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miggus said:
Is it though? I'm not sure, since knives with an AS core aren't always super expensive. How much more expensive is it to make a given knife with AS instead of W#1?

I think these are two different things. But I would also have loved to see a comparison. As I understand it, it's closer to Morihei Hisamoto's fine finish option. This is what it says on the homepage of Isamoto:
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If they're going to very high hardness they might have a very high break rate during quenching.
 
By the way: I asked Gaku if they do ironclad as well, and if all their knives are KU. His reply was that both iron cladding and other finishes are possible, even though they recommend KU.

Not sure yet if I'll buy a knife from them, but that's certainly nice to have.

Maybe an @Admin would be willing to add "Isamitsu" to the thread title? Then this might be easier to find for people who search for it.
 
I was in their shop in Tokyo two weeks ago and looked at Denkas and Mabaroshis

They had very few Denkas and no Mabaroshis at 210mm and western handles. They said they have very high internet orders so few knives for sale in person.

The knives I saw had very different grinds, all thick, but some a bit thinner. High variance between knives, like extreme differences. None looked thin enough for me.

Fit and finish was very poor, not at all befitting their newly increased prices. Very rough and thick knives.

With their new prices they seem to be very overpriced.
 
To contrast that experience a bit, I just received two knives from TF today (a 270mm Denka suji and a 195mm Denka nakiri) and the F&F seems to be better than my Denka 210mm gyuto (which I received June 2022). To be sure, there are still aesthetic flaws (mainly around the handle scales and the tang) but nothing sharp / that would bother me in use.

I had no real issues with my Denka gyuto's F&F (which is my #1 knife) so this was a bit of a nice surprise. Cutting performance on food is TBD, but the OOTB edge was plenty sharp to glide through some printer paper I had handy. Choils looked pretty good too.

Maybe my standards are lower or I got lucky with the smith at TF, but I'm pretty happy for now. I also just happened to order right before they raised prices, which was nice.

EDIT: Clarified that the F&F is better, but not perfect by any stretch
 
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When I purchase my Gyuto 210mm from them, I paid 5,020JPY for shipping but it was through Japan Postal and it took 7 days to arrive.
 
I’m in Tokyo now and emailed them about visiting their store just now. I’ll go in person this week and report back with pictures.

Edit: they responded to my email “Currently our workshop is just only workshop, it's not ready to receive visitors. And to be honest, we are very busy now, we can't afford to welcome.”

So I won’t be going, too bad.
 
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I got my District improved TF and it's definitely much improved. However, it is a slight hollow which I'm debating whether or not to do more work on stones as I think performance could be improved more but also I have a larger Isamitsu coming eventually. (btw, this is not to say you're better off just doing it yourself... they removed a lot of meat that would probably take a ridiculous amount of time to do on stones)

I am impressed with the TF steel. It seems to want to get sharp. I'm surprised at how little effort it took to get ridiculously sharp. I hope the Isamitsu is like this but with a better OOTB grind
 
superworrier said:
I got my District improved TF and it's definitely much improved. However, it is a slight hollow which I'm debating whether or not to do more work on stones as I think performance could be improved more but also I have a larger Isamitsu coming eventually. (btw, this is not to say you're better off just doing it yourself... they removed a lot of meat that would probably take a ridiculous amount of time to do on stones)

I am impressed with the TF steel. It seems to want to get sharp. I'm surprised at how little effort it took to get ridiculously sharp. I hope the Isamitsu is like this but with a better OOTB grind
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+1. I've been on the fence with purchasing something from them since I'm curious how the heat treat is in comparison. Apparently, there's also a wrought iron project that Gaku is working with someone as well although the last time I checked (about a week ago), that was on hold since they're very busy at the moment.

Details:
180mm wa-Nakiri
225mm yo-Gyuto
250mm yo-Gyuto

Wrought iron in either S1 or AS (assume that S1 is referring to White 1), one or the other (or possibly both) but it hasn't been decided yet.

Note: Whandle below is referring to western handle, not wa.
 

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bearhippo said:
+1. I've been on the fence with purchasing something from them since I'm curious how the heat treat is in comparison. Apparently, there's also a wrought iron project that Gaku is working with someone as well although the last time I checked (about a week ago), that was on hold since they're very busy at the moment.

Details:
180mm wa-Nakiri
225mm yo-Gyuto
250mm yo-Gyuto

Wrought iron in either S1 or AS (assume that S1 is referring to White 1), one or the other (or possibly both) but it hasn't been decided yet.

Note: Whandle below is referring to western handle, not wa.
Click to expand...
Huh, I wonder who sent Gaku-san some wrought iron...the sizing of 225 and 250 feels familiar as well somehow...
🤭
 
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