What is the weight of your ideal knife?

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tostadas

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Do you prefer a lightweight or chonk? What weight knife do you find yourself gravitating toward the most?
 
To avoid shoes and shooos thrown at me, I know I will piss someone off by not taking a stand but...

Weight isn't a category... it's a component of the knife, as much as geometry, profile, handle - preferences of one for such will vary, but to a point weight should befit the knife.

I find myself comfortable with the Mazaki Nakiri (217g) and Diplôme Santoku/Gyuto (204/199g), but not so much with the Victorinox 10" Chef (196g).

Takayuki Kengata (154g) was a comfortable weight to me, still the closest I own to my Victo Santoku (100g) which I like, but then the Kurosaki Fujin AS (136g) felt a bit too light and lean for my taste - sold since.

In the end, I think the only bracket I never disliked any of my very limited experience is 150-170g but I'm not looking for a knife by weight.
 
Moreover, weight to me is tightly correlated with length and height to a point, balance to an even more important point, but then again feeling is the most critical point to me - and one I would have a hard time summing up by weight alone, or even trying to reason a guiding line from weight vs various aspects as the aforementioned, and then again, others still.
 
To avoid shoes and shooos thrown at me, I know I will piss someone off by not taking a stand but...

Weight isn't a category... it's a component of the knife, as much as geometry, profile, handle - preferences of one for such will vary, but to a point weight should befit the knife.

I find myself comfortable with the Mazaki Nakiri (217g) and Diplôme Santoku/Gyuto (204/199g), but not so much with the Victorinox 10" Chef (196g).

Takayuki Kengata (154g) was a comfortable weight to me, still the closest I own to my Victo Santoku (100g) which I like, but then the Kurosaki Fujin AS (136g) felt a bit too light and lean for my taste - sold since.

In the end, I think the only bracket I never disliked any of my very limited experience is 150-170g but I'm not looking for a knife by weight.

That's fair. There's clearly more to a knife than any one component such as length, height, weight, etc. Some of the others including geometry or profile are more difficult to quantify in a simple statement. I have to agree with you in some regards there. I'm really digging my CCK cleaver right now that clocks in at about 300g, but for some reason feels more nimble than a 150g gyuto I have.
 
Really, to each his own... many will argue here that by the time you've thoroughly tested more than 50 knives, things are coming out clearer and clearer, and perhaps as such they can pull their own weight (bad pun not intended) whatsoever the other aspects.

I for one kind of like the present state of my limited experience... It may take 20-40 other knives, and I'll never try as much... but just as much as I consult and even dissect specs before buying, compromises must always be made, and in the end I just look forward to try another feeling, and any aspect will fall where it may.
 
260-280g wide bevel for me. Ideal weight for that "falling through food" feeling, while having enough thiness at the edge to be stupidly sharp :)
 
260-280g wide bevel for me. Ideal weight for that "falling through food" feeling, while having enough thiness at the edge to be stupidly sharp :)

Like the idea!

Weight correlated to feeling... I guess you would prefer at worst a neutral balance, at best an enough forward balance vs length to maximize the feeling?
 
Balance to me is a lot more important than weight. A lot of the weight can come from the handle and in most cases it doesn't really help, unless the blade is really beefy. Mizuno KS clone was perfectly balanced for me and around 199 grams if I remember correctly, Raquin I have is around that weight too and very nice. Then there is a Marko that is 246 or so and also balanced great for me and HSCIII that is 233 and very good and many others. Just trying to say that within a pretty wide range knives can work well as long as the balance is where you like it.
 
Like the idea!

Weight correlated to feeling... I guess you would prefer at worst a neutral balance, at best an enough forward balance vs length to maximize the feeling?
Thats why I select western handle knives nowadays, to bring the balance back a little so its not so blade heavy.
 
Balance to me is a lot more important than weight. A lot of the weight can come from the handle and in most cases it doesn't really help, unless the blade is really beefy. Mizuno KS clone was perfectly balanced for me and around 199 grams if I remember correctly, Raquin I have is around that weight too and very nice. Then there is a Marko that is 246 or so and also balanced great for me and HSCIII that is 233 and very good and many others. Just trying to say that within a pretty wide range knives can work well as long as the balance is where you like it.

Up to a point, and notwithstanding that I like your dedication to the subject and your knives, I agree with this just like to @lemeneid post, and any other here as they mostly come from more experienced user than me. But to another point, I'm not sure...

Using my own experience I would disagree with balance being a striking point more than weight, although I have said that I find them to be very closely and importantly related. I love my Moritaka at 166g, 240mm, and +40mm balance. I don't like so much my Victo at 196g, 250mm, and +40mm balance. I have two factors here, not just one, that relates the knives together, exact same balance, and almost same length.

Leading me to think, but I don't know much about the knives you own, that there must be something similar in them that goes right for you with this balance. I'd be tempted to say they perhaps are of a similar length, but more importantly, of a similar profile?

EDIT: comes to mind the obvious also, all these knives you mentioned are on the heavier side of things. Very different weights altogether which sent me off when reading, but still, in a 200g+ bracket your tending towards a heavy knife. Sure it's balance more than weight? A blend of both?

Not trying to counter you. Just expanding the discussion, if you will.
 
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Up to a point, and notwithstanding that I like your dedication to the subject and your knives, I agree with this just like to @lemeneid post, and any other here as they mostly come from more experienced user than me. But to another point, I'm not sure...

Using my own experience I would disagree with balance being a striking point more than weight, although I have said that I find them to be very closely and importantly related. I love my Moritaka at 166g, 240mm, and +40mm balance. I don't like so much my Victo at 196g, 250mm, and +40mm balance. I have two factors here, not just one, that relates the knives together, exact same balance, and almost same length.

Leading me to think, but I don't know much about the knives you own, that there must be something similar in them that goes right for you with this balance. I'd be tempted to say they perhaps are of a similar length, but more importantly, of a similar profile?

EDIT: comes to mind the obvious also, all these knives you mentioned are on the heavier side of things. Very different weights altogether which sent me off when reading, but still, in a 200g+ bracket your tending towards a heavy knife. Sure it's balance more than weight? A blend of both?

Not trying to counter you. Just expanding the discussion, if you will.

It is not entirely correct to think of balance as a precise distance from the handle. Depending on the length of the neck, it's shape, shape of the choil area and even angle of the handle vs the edge you will find that your hand even using the same grip is positioned slightly different. Absolute balance point vs position of your hand in a particular grip is what seems to make the knife more or less well balanced. Take YF with a finger cutout as an extreme case it allows one to grab the knife further on the blade changing the relative balance point bad the grip. All in my opinion ofcourse and others I am sure think otherwise.
 
Thinking of it... my Mazaki Nakiri is forward balance just the same and I like it...

Could it be that I misjudged the Victo because it was nowhere near as sharp?

Then again I do feel right with the Diplômes, somewhat heavier (for length) BUT backward balance. But these were also sharper than the Victo - and sharpened sharper too,

Then again, I do feel like there's something to the Diplômes bal/weight vs profile/length, or Moritaka's, that I won't ever find with the Victo.
 
It is not entirely correct to think of balance as a precise distance from the handle. Depending on the length of the neck, it's shape, shape of the choil area and even angle of the handle vs the edge you will find that your hand even using the same grip is positioned slightly different. Absolute balance point vs position of your hand in a particular grip is what seems to make the knife more or less well balanced. Take YF with a finger cutout as an extreme case it allows one to grab the knife further on the blade changing the relative balance point bad the grip. All in my opinion ofcourse and others I am sure think otherwise.

MOST kind... AND illuminating.

Thanks for taking the time to answer this.
 
Sure. Apart from the case of very handle-heavy ones, without being much conscious about it, I move the grip according to the balance point.
 
Just to chime in, I have an Itonomonn 240 Ss gyuto. And somehow despite the nice grind, etc. somehow I have not really taken a liking to it. I have started to wonder whether weight could be a factor.

Having said that, it could be a balance thing. Or just the shear length of the thing. Or a perception of fragility due to the lightness. Haven’t figured it out yet.
 
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