My kit of Japanese knives ... WIP
Here's a pic of the kit.
I started out with a Shun Classic Santoku by way of dipping the toes into the water. Lovely general purpose knife of hard stainless. Sold that when moving on to more specialised knives and crumbs, don't the Japanese like to specialise in knives!
The journey has been guided via the informed and generous advice of NeilS but what follows is down to me.
I first got attracted to Japanese knives by the superb Damascus figure; AFAIK it comes from multiple forge-welded laminations of steel types followed by grinding and acid treatment to reveal the 'grain'.
So from left to right:
1. SHIMATANI Damascus DEBA knife 180mm/Blue steel, right handed.
Primary bevel c. 25*, 2ndary v. short bevel about another 5*
USD 150; from ebay/Metalmaster; no longer appears to be active.
The lamination is only apparent on the longish primary bevel.
This is for cutting hard vegies and for filleting fish and cutting through soft bones. The bevel is only on the right side and the back is hollow ground. It's the least used so far as it's way out on left field cp western knives. It has a lot of heft and is a pleasure to wield.
2. Watanabe Gyuto 180mm at USD 190
Hammered stainless gunmetal 'sheath'; blue steel core. I use it as a general purpose knife. The edge lasted for over 10 weeks as the only knife in the kit on a recent country stay. The blue steel is prone to corrosion and I've learned to carefully follow Neil's advice to wash it in hot water directly after use, then dry it and wipe on some Camellia Oil.
This was a special direct from the maker. The closest appears to be
Japanese chef kitchen knife, cooking knife, sushi knife, custom Japanese knife : watanabeblade.com
3. Tanaka Nakiri, right handed. 16 layer Damascus VG10 stainless. 17cm. Orig. right side bevel only and had more of a curve seen in plan. I changed both of those in sharpening but will revert to a right bevel only in time.
The orig. curve allowed it to be used like a French cook's knife so it could be rocked to and fro to chop herbs.
This is a vegie knife and works wonders on fine slicing of cabbage, ginger, tomato, carrots etc.
Japanese tools whetstone for sword items - Get great deals on items on eBay Stores!
4. Tanaka petty knife, right handed, 15.5cm, 16 layer Damascus VG10 stainless, also from 330mate.com.
In X section this blade is wedge shaped with the smallest of bevels.
In purpose it approaches a Western paring knife but the blade width is greater. I rounded the heel given the way I peel whole onions.
The Tanaka knives are very good value given the Damascus figure and the steel quality.