Why are you selling your Mazaki?

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captaincaed

captaincaed

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So tell me, those who have sold your Mazaki, what didn’t do it for you?

I just got one, and I’m honestly loving it. Sharp as hell, cuts like crazy, has a good food-release zone, handle is nice, distal taper rocks, and it’s round in all the right places.

So it’s not a critical question at all, I’m just curious about what qualities other people like more. I’ve seen many of these on BST recently, so why?
 
You’re right there have been a lot of Mazakis on BST. With the risk of being completely wrong, I think part of the answer is that many KKF members have more than one Mazaki (of more or less the same sort) as well as many other knives... Mazakis clearly aren’t very expensive (relative to the quality you get). And since Mazaki has made so many changes on his profiles, many members might have had the opportunity to try many and then decide to keep the ones that fit them the best.
So, the reason so many Mazakis have been sold might not reflect any major dissatisfactions. Rather, it seems to me, people generally recognize the quality but may not have the need to keep everything they have from him. Of course, this is just a guess, and I’m ready to be corrected.
 
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I agree with Carl. I am currently trying to sell 3 different Mazaki knives because I bought 7 of them and ultimately would only like to keep 2. There have been several different versions of his knives, profiles as well as handles and fit and finish differences, and I wanted to try them all.
 
From what I can tell, there are a lot of members here who cycle through a lot of knives. What ends up on BST is a representation of a % of the market of knives bought within the last month, and there has been a huge frenzy of Mazaki buying, which then in turn causes a lot of them to trickle into the BST later on.
 
I wouldn’t put it exactly in those terms, but essentially yes[emoji23]. Some of us are more inclined to to trying new things, 12 at a time, some- not so much. For the record, I loved them all, but now someone gets to love the others at a significantly reduced cost. So everyone wins.
 
GorillaGrunt said:
There’s also sometimes a bit of a cascade effect - people see a knife from a particular maker listed for sale and decide to sell theirs too, I’ve seen it a few times.
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This....

Yeah, I think we all went a little crazy and are coming down to our proportions, Ive kept a couple and use them quite a bit.... value blades for sure.
 
A lot of people had to try all of the different grinds - I only bought 1 but got to try 2 others to compare (all bought at the same time) and they were wildly different but all good in their own right.
 
The cascade sounds right. After a year or two here I've noticed things run in waves. There's definitely a strong zeitgeist current here.

Dendrobatez said:
A lot of people had to try all of the different grinds - I only bought 1 but got to try 2 others to compare (all bought at the same time) and they were wildly different but all good in their own right.
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What was wildly different for you? Inconsistencies or planned variance?
 
Yeah, for me it was just trying the different versions, keeping what I like. I think I sold 2 different 240s and a suji. I kept a JNS 240 and 270 from just before the “profile” version and a 180 Petty. I don’t see myself letting any of those go
 
It’s also a function of how different all his first runs were in combination with how ‘affordable’ they were. My average buy is in the 4-600 range, so grabbing 2 Maz from 2 vendors was relatively cheap for me. You can bet you won’t see as many Jiro on the secondary market by a long shot as far as ‘flavors of the month’ go.
 
Regarding the question of ¨variance¨ On the 5 I’ve had a chance to see, If i had to guess i´d say is due to a few factors:

1) Normal evolution of his particular/style and process (think of how a craftsman evolves through his career, influences of other makers, collaborations, benchmark, etc.)

2) Particular seller requirements (think JNS VS K&S).

3) The blades not being fully finished (think grind-marks, polishing, etc.) probably do to the fact they are not placed at high end tier and pricing.

I wouldn't call them inconsistencies (to me this sounds rather random)..... but this is preliminary, id be curious to find out what others think.

IMHO ;-)
 
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In my case, I don't really like white 2, I know, I know blasphemy and it's the maker not the steel. I agree, but I still don't like it. There has been so much talk about Mazaki that I had to try it, and I felt like CC profile, handle combination would work best for me. Fully meant to keep it, but I always do:D
I like trying different knives because this is the only way I can figure out what actually works for me. It is a good knife, but I like slightly more heft in the blade at the moment and I still don't like white 2. Everything else would have to be perfect for me to keep white 2 long term.
 
Barmoley said:
In my case, I don't really like white 2, I know, I know blasphemy and it's the maker not the steel. I agree, but I still don't like it. There has been so much talk about Mazaki that I had to try it, and I felt like CC profile, handle combination would work best for me. Fully meant to keep it, but I always do:D
I like trying different knives because this is the only way I can figure out what actually works for me. It is a good knife, but I like slightly more heft in the blade at the moment and I still don't like white 2. Everything else would have to be perfect for me to keep white 2 long term.
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I dunno man, I agree that there are different steels for different jobs. Much like the romantic world, there are Sharpness guys and Retention guys. I can go both ways as long as I can get a little of each.

I liked one of @Larrin 's recent articles where he talks about switching steel instead of HT to get the properties you want.

I know many are agnostic to steel ID. I am a chemist so I tend to lean towards "steel type matters" (within reason)
 
Maybe some fell for the suggestion that Mazaki was a budget Kato, then the reality set in.
 
Corradobrit1 said:
Maybe some fell for the suggestion that Mazaki was a budget Kato, then the reality set in.
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Ha, the hype is real on these for sure! With some of the prices in the BST, how could I say "no" to finding out? My (used) Mazaki just shipped today, we will see I guess!
 
captaincaed said:
I dunno man, I agree that there are different steels for different jobs. Much like the romantic world, there are Sharpness guys and Retention guys. I can go both ways as long as I can get a little of each.

I liked one of @Larrin 's recent articles where he talks about switching steel instead of HT to get the properties you want.

I know many are agnostic to steel ID. I am a chemist so I tend to lean towards "steel type matters" (within reason)
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At this level of knives, everyone can do a proper heat treat. Some may do it better, but the major differences should be coming from the steel, not the maker.

I agree with the "heat treatment is more important than steel" when we're talking about cheap knives, because that's where you have cut corners and knives that just aren't good.
 
Cyrilix said:
At this level of knives, everyone can do a proper heat treat. Some may do it better, but the major differences should be coming from the steel, not the maker.

I agree with the "heat treatment is more important than steel" when we're talking about cheap knives, because that's where you have cut corners and knives that just aren't good.
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That's a really good point. The context is quite important. I think Larrin made that point as well.

"...Maz was bad..." slams Kato-fan @Corradobrit1
 
labor of love said:
The one Mazaki I tried cut better than the 3 Katos I once owned.
There, I said it.
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I have to imagine that as you use and sharpen and thin a knife over time, even a "magical" OOTB configuration will start to change. Unless you have the original grinder's eye and mindset, I have to believe it's quite hard to get back to square 1.
 
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