The 'Best' Gyuto Edge Length—225mm of course!

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Favorite Go-To Gyuto Edge Length?

  • 270mm or longer

    Votes: 10 5.9%
  • 240mm

    Votes: 61 36.1%
  • 225mm

    Votes: 72 42.6%
  • 210mm

    Votes: 22 13.0%
  • 180 or shorter

    Votes: 4 2.4%

  • Total voters
    169
So far I think the poll is not reflecting reality. I’ve seen a LOT of love around these parts for 240mm, and a fair bit of preference for 270mm too.
 
240.000000000000001 mm seems pretty much perfect.... but 240.000000000000002... that's some BS

Just a fun little poll. TBH, most of my knives are 240s, easy to find. 270s too long, 210s too short, ...for me.
 
Most of my gyutos are 240 but I have found myself reaching for smaller, hence the vote. I have plenty of board room at 16x22, but as a home cook for 1 most often I reach for something a bit smaller. I have a few 210's and a couple shorter gyutos, but by ownership 240 is the way to go I guess.

Edit: And I don't even have a large kitchen, just as a single am able to allocate the counterspace for a permanent board.
 
Normally at work I use a 240, but not too long ago I tried a 270 and loved it. Since then I found that prepping with a 270 feels kind of like driving a Bentley on a road trip (not that I'll ever do that). You look at 50lbs of onions or cabbage or whatever, and think "Might as well get comfy, I'm gonna be here for a while". Big ol' blade, big ol' bag of onions.

Then I got laid off

Cooking at home for the past couple weeks I have been using a 225X51 Y. Tanaka daily, and it couldn't be more perfect. The most interesting thing to me is that I've been really enjoying the lower heel height. Normally I gravitate to towards tall knives because I spent a lot of time chopping, but at home I want something that's a bit more versatile. Feels good slicing, as it does chopping, especially because I usually only have to do 1-3 onions, not 60. Jack of all trades.
 
In the age of ma_sha1 modifications and the chase for the perfect personal preference, you'd have to worry that DitmasPork might be tempted to reprofile his awesome Denka 242mm to a profound Denka 225mm.
 
Me too:
View attachment 89653
Seems I've mostly 180mm - 200mm knives...I hope that's my sweet spot.

Aye my old Kono! That Laseur on the end is gorgeous.

When I was working 240. Would want to try a 270 if I ever go back to a busy kitchen with heavy prep. At home, now that I can take my time, I enjoy using line knives to prep everything. Guess I'm weird like that.
 
240mm for me, but I can appreciate a good 225mm and smaller. They feel like a large petty in comparison.
I dislike the smaller flatspot on the shorter knives - that's where the 240 wins out. I'm probably going to make some 220-230mm knives with flatter profiles at some stage. At home I currently use a 240mm that had the tip break off in an accident, and at 196mm it still works really well. It looks like a k-tip bunka.

I've noticed that a lot of home users hold the knife further back on the handle compared to a typical pinch grip, with the index finger around the choil/neck instead of the middle finger. This might explain why some want a shorter blade, as you hardly use the last 20mm of the heel in a forward pinch grip, but it gets closer to becoming the 'sweet spot' if you hold the knife further back
 
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It also depends a lot on what you’re used to, I suppose. I was mainly using the Tanaka Yohei that I have on BST at the moment, which is 227, and now I’m mainly using this awesome 240 workpony from @Kippington. After getting used to the Tanaka, the Kipp feels slightly too long. But I went back and tried the Tanaka yesterday and it now feels slightly too short. So at the moment probably my ideal is 231? 😂 As I keep using the Kipp, I imagine my ideal knife length will converge to 240 as time goes to infinity. That said, the Tanaka did feel really perfect in length when I was using it a lot

I use a pretty classic choked up pinch grip, myself, giving the neck the middle finger.

TLDR: humans can, like, adapt.
 
TLDR: humans can, like, adapt.
Life-Finds-a-Way.gif

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Look, I know it's bad form posting this here - and I apologise - but if you watch these clips and still tell me that 240mm is too big or unwieldy for the home kitchen, you've either got to be @CiderBear's height, or you've got 2 left thumbs (hah, lefties get some lovin' too :p)...

 
225 mm sounds like perfection to me. I have a 210 mm gyuto, which I love to use. But, sometimes, it's just a tad short and wish for those extra 10-15 mm. If I reach for a 240, or a 255, I usually think "yes, that's long enough and works well." Except that those knives are just a bit too cumbersome for varied work. (I cook mostly for two or three people.) I often end up with both the 240/255 and another 180 knife on the bench because I need the long knife for only part of the work; for the remainder, it's easier and more convenient for me to use a shorter knife.

I have never used a 225. But I suspect that it might be my dream length. I bit more than the 210, but not so long to start to annoy me like a 240 or a 255.
 
In the age of ma_sha1 modifications and the chase for the perfect personal preference, you'd have to worry that DitmasPork might be tempted to reprofile his awesome Denka 242mm to a profound Denka 225mm.
Hahaha! I live in a NYC apartment, only power tools I have are a VitaPrep-3 and a Kato. Interestingly, most of the gyutos I buy are 240s, no desire to modify length, would never want to. I love 240s, use them a lot, but preferring to use my 225s for the last year or so.
 
When one looks at it with fresh eyes, in fact, no big difference between 210 and 225, nor between 225 and 240, and what if your 240 is more like 250mm... you could also buy a 270mm on the short. All this meaning that there's no real difference between a 180mm Gyuto and a 270mm, but perceptual.

...

:D
 
Hahaha! I live in a NYC apartment, only power tools I have are a VitaPrep-3 and a Kato. Interestingly, most of the gyutos I buy are 240s, no desire to modify length, would never want to. I love 240s, use them a lot, but preferring to use my 225s for the last year or so.
Geez ditmas, if it wasn’t for the social distancing requirements I’d offer to let you use my workshop
1BDEB24E-D4A5-4469-8FFC-2408DD4BCFAE.jpeg
 
When one looks at it with fresh eyes, in fact, no big difference between 210 and 225, nor between 225 and 240, and what if your 240 is more like 250mm... you could also buy a 270mm on the short. All this meaning that there's no real difference between a 180mm Gyuto and a 270mm, but perceptual.

...

:D

I know some people get really anal retentive about measurements. It doesn't matter much to me if there's a 10mm diff on length, don't care if a knife is 49mm or 53mm in height—what's more important is the performance characteristics and feel of a knife. Precise length is really not a consideration when I select a knife—for instance one of my 240s is lighter and nimbler than one of my 210s. With the four 225s I have, they all have diff personalities.
 
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