Upgrade From Shun To Kurosaki?

[dshap]

LOCATION
What country are you in?
USA

KNIFE TYPE
What type of knife are you interested in (e.g., chefs knife, slicer, boning knife, utility knife, bread knife, paring knife, cleaver)?
Gyuto

Are you right or left handed?
Right

Are you interested in a Western handle (e.g., classic Wusthof handle) or Japanese handle?
Prefer Japanese

What length of knife (blade) are you interested in (in inches or millimeters)?
210mm

Do you require a stainless knife? (Yes or no)
No, would like to try a SS clad carbon

What is your absolute maximum budget for your knife?
$250ish

KNIFE USE
Do you primarily intend to use this knife at home or a professional environment?
Home

What are the main tasks you primarily intend to use the knife for (e.g., slicing vegetables, chopping vegetables, mincing vegetables, slicing meats, cutting down poultry, breaking poultry bones, filleting fish, trimming meats, etc.)? (Please identify as many tasks as you would like.)
Mostly vegetables (all sized cuts), sometimes slicing boneless proteins (not butchery), have other knives for nuts, bread, etc.

What knife, if any, are you replacing?
Adding, not replacing.

Do you have a particular grip that you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for the common types of grips.)
Pinch

What cutting motions do you primarily use? (Please click on this LINK for types of cutting motions and identify the two or three most common cutting motions, in order of most used to least used.)
I generally rock, but I'm trying to get used to chopping and push cutting. Never walk the blade to chop herbs.

What improvements do you want from your current knife? If you are not replacing a knife, please identify as many characteristics identified below in parentheses that you would like this knife to have.)
I want a knife that feels extremely sharp and effortlessly glides through soft vegetables. I want the horizontal cuts to dice an onion to feel very easy.
Aesthetics are important (but don't want Damascus), Wa handle is preferable, lightweight is preferable, performance is more important than food release.


KNIFE MAINTENANCE
Do you use a bamboo, wood, rubber, or synthetic cutting board? (Yes or no.)
Wood

Do you sharpen your own knives? (Yes or no.)
Yes, 1k and 5k Shapton stones (new to water stones but improving).

SPECIAL REQUESTS/COMMENTS
I currently use a Shun 8" Kirkitsuke, Fujiwara FKM 210mm, and 8" Victorinox Fibrox. The Shun is very handle-heavy, which I hate, and not particularly impressive to me in any way. I think I like the profile of the FKM, but hate how the spine and choil aren't eased, and I'm don't love the Western handle. The don't have any real complaints about the Vnox, except it's so boring. It doesn't seem like any of these knives hold an edge so well, but I've never stropped so maybe I need to improve my maintenance regimen.

I loves the look of the Kurosaki AS Fujin 210mm Gyuto, but I'm concerned about the hollow grind and having to thin it eventually. I've been searching the forum but still not sure how often I'd need to thin the blade, assuming I'd be using it only a few times a week to make dinner. I love the aesthetics of the Fujin and had the chance to see other Kurosaki knives in a store, and was very impressed by the fit and finish. Not sure what else I should be looking at if I wanted to avoid a concave grind. Looking forward to your suggestions!

 

[daveb]

Welcome.

 

[JaVa]

Kurosaki makes stellar knives and his F&F is second to none. Don't let the concave/hollow grind bother you. It's usually only a good thing.

With Kuroksakis recent grinds the wide bevel is raised really high which does couple of things. It allows the grind to be not only thin right behind the edge, but also it makes it thin further up the grind and the concave grind further helps with that. Also depending on what you are cutting it helps to push stuff outward from the blade or leave an air pocket so stuff just drops off the blade. In both instances it helps with food release and cutting performance.

You actually get a laser thin knife feel for the initial first cut and the you get the food release benefit of a thicker knife as it starts to push stuff off the blade further up the grind without wedging.

Also you actually don't need thin it to nearly as often as a basic flat wide bevels. As the thinnes behind the edge continues higher with the concave grind, it keeps it's cutting performance much longer before the thickness behind the edge starts to be on issue. And when it finally comes time to thin you just thin that hollowness out and flatten it to a wide bevel grind. You do it the same as you would a regular wide bevel. I have two hollow grind wide bevel gyutos and love them. I Like them a lot more than any basic wide bevels I've tried.

 

[JaVa]

...but if you want to look at something with a more traditional convex grind and similar F&F, check out Wakui Hairline/Kasumi/Migaki. The SS clad W2 core version is getting a bit hard to find, but IMO offers the best value for money in all the J-knife land. Impeccable F&F and cutting performance to rival anyone. There's two version out there, the beefier about 200 g version and the more laser-ish about 170 g version. For cutting performance either works great. There is also a fully reactive version to be aware of.

EE sells the beefier version in 240 size For under 200$ which is just insane. That's a steal of a deal and you get a 10% forum discount on top of that if you ask. Just an insane bargain! But no 210 though.

There's also a tsuchime (hammered) and a nashiji versions that are worth a look too and those 210's have been easier to find. I've never used either, but I've understood is that they are also slightly beefier and not quite as thin behind the edge. Should be great cutters still. Maybe someone with experience with those will chime in?

Kaeru white gyuto from JNS might be good fit too. Another price/performance bargain with good F&F, but with that too the 210 is OOS.

 

[drsmp]

You won’t be disappointed with a Kurosaki - great looking and great cutters

 

[dshap]

I seem to have put this thread in the wrong subforum, sorry about that.

 

[dshap]

Thanks for the info about the Kurosaki grinds and Wakui. The tsuchime looks great but I wish it was lighter. The other versions are a little plain looking for my first purchase, but I'll keep looking into them.

 

[JaVa]

If you were looking at the K&S sites 202g weight, I'm guessing there's a mistake and that's probably the 240 weight. The 200g weight sounds a bit off for a 210. Just a guess though. Just send a message to James @ K&S and he'll check it for you.

 

[AT5760]

That weight is likely off. My 210 from KNS is right at 170g.

 

[Nemo]

I seem to have put this thread in the wrong subforum, sorry about that.

Fixed that for you

 

[Nemo]

My 240 Wakui Tsuchime (hammered) from KnS is 248.8g with an ebony handle. It is a real workhorse grind with great food release but is a bit wedgie in the hard stuff. It's imteresting to see that some seem to have gotten much thinner grinds.

Are you interested primarily in the weight of the knife or are you using this as a surrogate for performance? IME, this is fraught with inaccuracies.

I think that one knife that you should consider is the Tanaka Nashiji blue2. Mine is Ginsan, but Tanaka's blue2 is pretty good. Easy to sharpen and deburr, with decent edge retention. Mine is fairly thin but it does sound like there is a little variation in grind thickness. The profile is quite curved for a Japanese knife, although much less than a German knife. This suits rocking quite well. The grind is basically a flat wide bevel, which is easy to maintain. The KnS versions hve excellent fit and finish. In particular, the spine and choil rounding are amomgst the best I have seen. The basic ebony KnS handles are great and are easy to upgrade.

 

[Nemo]

If you want a blade heavy knife, then you need either:
1) A heavy blade or
2) A light handle (generally ho/ magnolia wood).

OTOH, many handles (even heavy ones) on knives from quality vendors will aim to havet he balance point neart he pinch grip (maybe 30 mm ahead of the ferrule).

 

[Jason183]

The Kurosaki Fujin AS is a good choice for cutting vegetables in terms of aesthetics and performance. You don’t really need to thin the Fujin very often, it’s already laser thin behind the edge.

 

[drsmp]

My Fujin AS 210 with Blackwood handle weighs 162gm.

 

[Nagakin]

EE sells the beefier version in 240 size For under 200$ which is just insane. That's a steal of a deal and you get a 10% forum discount on top of that if you ask. Just an insane bargain! But no 210 though.

was changed to 5% recently.