Best bet was to enter your email and check it everyday, I got notification one time on 270mm, and it’s only 1 available. They can be gone fast, Kochi is very underrated mid workhorse for the price, if I have to choose between same size Yoshikane and Kochi I’d pick Kochi because more comfortable to hold(more rounded spine and good working handle)
Is SKD 12 harder to sharpen than white 2?
People who are better than me at sharpening say SKD and (semi)stainless tool steels in general are more difficult than white 2. I don't really notice personally on yoshikane's skd except it feels slicker on stones. I notice a larger difference in takamura and ryusen's SG2/R2 compared to skd and carbon.
Yes but not extremely so. Just enough to notice there's some small difference.
People who are better than me at sharpening say SKD and (semi)stainless tool steels in general are more difficult than white 2. I don't really notice personally on yoshikane's skd except it feels slicker on stones. I notice a larger difference in takamura and ryusen's SG2/R2 compared to skd and carbon.
Of course, I'm still rather remedial in sharpening so it might just be incompetence
Amen!
Which Heiji is under $300? most of the models I came across were $400-$500+
Ordering direct gets a 240 gyuto well under $300.
Hahahahahaha! Yeah. These days I've been resisting the false economy of buying bang-for-buck knives. If I'd save all the money I spent on sub-$300 gyutos, I could easily buy a BNIB 240 Kato at current inflated prices.
That is super true. Otoh i kind of feel like i needed to try all of those to learn and figure out what i want and what i don't want -- there are as many expensive knives not suited to my preferences as there are cheap ones.
At least you’re trying out different knives, get to know different grinds, steels properties etc. liked others have said you can always resell them without losing too much. After trying quite few knives including those bang for the buck knives, I kinda get a better idea of what suits me the most. I rather picked 3 good price/performance knives that can cover all working tasks instead of just buying one expensive one.
Well I’m budgeting around $1000. My hope was to buy 4-5 decent knives but realistically We are looking at 3 maybe 4 at best.
The $300 price range is nice because there is enough demand that you can easily buy/sell until you find exactly what you like. Grab stuff on varying ends of the spectrum, for example a thin Ashi Ginga, a workhorse Mazaki, and a midweight Wakui. Keep your favorite, sell the rest, and continue to refine from there. I've gone through at least 12 or 13 different knives in the past year and still have a lot more that I want to try.
