School me on the difference in ikeda lines

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labor of love

labor of love

Cowboys from Hell
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Blue 1 suminagashi line is a line that I’ve never hear anyone complain about.
The shigehiro looks to have a great sharpener nowadays.
The honyakis are an unknown to me. People are very fond of the heat treat though.

How do these knives compare on the board? Initially I wanted to just grab a honyaki, but shigehiro looks so well ground I might be quite happy. And to many people are too happy w suminagashi for me too dismiss them either.
Let’s discuss, which one is your favorite? How do they compare?
 
Seems to be a whole lot of blue 1 sumi seconds as of late. Y Ikeda seems to be making a ton of knives for many brands it seems.
 
Ones I’ve had have all been good. All have been the workhorse variety.
 
I held a honyaki the other day (2 of them) and they looked like great cutters; not to my tastes only due to heel height. Unfortunately didn't get to try them but both were gorgeous knives. Both had ebony handles which I'm thinking you don't like so much?
 
I’ve used a few Ikeda’s. Mizu honyaki White 2, Sumi Blue 1, Suisin White 2 single Mukimono.

Really like the heat treat and the steel on the sumi and the Suisin feels incredibly well done too. Honyaki, well, I’m selling it, but it’s not because it’s not amazing.

I’ve also heard good things about the Shigehiro, but haven’t played with it. Probably not much help.
 
I have two, a white 3 honyaki 240 and a white 2 santoku. It took a while to warm up to the honyaki because the polish stuck like crazy. However, on the right stone and with a bit of a patina it's a hell of a cutter and just feels really ... nice. Not the greatest edge retention, but overall feel is great. It's refined, it's silky, it's solid. No experience with the santoku. I think it's a bit of a one-off that was done for an installation somewhere. It's got a false shinogi and a really interesting finish - really crisp all around. I doubt I'll ever use it because I'll never get it back to it's original state. A lovely subtle diagonal grain on the body, and a grain parallel with the edge on the blade road. Can't say why, just hits me right. I know that's not super helpful, but both knives just seem like they were made by people who cared.
 
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Ikeda does various heights IIRC, basic ones are 48 and another that is well over 50,

He also does blue vs white steel, Honyaki, and suminigashi,
and handles in various options...none of that is really
very meaningful...its a sakai knife (so the handles and
sharpeners, etc all outsourced anyway)

just pick what you want.

My guess is the sharpener is the biggest
real variable to be concerned with,
then whether or not mono is desired.
 
I think it's deceptive but righty biased (kind of reminds me of lookjng at a v2 kochi....which is why i said it looked like a wide bevel... would def work from both sides.
 
HRC_64 said:
Ikeda does various heights IIRC, basic ones are 48 and another that is well over 50,

He also does blue vs white steel, Honyaki, and suminigashi,
and handles in various options...none of that is really
very meaningful...its a sakai knife (so the handles and
sharpeners, etc all outsourced anyway)

just pick what you want.

My guess is the sharpener is the biggest
real variable to be concerned with,
then whether or not mono is desired.
Click to expand...
Do you know where I can find taller ikedas? I was just going to size up to a 270mm
 
And yeah, that’s my original feeling when deciding on which ikeda to purchase...which sharpener to go with. The suminagashi 270mm would be nice. Not sure where one could be found at the moment.
 
I'm a huge fan of the sumanigashi Yoshikazu Ikedas. I didn't intend to specialize in one maker, but it just fell into place that these are the main knives I'm using in daily rotation as a home cook. I like the slightly convex grinds, the distal taper, easy to sharpen. I don't know if my actual choice of knife types is helpful because I'm off the mainstream in not liking gyutos, but here's what I'm using:

Petty 115mm
Petty 190mm
Nakiri 1650mm

Plus some other knives, but that's actually the core of my daily usage. The sumanigashi welded damascus is irrelevant, I don't care about the aesthetics. It just means I can get an Ikeda in Blue #1. I use the 190 petty as a mini-sujihiki for slicing soft protein. The nakiri gets a ton of work. It has great edge holding, easy to sharpen, a little heavy which I've grown to like. I'm not sure you can even find another Ikeda nakiri these days so I jumped on it when I saw it.

The only other thing I might pick up in the future is maybe an Ikeda honyaki slicer, maybe a 240 sujihiki. I don't really need it, but it would round out the collection because I don't really want a gyuto.
 
From what I understand the Shigehiro is a heavier grind compared to the thinner suminigashi. The Ittetsu honyaki is pretty thin ground, I guess more similar (or the same?) to the suminigashi.
 
I have several knives by Y. Ikeda and several more on the way. Like others have said, the sharpener will be the difference maker because the steel will always be top notch in my experience. Also, keep in mind that the sharpener does what the customer requires. I have 2 gyutos finished by Shigahiro that are quite different. One that I requested he grind to how he prefered and one in the "Shigahiro" line. Both are great cutters in different ways. I'm saying this to recommend buyers consider that knives can be different different from one retailer to the next regardless of the sharpener. Anyone who has been around here long enough knows that Mazaki knives can be wildly different from one retailer to the next.
 
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Ordered a 270mm shigehiro and it arrived today. Ootb I was quite worried. It has a Massive Katoesque spine, and weighs 264 grams.
But once I broke it out at work I knew it would be a keeper. Very comfortable well ground knife with heft. It’s alot of fun to use and the lack of wedging for a knife with this much thickness really surprised me.
Craig @ carbonknife picked out a lefty friendly one for me. It actually looks like it was ground for a left handed user. Very exciting!
 
Craig is among my favorite people in the game. Glad you're liking it!
 
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