka Kyuzo yes, I'm 90% sure its a bead blast, it was brought up above the shanogi giving the appearance of a fine tip, it has a real one now. Had a Yohei like this in a 240 with the cedar handle and it was just too weight forward for me but the finish felt exactly like my Migaki.

 

[ModRQC]

Then it’s probably me that’s not sensible as you are towards this I guess.

Edit: going for a prep with it now will pay special attention. Then again as long as I don’t put my edge to it it’ll be difficult to really judge finer performance.

 

[ModRQC]

Nope man can’t say that it does. On the contrary. Finish flows awesomely well.