Yu Kurosaki - Fujin AS Gyuto 8.3" / 210 mm
235 / 215 / 48 / 3 / 0.5 / +10 / 136g
https://knifetoronto.com/ 315$ CAD
Blade length / Edge length / Height / Thickness (heel) / Thickness (tip) / Balance (Chin = 0) / Weight
In mm; all measures are first hand; balance (also in mm) is either forward the blade (+) or backward to the handle (-) where 0 was arbitrarily positioned to the chin.
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This one comes in a nice cheap red felt linen box, the ferrule tucked in a squarely cut insert, without any kind of literature whatsoever. It looks like the Mazaki Kurouchi box, but with felt and without the papers. It’s blue paper steel though…
On to more interesting pictures...
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Perfect balance for the blade length, I feel, and quite lightweight. Coupled with a profile I like very much it comes out as the most natural knife of my whole collection in use. The 47-48mm width for a 210mm is a nice height – I’d like even more, but coupled with acceptable food release it isn’t easily overwhelmed by food.
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Insanely thin tip, but where it could mean an insane distal taper starting with a kindly thick spine, it's more like a brusque tapering after the chin, and then another brutal one at the tip drop. Most of the spine is about parallel.
The choil looks accordingly fat (for a clad knife), but a basic V grind going insanely thin too makes for a rather brittle feeling in some cuts/with some produces. However it also makes for a very lasery feeling most of the times.
Grind and balance recall me a bit of my Takayuki Kengata. However, OOTB sharpness is another level entirely: where the Takayuki was poor, this one here is quite sharp and doesn't need thinning/removing any kind of shoulders or overpolish. Somewhat more noisy cutting paper than my best sharpening jobs (even the Takayuki is a bit silkier now), but it passed the same tests I do with these without any trouble.
On with some food cutting - a beef broth today with the leftovers of already dwindling reserves of veggies.
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With a slightly bitty, quite sharp ootb edge and such a grind, most cuts were amazing. It initiates the cut readily, and finishes it beautifully. It didn't feel so comfortable however halving those carrots - like the whole blade was twisting, and trying to input more of a slicing motion or cutting as near to the heel as possible didn't help much. It goes through rather easily as you would expect, and of course doesn’t really twist, but just doesn't feel so good doing so. It does halve an onion swiftly and without leaving such an impression. Smashing garlic... well very lightly and cautiously, and you won't like the feeling much.
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For reactivity I find AS to be about the same as A2 – it will discolor some onions or else in the first run, and then patina will pretty much neutralize any further food discoloration.
Fit and finish is about perfect, with this little drawback: a yellowish glue was used for the handle insert, and while the job is well done, because the handle is dark it just shows a bit too much. This is the first of my wa handle not to make use of clear epoxy. Of course, looking at the insert is always rather of an ugly mess with most of my wa knives so far, but clear epoxy at least doesn’t draw attention to it as much. A tiny bit of misfit between the handle and ferrule, often seen in less expensive Wa, nothing that shows or is felt all that much – you have to rub your finger at the right places to feel the unevenness.
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Pros: beautifully done, quite sharp ootb, a perfect blade for someone searching for a refined cutter
Meh: feels somewhat brittle, yellowish glue… and you probably want to extra wipe that kurouchi design dry very carefully.
Cons: nothing much to bring forward as a real con – but the “meh’s” could be counted towards cons if you search for a workhouse knife, or are a F&F maniac.
Bottom line: if you want an AS laser that ticks all the QC test boxes at a reasonable price – this might be it. There are many other options too.
Performance (OOTB): 4/5
Experience: 4.5/5
F&F: 4/5
Value: 3.5/5
Overall: 8/10
