Spent years hunting for a back up iron clad nakiri from Takeda and eventually came across this one that was even older than I anticipated finding and bought it on impulse. My acquisition philosophy has changed and I realize having two of basically the same knife isn't my thing.
This knife is iron clad blue 1. This dates the blade to at least the very, very early aughts - so at least 20 years old. Could be a decade or more older than that.
The knife came to me with the original sticker on the handle (still in the same condition it arrived in) which could mean NOS. But the blade itself was in terrible shape - rust, deep pitting, warps, very uneven grind, etc. Did my best to refurb the whole thing with a natural process KU restoration (no blueing chemicals), reworked and thinned bevels (it nail flexes handily), etc.
About 172x53 from memory. Tapers from 4mm to less than 1mm and is about 1mm at the shinogi which is 12mm on average up from the edge. Asymmetric grind biased towards righties. Bevel on the left came much taller to me and I've maintained that rather than thin the right side. The bevel is almost entirely flat with some subtle convexity into a nail flex edge. Bevel geometry is set but I did an extremely hasty rather than patient polish so while it is “stone ready” you’d want to drop back to 800 grit or even 400 to get all the remaining coarse scratches out.
The steel is exceptional - hard without being glassy. Like all my favorite steels, it takes very nice edge both at coarse and fine grits. I've yet to find a grit too fine for this steel such that it won't bite into tomatoes.
$400 shipped CONUS for this piece of history.
This knife is iron clad blue 1. This dates the blade to at least the very, very early aughts - so at least 20 years old. Could be a decade or more older than that.
The knife came to me with the original sticker on the handle (still in the same condition it arrived in) which could mean NOS. But the blade itself was in terrible shape - rust, deep pitting, warps, very uneven grind, etc. Did my best to refurb the whole thing with a natural process KU restoration (no blueing chemicals), reworked and thinned bevels (it nail flexes handily), etc.
About 172x53 from memory. Tapers from 4mm to less than 1mm and is about 1mm at the shinogi which is 12mm on average up from the edge. Asymmetric grind biased towards righties. Bevel on the left came much taller to me and I've maintained that rather than thin the right side. The bevel is almost entirely flat with some subtle convexity into a nail flex edge. Bevel geometry is set but I did an extremely hasty rather than patient polish so while it is “stone ready” you’d want to drop back to 800 grit or even 400 to get all the remaining coarse scratches out.
The steel is exceptional - hard without being glassy. Like all my favorite steels, it takes very nice edge both at coarse and fine grits. I've yet to find a grit too fine for this steel such that it won't bite into tomatoes.
$400 shipped CONUS for this piece of history.
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