ModRQC
Just shutup n' grabbit!
An Introduction
Lacquer on SS clad is rather uncommon – IME. I was very surprised to find Myojin’s Riki Seisakucho coated, being even fully SS. My initial take on the last was that it helped with cosmetics. With the Asagiri it doesn’t: on or off it looks the same. Realized in hindsight it’s probably more of a Sakai (-trained) way to do things: looking back I think most I owned from Sakai were, but then again most were iron clad...
As an introduction to the Asagiri, let’s look into this undisclosed sharpener business. We had a KKF’er pretty much confirming Myojin was the sharpener for the Yugiri line – Myojin himself being his source. You might raise an eyebrow at that but said member has a solid track record of insider’s gen. And at a glance it makes sense: chamfer, finish/polish, price point and an interesting collaboration is the kind of stuff we tend to see Myojin do – complete with a dash of hype thrown in with genuine stainless clad Aogami #1 from Yoshikazu Tanaka.
Profile won’t be of any help for the point at hand, but as already criticized out there, not much of a flat to it. Bunkas and K-tip often have very little spine taper, which is the case here. Interesting though is that it makes it quite similar to the Riki 180mm Gyuto I had: only the tip gets real thin from the grind. With the Asagiri quite spectacularly so.
Only question you really could ponder upon then is: why the hell would the entities behind the Yugiri want to hide that fact, or why would Myojin prefer keeping in the dark where he so openly collaborates with lots of other offerings? An answer could be some kind of contract binding or simple respect paid to Konosuke as to not “undermine” the FM line, since it’s a Y. Tanaka blade. Whatever the case is, there’s not much point digging that out any further with my own level of insider’s gen – totally zero.
Choil shot from the Asagiri… geometry wise, nothing that wouldn’t make sense from Myojin.
Choil shot from the Riki Seisakucho… if it ever looks more majestic a convex, it’s mostly because the blade was narrower to a similar thickness overall. There’s something that is quite different though. Riki’s crowning at the choil is quite precise, thorough work whereas with the Asagiri, it’s more like a chamfer was done mostly at the finger rest area – slightly extending down the grind and up the neck – into what amounts more to a rather rough rounding overall.
Choil shot from my former Tanaka x Yohei – aka Takada. Interesting comparison to another convex bringing into light another point while presenting with a typical rounding of the neck/finger rest area: both my Takada (this Yohei and the HH Reika) had a relatively asymmetrical grind, left side flatter, convex obvious more on the cutting side, more or less especially behind the edge. Myojin’s work I’ve seen tends to be pretty darn symmetrical – or at least, this Asagiri is just like my former Riki was.
Subjectively, at the price point for such a plain blade as the Asagiri, I wouldn’t readily think of Myojin. I wouldn’t even expect him to be bothered into such simplistic work. Obviously though, the Asagiri went in hand with the commissioning of the Yugiri, so one could suppose that it went in hand to have Myojin grind them all as well. And for all I know it could be the case: the blade does present with some of the usual clues of his work.
Comparative shot of spine crowning. Sorry I couldn’t achieve the same clarity with the Asagiri. However something again is obvious: it’s not the same kind of work at all. Myojin’s crowning I’ve seen on the Riki, or quite a few pics here and there, is excessively linear and faultless. With the Asagiri we get some waviness to the top flat meeting the chamfer flats. But much more obvious is that, for a slightly thicker blade than the Riki at heel, the Asagiri’s top flat is very narrow there, the chamfer flats extended to meet it and unpolished – in that we get the finish of the blade sides going up there. The Riki top flat was about twice as wide, the chamfer flats much narrower in turn, and polished similarly to the top. It made the Riki’s crowning much more akin to a rounded spine in feeling, smooth and bold, whereas the Asagiri feels vaguely sharper and narrower – yet still very comfortable and seamless of its own, mind you.
A comparative shot with my former Kawamura/Y. Tanaka collab, sharpened and crowned by Nomura-San (Asagiri on top). Interesting, since what we have here is the same kind of spine crowning as the Asagiri, with the Dammy going up the extended chamfer flats to a narrow, polished top flat, and even a choil chamfer mostly carried at the finger rest and otherwise rather rounded smooth. Admittedly there’s some more “definition” at the choil than with the Asagiri, but still nothing like the Riki.
In researching the subject however, I was thrown a screwball by one single vendor reclaiming Morihiro as the sharpener for the Asagiri. And I guess that might make sense and explain both the similarities and the differences. Yet the question remains: how would it make MORE sense than Myojin himself exactly? Far from me to be making a point with all this though – it’s beyond me to be sure of anything at all and I can’t make any point.Thus I’ve kept with “Undisclosed” with the specs grid. If this was the Yugiri, I’d pay heed to our own insider quite blindly, but with this Asagiri I got curious... and not so sure in the end.
A bit of another look at the grind to the Asagri…
And of the Myojin Riki Seisakucho… where, again,yet not only a narrower blade, but a shorter and much more polished one entirely, might throw the convex into more of a sumptuous spotlight with pictures, but really is a close enough call to the Asagiri.
The point of this introduction was therefore merely presenting what I’ve got of a knife in hand and a few observations and examples that might or might not illuminate the matter to some folks – if they even care at all. To me it illuminates nothing, especially in regard to my take on this knife – coming in the next posts.
RESELLER/SERIES | Sakai Kikumori Asagiri |
BLADESMITH | Yoshikazu Tanaka |
SHARPENER | Undisclosed |
TYPE & LENGTH | K-Tip Gyuto 225mm |
STEEL & BLADE | Shirogami #2 SS Clad |
FINISH | Lengthwise Migaki |
WEIGHT / BALANCE | 202g / +20 |
HANDLE MATERIAL | Oak Monopiece |
| |
TOTAL LENGTH | 370 |
BLADE LENGTH | 228 |
EDGE LENGTH | 213 |
| |
HEIGHT AT HEEL | 52 |
HEIGHT AT MID BLADE | 48 |
HEIGHT 35mm TO TIP | 39 |
| |
SPINE | THICKNESS |
HEEL | 3 |
MID BLADE | 2.7 |
35mm TO TIP | 1.5 |
10mm TO TIP | 0.6 |
| |
EDGE THICKNESS | @ 10 / 5 / 1mm over |
HEEL + 10mm | 1 / 0.5 / 0.1 |
MID BLADE | 1 / 0.5 / 0.1 |
35mm TO TIP | 0.8 / 0.4 / 0.1 |
TIP | 0.7 / 0.3 / 0.1 |
Lacquer on SS clad is rather uncommon – IME. I was very surprised to find Myojin’s Riki Seisakucho coated, being even fully SS. My initial take on the last was that it helped with cosmetics. With the Asagiri it doesn’t: on or off it looks the same. Realized in hindsight it’s probably more of a Sakai (-trained) way to do things: looking back I think most I owned from Sakai were, but then again most were iron clad...
As an introduction to the Asagiri, let’s look into this undisclosed sharpener business. We had a KKF’er pretty much confirming Myojin was the sharpener for the Yugiri line – Myojin himself being his source. You might raise an eyebrow at that but said member has a solid track record of insider’s gen. And at a glance it makes sense: chamfer, finish/polish, price point and an interesting collaboration is the kind of stuff we tend to see Myojin do – complete with a dash of hype thrown in with genuine stainless clad Aogami #1 from Yoshikazu Tanaka.
Profile won’t be of any help for the point at hand, but as already criticized out there, not much of a flat to it. Bunkas and K-tip often have very little spine taper, which is the case here. Interesting though is that it makes it quite similar to the Riki 180mm Gyuto I had: only the tip gets real thin from the grind. With the Asagiri quite spectacularly so.
Only question you really could ponder upon then is: why the hell would the entities behind the Yugiri want to hide that fact, or why would Myojin prefer keeping in the dark where he so openly collaborates with lots of other offerings? An answer could be some kind of contract binding or simple respect paid to Konosuke as to not “undermine” the FM line, since it’s a Y. Tanaka blade. Whatever the case is, there’s not much point digging that out any further with my own level of insider’s gen – totally zero.
Choil shot from the Asagiri… geometry wise, nothing that wouldn’t make sense from Myojin.
Choil shot from the Riki Seisakucho… if it ever looks more majestic a convex, it’s mostly because the blade was narrower to a similar thickness overall. There’s something that is quite different though. Riki’s crowning at the choil is quite precise, thorough work whereas with the Asagiri, it’s more like a chamfer was done mostly at the finger rest area – slightly extending down the grind and up the neck – into what amounts more to a rather rough rounding overall.
Choil shot from my former Tanaka x Yohei – aka Takada. Interesting comparison to another convex bringing into light another point while presenting with a typical rounding of the neck/finger rest area: both my Takada (this Yohei and the HH Reika) had a relatively asymmetrical grind, left side flatter, convex obvious more on the cutting side, more or less especially behind the edge. Myojin’s work I’ve seen tends to be pretty darn symmetrical – or at least, this Asagiri is just like my former Riki was.
Subjectively, at the price point for such a plain blade as the Asagiri, I wouldn’t readily think of Myojin. I wouldn’t even expect him to be bothered into such simplistic work. Obviously though, the Asagiri went in hand with the commissioning of the Yugiri, so one could suppose that it went in hand to have Myojin grind them all as well. And for all I know it could be the case: the blade does present with some of the usual clues of his work.
Comparative shot of spine crowning. Sorry I couldn’t achieve the same clarity with the Asagiri. However something again is obvious: it’s not the same kind of work at all. Myojin’s crowning I’ve seen on the Riki, or quite a few pics here and there, is excessively linear and faultless. With the Asagiri we get some waviness to the top flat meeting the chamfer flats. But much more obvious is that, for a slightly thicker blade than the Riki at heel, the Asagiri’s top flat is very narrow there, the chamfer flats extended to meet it and unpolished – in that we get the finish of the blade sides going up there. The Riki top flat was about twice as wide, the chamfer flats much narrower in turn, and polished similarly to the top. It made the Riki’s crowning much more akin to a rounded spine in feeling, smooth and bold, whereas the Asagiri feels vaguely sharper and narrower – yet still very comfortable and seamless of its own, mind you.
A comparative shot with my former Kawamura/Y. Tanaka collab, sharpened and crowned by Nomura-San (Asagiri on top). Interesting, since what we have here is the same kind of spine crowning as the Asagiri, with the Dammy going up the extended chamfer flats to a narrow, polished top flat, and even a choil chamfer mostly carried at the finger rest and otherwise rather rounded smooth. Admittedly there’s some more “definition” at the choil than with the Asagiri, but still nothing like the Riki.
In researching the subject however, I was thrown a screwball by one single vendor reclaiming Morihiro as the sharpener for the Asagiri. And I guess that might make sense and explain both the similarities and the differences. Yet the question remains: how would it make MORE sense than Myojin himself exactly? Far from me to be making a point with all this though – it’s beyond me to be sure of anything at all and I can’t make any point.Thus I’ve kept with “Undisclosed” with the specs grid. If this was the Yugiri, I’d pay heed to our own insider quite blindly, but with this Asagiri I got curious... and not so sure in the end.
A bit of another look at the grind to the Asagri…
And of the Myojin Riki Seisakucho… where, again,yet not only a narrower blade, but a shorter and much more polished one entirely, might throw the convex into more of a sumptuous spotlight with pictures, but really is a close enough call to the Asagiri.
The point of this introduction was therefore merely presenting what I’ve got of a knife in hand and a few observations and examples that might or might not illuminate the matter to some folks – if they even care at all. To me it illuminates nothing, especially in regard to my take on this knife – coming in the next posts.
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