Chefdog
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2012
- Messages
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I bought two Yoshikane gyutos about a week and a half ago. I used them at work all last week and thought I’d relay my impressions. These are the first two new gyutos I’ve bought in probably 4 years. I’ve been using a misono Swedish, a hattori vg-10 (Forum version) and a Hiromoto g3 210 petty as my main prep knives for the last several years with few complaints. I’ve thinned and ground the bevels to my liking to get them to cut as well as they can and they perform well enough. But, it’s almost Christmas and I wanted to try a handmade blade again, so here we are.
They are both SKD with nashiji finish from CKC. Top is 245x51 and the bottom is 185x45 and all I can say is, wow. They cut amazingly well. I foolishly sold an Itinomonn 240 western gyuto years ago, (if the buyer’s out there, I’ll buy it back!) and I haven’t had anything that cuts as well until now and I’m kicking myself for it.
Immediately I noticed that I would have to adjust a bit to get used to the 50/50 grind on these knives. All of my knives are quite asymmetrical and western handles, so it took a little bit to make the small corrections needed. After it was dialed in, the cutting performance shined. The grind on these knives is just amazing, the food release qualities, thinness behind the edge, excellent profile and the nicely tapered spine combine to just make these a real pleasure to use. They cut like the proverbial “laser” but are stiff enough to not feel fragile at all and I don’t need pliers to get potatoes off the face of the blade! It reinforces how over rated, in my humble opinion, the obsession with “lasers” is (had a konosuke for a little bit).
These guys really understand that the geometry controls everything and have executed their interpretation of the perfect geometry beautifully in these blades. I think the 240/180 combo is just about perfect and I can cover 90% of my work, outside of butchery, with these two knives.
I couldn’t be happier with my purchases, and just wanted to share my experience coming back to handmade knives after far too long. Apologies for the crappy pic, not even the iPhone can make me a good photographer.
They are both SKD with nashiji finish from CKC. Top is 245x51 and the bottom is 185x45 and all I can say is, wow. They cut amazingly well. I foolishly sold an Itinomonn 240 western gyuto years ago, (if the buyer’s out there, I’ll buy it back!) and I haven’t had anything that cuts as well until now and I’m kicking myself for it.
Immediately I noticed that I would have to adjust a bit to get used to the 50/50 grind on these knives. All of my knives are quite asymmetrical and western handles, so it took a little bit to make the small corrections needed. After it was dialed in, the cutting performance shined. The grind on these knives is just amazing, the food release qualities, thinness behind the edge, excellent profile and the nicely tapered spine combine to just make these a real pleasure to use. They cut like the proverbial “laser” but are stiff enough to not feel fragile at all and I don’t need pliers to get potatoes off the face of the blade! It reinforces how over rated, in my humble opinion, the obsession with “lasers” is (had a konosuke for a little bit).
These guys really understand that the geometry controls everything and have executed their interpretation of the perfect geometry beautifully in these blades. I think the 240/180 combo is just about perfect and I can cover 90% of my work, outside of butchery, with these two knives.
I couldn’t be happier with my purchases, and just wanted to share my experience coming back to handmade knives after far too long. Apologies for the crappy pic, not even the iPhone can make me a good photographer.
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