Thread: My kit of Japanese knives ... WIP

Originally Posted by Sheets

Hi Pam,

Its not your Mac. Chefs' Armoury only ships to Oz and New Zealand (where is Old Zealand, btw?), so we who live closer to the centre of the universe, don't get to see the items in their catalog unfortunately .

Steve

Thanks, Steve.

Originally Posted by NeilS

I'll attempt to attach an off-line version, in case it works.

Neil

Thanks, Neil, but all I got was a price list. Usually I can take an image copy from a web page, save it on whatever computer I'm using, then place it on a discussion page. On the Mac this is done with Control-Click-Save.

Pam

Originally Posted by Pam

Thanks, Neil, but all I got was a price list. Usually I can take an image copy from a web page, save it on whatever computer I'm using, then place it on a discussion page. On the Mac this is done with Control-Click-Save.

Pam

Sorry, Pam, that was the best I could do.

In Windoze it's 'Save Page As', which I did and I could view the file off-line.

One more try....

The txt colour is very close to the background colour in the saved version... highlight the txt to make it easier to read.

Neil

Originally Posted by NeilS

I'll attempt to attach an off-line version, in case it works.

Neil

Thanks, Neil, I can now see this marvelous knife.

Pam

Hi all,

My wife and I were racking ours brains recently over what to get my brother for his 40th. We were thinking a pair of custom camel leather shoes made by an outfitter mate of ours here in Alice but changed our minds after discussing the price……

Anyway, settled on a japanese knife. Looked at the Chef's Armoury knives but they weren't what I was after. I did consider a Watanabe knife but didn't have the time to wait for one to be produced.

Did some research online looking for a stainless clad japanese style knife and came across the Yoshihiro line of knives. There were good reviews online and I couldn't really find a bad review that would kill the purchase except that the knives didn't come as sharp as they could potentially be. A problem? Not really.

Anyway, I chose an usuba as my bro already has a full kit of German knives he picked up when travelling there. I also thought a specialised vegetable knife would be a good addition as opposed to an all-purpose knife like a santoku that would attempt to replace his German chef's knife.

Not exactly an addition to 'my kit', but here is the knife:

IMG_1468.jpgIMG_1471.jpg

It's stainless clad with an inner core of high carbon high speed powdered steel. Not white or blue steels, but apparently on the Rockwell scale between 63-64. First impressions from side on were that it had a thick blade and would be heavy. You can see the line in the the first pic that suggests a 'strong bevel' along the blade. But it was light and had a thin blade. Second pic shows the thin blade and no 'strong bevel'.

Unfortunately I couldn't do more than take a few pics before wrapping it and sending it on it's way.

Cheers,
Justin

Ok so I sent an email off to Shinichi and he replied very promptly. I'll definitely be buying a knife off him, most likely the Santoku. I won't be able to make the purchase for a few weeks though, it was a little more expensive than I expected.

Given the pending arrival of my new knife, I thought I should start reading up on it. How do I care for it? Is there a thread on here somewhere that deals with caring for carbon steel knives? Any other information about caring for this knife would be appreciated as well.


Cheers
Paul

The only book I have is Japanese Kitchen Knives: Essential Techniques and Recipes by Hiromitsu Nozaki with Kate Klippensteen.

The title indicates the emphasis but it does briefly cover as well knife types and anatomy, steel types, care and sharpening. It's very clear and has lots of photos.

The techniques differ quite a lot from those I picked up using western knives.

Originally Posted by desert oak

Did some research online looking for a stainless clad japanese style knife and came across the Yoshihiro ...

It's stainless clad with an inner core of high carbon high speed powdered steel. Not white or blue steels, but apparently on the Rockwell scale between 63-64.

Good choice Justin for 1st time J-knife user.

The SKD-11 steel at 63-64rc will take a keen edge and last longer than most other SS edged knives.

Neil

Originally Posted by Gnickrapon

How do I care for it? Is there a thread on here somewhere that deals with caring for carbon steel knives?

Paul - we have probably covered this within a thread at some stage, but it would be buried away and hard to find.

The basics that I pass on to anyone that I give a J-knife to are:

• Wash and wipe dry as soon as you can after each use
• Use a soft chopping board (I prefer a wooden endgrain board)
• Sharpen with waterstones. There are many YouTube videos on how to do this
• Steels are for softer western knives
• Use a slicing action wherever you can and a minimal chopping action, if you must.

The knife will come as sharp as you will ever get it. Get to feel what a very sharp knife cuts like for as long as possible before you attempt your first re-sharpening.

Enjoy

Neil

Yes.

I would add from my experience:

Storage and transport: take care; the edge and tip are vulnerable to chipping. A wipe of cooking oil when the knife is warm and dry is a good idea; but camellia oil works better than olive.
Sharpening with ceramic waterstones: use a light touch. Let the slurry do the work. If you have to repair chipping out, a coarse stone can rip the edge if you're heavy handed.

Have fun with it. Remember it's only a tool.

Cheers for the info guys. I'm not getting cold feet, but I'm begining to wonder if a knife that will cost roughly $260 to get (conversion + shipping) should be my first step into carbon blades....

Would I perhaps be better off with something cheaper so I can learn to properly care for it first? The Aogami SS knives that I was linked to earlier...

http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/Te...akuSeries.html

..are considerably cheaper but should teach me a thing or 2 right? Watanabe also seem to sell a cheaper set of knives in their "standard" line

Or should I just go for it and stop being silly? Ie: Grab the Santoku from Watanabe?

Cheers again for helping out this novice.

Paul

What's value for money is a pretty individual call.

$260+ is a lot of money. It will give you, err, a Ferrari of a knife. Does what it does very well at the cost of some TLC though not as much as it might appear. The question arises as to whether you need that level of performance. If you're an domestic knife-wielder probably not. There are cheaper knives that you should find satisfying. I got my Watanabe out of tool lust and an associated interest to see how it would perform cp. my VG10 blades. But those blades have given me a lot of pleasure and the value proposition was unbeatable.

Originally Posted by NeilS

Paul - we have probably covered this within a thread at some stage, but it would be buried away and hard to find.

The basics that I pass on to anyone that I give a J-knife to are:

• Wash and wipe dry as soon as you can after each use
• Use a soft chopping board (I prefer a wooden endgrain board)
• Sharpen with waterstones. There are many YouTube videos on how to do this
• Steels are for softer western knives
• Use a slicing action wherever you can and a minimal chopping action, if you must.

The knife will come as sharp as you will ever get it. Get to feel what a very sharp knife cuts like for as long as possible before you attempt your first re-sharpening.

Enjoy

Neil

Cheers for the reply. I actually do all of the above with my stainless knives already, although I do tend to chop a lot. I work in hospitality (family cafe) so you learn to keep everything clean very quickly...I generally wash and dry my knives immediately after use, so that won't be a problem.

Originally Posted by rsser

What's value for money is a pretty individual call.

$260+ is a lot of money. It will give you, err, a Ferrari of a knife. Does what it does very well at the cost of some TLC though not as much as it might appear. The question arises as to whether you need that level of performance. If you're an domestic knife-wielder probably not. There are cheaper knives that you should find satisfying. I got my Watanabe out of tool lust and an associated interest to see how it would perform cp. my VG10 blades. But those blades have given me a lot of pleasure and the value proposition was unbeatable.

I imagine there was no real comparison?

I'm not questioning the value of the knife at all, I believe this is the type of knife that would stay with me for years. I guess I'm just questioning my ability to look after it properly and thought it might be a good idea to buy a Toyota before upgrading to the Ferrari. Not that there's anything wrong with Toyota's mind you.

I have a tendency to over think things tbh lol.