Not All of these are brand new purchases but they all entered my life in 2017.
I'm in the middle of a house move so have not had a chance to take decent pictures of the knives to post here, or even to use them yet.
So I will leave the reviews and my thoughts for after the move.
Anyway, here they are:
My first Kato. I finally understood what all the fuss was about when I got this. It made me desire a larger Kato more than any other knife.
The profile, the grind, the feel of the thing as it hit the board. I finally understood what everyone on the forum was raving about.
Big daddy Kato. The only way to describe what I felt when this finally arrived would be to say that "it shook me to the core". I don't have any other way to capture the emotion that I felt.
I'll have to caveat that these knives are yet to be used in anger, so take everything I'm saying with a pinch of salt. It's just initial impressions rather than practical advice.
Beautiful Kato. I'm not a fan of damascus cladding. I'm sure I have mentioned it on the forum before - it just doesn't speak to me.
But there have been a handful of knives that I have really liked. This was one of them.
I won't lie about this one - it will more than likely be my drawer queen. I don't mind, I bought it to look at and marvel at it.
Then again, who knows, never say never.
(I must also apologise for my artistic attempts at taking good photos, all camera gear is packed up in boxes so the photos are all iPhone camera pics)
Takeo Murata Blue#1 Funayuki. This is actually brand new, it arrived this morning.
It's something I have waned to buy for quite a while but somehow never got around to.
I wasn't expecting the world's prettiest knife and sure enough it isn't the world's prettiest knife.
But it is multiple times better than I was expecting and had seen from the photos.
Really the main point for me was that it was Blue#1, Murata san is a respectable blacksmith and it was very affordable.
Initial impressions have surpassed my expectations - the F&F is actually really decent for a KU/rustic knife. The handle is much better than it appears in the photos. It's light and I dare say, I think it actually has an 'S' grind.
I think it's worth doing a proper review of this as soon as I get a chance.
Choil, spine, Closeup of spine at the tip from above - in that order
I posted a couple of shots of the Hiromoto to try and highlight the hamon. Here are a couple in color.
Thickness at handle comparison of the Hiromoto and big daddy Kato
Finally some family photos
Btw, the stone that appears in the photos is a Takashima Tomae which I sourced from Shinichi.
IMG_20170214_172950_714 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr
IMG_20170214_171004_398 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr
IMG_20170214_212948_728 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr
IMG_20170214_210547_067 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr
IMG_20170214_171658_331 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr
, it's from maxim 
IMG_20170215_111310_618 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr
