Sujihiki's and the Takeda Grind

[SuperLougat]

Hey folks

I'm contemplating a sujihiki purchase as the first in my collection, and there are some Takeda's going on sale in about a week at a store near me. Here's the question, should i go with something with a more conventional bevel? I have a 240 NAS Gyuto already so i'm familiar with the line but when it comes to slicers i'm well out of my depth

Cheers

 

[Jovidah]

Standard suji question #1: what do you intend to use it for?

 

[SuperLougat]

Standard suji question #1: what do you intend to use it for?

Fish, meat, maybe light veg. Mostly slicing, any sort of dicing/chopping i'm gonna use a gyuto. My workplace recently started doing a crudo dish and it's a bit of a drag to slice with a gyuto, and the house knives are off the table for obvious reasons

 

[Jovidah]

So my - amateuristic home cook take based on a limited a mount of sujihikis - distinguishes 2 kinds. The thinner and lighter version - which excels at stuff like filleting, and the thicker, heavier and stiffer version, that excells more at slicing.

I think the resident sujihiki whispers are @stringer and @daveb

 

[azn_knives_4l]

Fish, meat, maybe light veg. Mostly slicing, any sort of dicing/chopping i'm gonna use a gyuto. My workplace recently started doing a crudo dish and it's a bit of a drag to slice with a gyuto, and the house knives are off the table for obvious reasons

Bit of a 'drag', huh. I see what you did here. Touché.

 

[SuperLougat]

So my - amateuristic home cook take based on a limited a mount of sujihikis - distinguishes 2 kinds. The thinner and lighter version - which excels at stuff like filleting, and the thicker, heavier and stiffer version, that excells more at slicing.

I think the resident sujihiki whispers are @stringer and @daveb

So what i'm hearing is.... i need to get two?

 

[aporigine]

So what i'm hearing is.... i need to get two?

That’s a start.

Contemplating my Takeda sasanoha, I would be happier with a more conventional grind. If it is a thing, a Matsubara wavy face suj might be nirvana. His knives are crazy thin behind the edge, which is a bad thing only if someone is less than gentle (or is dealing with rock-hard crust.) (At which point, a Spåre bread sword would be the thing for the job, perhaps.)

 

[instantramen]

I personally found the zero grind on my takeda gyuto to be excellent at slicing, even as good as my yanagiba (if not better). It moved through raw fish much more effortlessly than my other knives with very little drag. Where it struggled was chopping and denser ingredients, but it was head and shoulders above the other knives in my collection in terms of pure slicing of softer ingredients.

 

[aporigine]

I personally found the zero grind on my takeda gyuto to be excellent at slicing, even as good as my yanagiba (if not better). It moved through raw fish much more effortlessly than my other knives with very little drag. Where it struggled was chopping and denser ingredients, but it was head and shoulders above the other knives in my collection in terms of pure slicing of softer ingredients.

Nice to know someone is having a more fulfilling experience, but my take is tinged with a bit of envy.

 

[instantramen]

I'm reminded of this video showing a takeda slicer in action that looks roughly like how it feels for me to use:

Guess I got lucky with my draw from the grab bag of takeda geometries haha

 

[stringer]

I like a thin grind sujihiki for trimming meat, skinning and portioning fish, slicing paper thin slices of carpaccio. More delicate work where a little flex is welcome and the edge can be super fine without risk of damage.

A thicker grind sujihiki is better for slicing raw sirloin into strip steaks, slicing cooked brisket with bark and pepper corns, or slicing baguette into crostini rounds. Stuff where flex is not wanted and/or a little more conservative edge angle is required to prevent damage.

 

[aporigine]

I'm reminded of this video showing a takeda slicer in action that looks roughly like how it feels for me to use:

Guess I got lucky with my draw from the grab bag of takeda geometries haha

Wonderful knife and plating skills.