VG10 discrimination

[kpham12]

I’ve watched a lot of videos where they go behind the scenes of various Japanese restaurant kitchens and Tojiro VG-10 is the most common knife I see. Tojiro VG-10 is very utilitarian; relatively cheap, holds up well on hard plastic boards, can take some abuse and will almost always have a “working edge”, not sharp enough to fall through tomatoes, peppers, etc, but pretty much guaranteed to at least be able to slice through them readily. If you’re coming from normal German stainless or other similar beater knives, VG-10 is a very nice upgrade.

Most VG-10 will lose its initial edge faster than even some heat treats of white 2, one of the reasons I think it’s not too popular on KKF. But one of the reasons for this is a lot of VG-10 knives are “entry level” and tend to be conservatively thick behind the edge, making them harder to sharpen, less able to achieve a high level of sharpness and losing their initial sharpness quickly. Like others mentioned above, makers like Ryusen, Takamura and smiths from Echizen can get a lot more out of the steel than super high volume producers. I got to use a VG-10 knife from Kenichi Shiraki for a while and that thing could hold a much more refined edge than Tojiro VG-10 for a lot longer.

But here’s a video of two VG-10 cleavers I was testing after I thinned them out and resharpened at a more acute angle last year. They were kind of a PITA to thin, but afterwards, it’s way easier to sharpen and deburr them and they hold a much nicer edge for longer.



That being said, if you can find the same knife in R2/SG2 for not much of a price difference, I would likely go with that. Unfortunately for me in this instance, the cheapest full size Chinese cleavers in R2/SG2 I can find are close to $1000 or more .

 

[captaincaed]

But here’s a video of two VG-10 cleavers I was testing after I thinned them out and resharpened at a more acute angle last year. They were kind of a PITA to thin, but afterwards, it’s way easier to sharpen and deburr them and they hold a much nicer edge for longer.

So geometry made the difference, not the steel choice.

 

[bahamaroot]

I was very leery of VG10 when first getting into J-knives because of all the negative comments about it. After getting a VG10 knife by Yu Kurosaki I realized very fast that it was a much better steel than most gave it credit for.

 

[kpham12]

So geometry made the difference, not the steel choice.

Kind of? What do you mean by steel choice?

I meant that I think even a “conventional” HT of VG-10 from Tojiro or other mass producers with relatively good reputation and quality control is better than most people give it credit for, it’s just a lot of those knives are targeted to people first getting into Japanese knives, whether pro or home cook, so they tend to be a little thicker behind the edge for durability which in turn lowers ease of sharpening and maximum sharpness/edge retention and some can think that is due to the steel when it is more of a geometry issue. I would still think that if I thinned out a Tojiro to a similar geometry as a Takamura VG-10, the VG-10 on the Takamura would still hold up better.