Your favourite Semi-/Stainless Knife

[JayS20]

Hey guys,
wanted to know your favourite semi and stainless knives and what you like about them.
My favourite one is my Yoshikane SLD Damascus 240 Gyuto. It's such a beautie, feels great in hand and cuts really well. It's a bit overseized with 247mm and has a height of 52mm which is rather low for my preferences but it doesn't bother me, it just fits. Usually with 240 I want 52+.
Special mentions are my Gengetsu SS which I really like but haven't had for too long yet and my Yu Kurosaki Raijin Nakiri. The Nakiri feels really delicate, a bit brittle, but never had a problem with chipping and cuts really nicely, just wish it was 180mm. Also quite like SG2 which is really robust and feels better than e.g. VG10.
Cheers,
Julian

 

[ian]

Heiji. It’s the bomb.

Gengetsu’s great too, of course.

 

[IsoJ]

Newham nitro-v boning knife

 

[LostHighway]

Kippington 207 mini-gyuto in Nitro-V. Excellent food separation, very good edge retention*, and it is a tough steel so I don't feel like I have to be extra cautious with it (the tip is extremely thin).

*I haven't owned an SG2, CPM-154, or Z-Wear knife so I don't have those points of comparison but edge retention seems to be at least as good as any of my high tungsten knives and probably better than Shirogami.

 

[Ruso]

Spyderco chaparral FRN in XHP. Perfect size and blade stock thickness for every day use. Love it. The only minor downside is the lock type, not my favourite.

 

[Towerguy]

Gesshen Ginga 240mm stainless sujihiki.

 

[Cliff]

Ginga stainless is pretty stainless, not semi.

I like Konosuke HD2 for a laser.

ETA, oops, my bad, missed the part in the OP about stainless

 

[Eloh]

Simon Herde 270mm Gyuto in 14C28N

 

[esoo]

Kotetsu Bunka R2 - wispy light laser edge that dropped through product.
Konosuke 210 HD2 - only a couple of grams heavier than the Kotetsu, but feels like a much more solid cutter in the hand (new taller 49mm version).
Devin Thomas 225x47 AEB-L - incredibly competent knife. wispy tip with solid heel feels like a do everything blade. As a home cook, I've liked ~200mm blades, but the 225 feels right.

I've only had the last two for a short bit, so still getting used to them.

 

[Barmoley]

From the knives I still have HSCIII Z-wear gyutos. Great steel and heat treat and the knives are excellent for me. Andrei Markin m390 gyuto is my wife's favorite and I am forbidden from ever selling it. Dalman AEB-L is very good, excellent cutter and very good all around.

From the ones I've had, but don't anymore: Devin ITK AEB-L excellent all around, wish I still had it, Gengetsu SS, Itinomonn SS, Kaeru Stainless all relatively inexpensive and excellent mid-weights that do most things well.

 

[M1k3]

Gengetsu and Takamura Chromax (for it's price), so far.

 

[parbaked]

My Kaeru is very, very good.
GS+ is good steel but I prefer a little more meat.

 

[WildBoar]

Devin Thomas gyuto -- 225 AEB-L

Now in His and Hers flavors

 

[inferno]

i only have one semi ss, and its a yoshikane skd11 santoku. really like it.

for stainless i think the dimpled mac santoku is good. also kurosaki r2. yeah those are my favorites.

 

[MowgFace]

Gengetsu and Itiniomonn StainLESS for me.

Still need to get me a Heiji though. Been on my short list for a long while.

 

[Runner_up]

Heiji. It’s the bomb.

Gengetsu’s great too, of course.

I'll second this. Also like my Konosuke HD2 - haven't really experimented anymore with SS steels. I have two Heiji SS knives and they are fantastic. So nice to sharpen and really hold an edge forever.

 

[inferno]

if someone held a gun to my balls and told me i had to use only one knife for the rest of my life i'm fairly certain it would be the hattori forums santoku in vg10. yes vg10. yes a mono. doesn't get much better than that to be honest. not even if i make it myself. buuuut its quite boring. thats why its not a favorite.

 

[jacko9]

I like my 240mm Konosuke HD2 Semi-Stainless after that I have two stainless clad knives that are as easy for me to maintain my 210 Watanabe and my 240 Toyama since I wipe my blades after each use these two stainless clad knives are pretty bullet proof as far as home cooking goes.

 

[aszma]

I really enjoy my geshin stainless in AUS-8 frpm jon at JKI

 

[parbaked]

Stainless would my small chef knife in AEB-L by Salem Straub.

 

[coffeelover191919]

i would say my Masamoto Swedish Steel SW , but i hear thats not very well liked around here. forgot how much i paid but i went to their store while in japan on a vacation with my wife so it has sentimental value to me.

Other than that.. my best stainless knife is a Shun Premier Kiritsuke VG-MAX, sharpens pretty easily in about 15 minutes.

 

[Barashka]

Shibata Kotetsu Bunka, though doesn't need to be a bunka as all of them perform great for my tastes.
Shockingly, second place goes to my Dalman 275 just because it's a touch large to and 180mm is more often what I need.

 

[inferno]

i would say my Masamoto Swedish Steel SW , but i hear thats not very well liked around here. forgot how much i paid but i went to their store while in japan on a vacation with my wife so it has sentimental value to me.

Other than that.. my best stainless knife is a Shun Premier Kiritsuke VG-MAX, sharpens pretty easily in about 15 minutes.

looks pretty dope too...

 

[NotThinEnough]

used & sharpened HD2, SKD-11 (Yoshikane, Masashi), SKD-12 (Yoshikane, Heiji and Sakon), HD for SS.

Heiji & HD2 are neck and neck for ease of sharpening. Heiji tends to keep an edge longer. However, imo Heiji's standard grind is too beefy and nullifies the edge retention a bit even on soft hinoki boards when going through dense produce.

SKD-12 by Yoshikane is easy to sharpen when the blade is thin, but I find that deburring can be trickier than the above. Sometimes, when the sharpening spirit smiles, the edge rentention is on par with Heiji, and I like the edge quality much better.

HD, SLD/SKD-11 steel is lower on reactivity than the aforementioned steels. But I don't enjoy sharpening it or the edge quality.

 

[Nemo]

I'll add my vote for Gengetsu SS and Yoshi SKD.

 

[timebard]

used & sharpened HD2, SKD-11 (Yoshikane, Masashi), SKD-12 (Yoshikane, Heiji and Sakon), HD for SS.

...

SKD-12 by Yoshikane is easy to sharpen when the blade is thin, but I find that deburring can be trickier than the above. Sometimes, when the sharpening spirit smiles, the edge rentention is on par with Heiji, and I like the edge quality much better.

HD, SLD/SKD-11 steel is lower on reactivity than the aforementioned steels. But I don't enjoy sharpening it or the edge quality.

Which Yoshikane knives use SKD-11 vs. 12? Recently picked up a Yoshikane SKD hammered gyuto that I'm really liking. Haven't seen writeup distinguishing these subtypes though, are these two varieties used in one particular model or another?

 

[Southpaw]

I’ve been eying those Konosuke HD2s hard!!!

 

[inferno]

never heard of anyone to use skd12.

skd11 is japanese d2. i can take it up to 12k and it responds good imo.

 

[inferno]

rhis is skd12 and i dont think anyone is making blades out of it. but it would be good though.

Chemical composition(mass fraction)(wt.%) of the JIS SKD 12

Element	Weight %
C​	0.95-1.05
Mn​	1.00
Si​	0.50
Cr​	4.75-5.50
Ni​	0.30
Mo​	0.90-1.40
V​	0.15-0.50
Cu​	0.25
P​	0.03
S​	0.03

 

[jacko9]

I’ve been eying those Konosuke HD2s hard!!!

You won't be disappointed with the Kono HD2 great knife.