Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

See what's happening with current or completed "Pass Arounds". Forum members occasionally send knives or sharpening stones around to a hand selected group of participants for short term use and feedback/reviews.
easilver
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by easilver »

Been trying to control myself, but it's a lost cause. Count me in please Ray. Would love to try a single bevel.
Ed in L.A.
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mauichef
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by mauichef »

You're on Ed!
I agree...this one is hard to turn down
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by Bensbites »

mauichef wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:39 pm You're on Ed!
I agree...this one is hard to turn down
If I had the 100 posts I would be in...
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by mauichef »

Bensbites wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2017 7:45 am
mauichef wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:39 pm You're on Ed!
I agree...this one is hard to turn down
If I had the 100 posts I would be in...
83...100....who's counting ;)
You're in buddy! Welcome on board.
Send me your info including phone please.

OK...list closed.
Mahalo everyone.
Joshigon
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by Joshigon »

Super cool of you to let Bensbites in. :)
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by Bensbites »

mauichef wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:18 pm
Bensbites wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2017 7:45 am
mauichef wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:39 pm You're on Ed!
I agree...this one is hard to turn down
If I had the 100 posts I would be in...
83...100....who's counting ;)
You're in buddy! Welcome on board.
Send me your info including phone please.

OK...list closed.
Mahalo everyone.
Public thank you

PS. I bet I will hit 100 soon. ;)
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by Bensbites »

Joshigon wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:31 pm Super cool of you to let Bensbites in. :)
Agreed!
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mauichef
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by mauichef »

So here is the testing order:

cutuu
cjmeik
J david
snipes
Joshigon
Bensbites
STPepper9
pjwoolw
easilver
Mauichef

Let the knife games begin :)
DarkStar
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by DarkStar »

You missed ceder on first page.

I'm being selfish.. I love reading his take on things.
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by mauichef »

DarkStar wrote: Fri Feb 24, 2017 8:24 am You missed ceder on first page.

I'm being selfish.. I love reading his take on things.
Thanks for the heads up.
He's on.
SteveG
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by SteveG »

OK, I received the knife yesterday, took a good look at it, made some decisions on prepping it for use and tried my hand at creating some iPhone videos as well. I'll have the videos up over the weekend.

First, this is a cool knife with unusual geometry as we all know. The craftsmanship seems to be at a high level, with an interesting finish. The spine is polished a bit, though the spine edges are a little harsh. The choil/neck is not polished or rounded, so the edges are a little sharp. I'm not going to do any work on the spine/choil/neck and I suggest that everyone leave it so each person can better experience the OOTB character of the knife.

The left side of the blade was flat with no perceived Ura and no microbevel. The right side had a primary bevel ground all the way to the edge (zero grind) with no micro bevel. I tried cutting a paper towel and it was obvious there was a burr at the edge and the edge was not refined for cutting. I get the strong sense that Ishikawa-san intends for the end users to put their own final edge on his knives. The blade also seems to have a light lacquer coating, though I haven't cut any protein or onions yet.

The edge profile was pretty clean, except for some very minor bumpiness in the back half of the blade. I lightly cleaned up and smoothed out the edge profile to remove these anomalies trying not to changing the general profile characteristics. I want to preserve the smiths grind marks on the primary bevel so I added a small secondary bevel at a low angle, then added a micro bevel at a higher angle. I barely raised the left side spine off the sharpening stone to remove the burr and keep the edge on that side to a micro bevel. My intention is to keep the cutting feel really close to a zero grind geometry w/o messing with the entire primary bevel.

Alright, so after all that, I managed to get the knife freakin' sharp, like scary sharp. I am wondering, though, if it would make sense to send the knife to an expert sharpener on the list like pjwoolw first so he can evaluate how to best sharpen this blade. If he thinks the primary bevel should be a zero grind then he could set stage for the rest of the participants. I will show the stock bevel with my minor additions in the QL video so everyone can see what it looks like.

I wasn't too enthusiastic about the blue/grey handle in the product page photos, but it looks nice in person and actually complements the blade IMO. The handle is finished VERY well and is smooth, smooth, smooth :-).

I'm a lefty as many of you know, so testing this Santoku is going to be challenge. I cut a few mushrooms and some red bell pepper this morning just to get a feel, trying left handed - blade on product left, left handed - blade on product right (crossed over hands, which was a total PITA), and right handed - blade on product right. I am NOT ambidextrous, so right handed cutting was very tentative, but food release, as you might expect, is going to be great on the right side. The knife did cut through the mushrooms and peppers with ease. We'll see what happens with onions, potatoes, carrots, etc.

That's it for now. I'll test it more this weekend and report back.

Steve
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by mauichef »

Very interesting read.
Mahalo Steve!
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by J david »

Looking forward to seeing the video and the knife itself even more now Steve.
milkbaby
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by milkbaby »

I wasn't paying attention and missed the passaround sign up but am interested in the comments!

So, if somebody actually owned this knife, wouldn't it make sense to sharpen like a wide bevel on the right and just deburr and possibly microbevel on the left? Sharpening on a secondary on the right seems to defeat the purpose of this particular knife grind? Seems thinning will eventually be an issue when the left hand side has no ura.
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by SteveG »

Yes, you definitely need a slight micro bevel on the left, as you'd scratch the crap out of that side if you put it flat on the stone. I'll leave the primary bevel issue to the more experienced sharpeners here. I think that I compromised at bit with the secondary bevel, but again, my thought was to preserve the makers grind marks, though that might be a worthless pursuit if it needs grinding anyway.
knifenut
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by knifenut »

Looking at this guys work today. Love to try it out.
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by Bensbites »

Since I am the noob here I will not sharpen the blade. You might want to sandwich me between two experienced sharpeners.
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by ashy2classy »

Thanks for the initial impressions, Steve! Looking forward to hearing more from your videos and other users in the group.
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by ChefKnivesToGo »

SteveG wrote: Fri Feb 24, 2017 2:01 pm OK, I received the knife yesterday, took a good look at it, made some decisions on prepping it for use and tried my hand at creating some iPhone videos as well. I'll have the videos up over the weekend.

First, this is a cool knife with unusual geometry as we all know. The craftsmanship seems to be at a high level, with an interesting finish. The spine is polished a bit, though the spine edges are a little harsh. The choil/neck is not polished or rounded, so the edges are a little sharp. I'm not going to do any work on the spine/choil/neck and I suggest that everyone leave it so each person can better experience the OOTB character of the knife.

The left side of the blade was flat with no perceived Ura and no microbevel. The right side had a primary bevel ground all the way to the edge (zero grind) with no micro bevel. I tried cutting a paper towel and it was obvious there was a burr at the edge and the edge was not refined for cutting. I get the strong sense that Ishikawa-san intends for the end users to put their own final edge on his knives. The blade also seems to have a light lacquer coating, though I haven't cut any protein or onions yet.

The edge profile was pretty clean, except for some very minor bumpiness in the back half of the blade. I lightly cleaned up and smoothed out the edge profile to remove these anomalies trying not to changing the general profile characteristics. I want to preserve the smiths grind marks on the primary bevel so I added a small secondary bevel at a low angle, then added a micro bevel at a higher angle. I barely raised the left side spine off the sharpening stone to remove the burr and keep the edge on that side to a micro bevel. My intention is to keep the cutting feel really close to a zero grind geometry w/o messing with the entire primary bevel.

Alright, so after all that, I managed to get the knife freakin' sharp, like scary sharp. I am wondering, though, if it would make sense to send the knife to an expert sharpener on the list like pjwoolw first so he can evaluate how to best sharpen this blade. If he thinks the primary bevel should be a zero grind then he could set stage for the rest of the participants. I will show the stock bevel with my minor additions in the QL video so everyone can see what it looks like.

I wasn't too enthusiastic about the blue/grey handle in the product page photos, but it looks nice in person and actually complements the blade IMO. The handle is finished VERY well and is smooth, smooth, smooth :-).

I'm a lefty as many of you know, so testing this Santoku is going to be challenge. I cut a few mushrooms and some red bell pepper this morning just to get a feel, trying left handed - blade on product left, left handed - blade on product right (crossed over hands, which was a total PITA), and right handed - blade on product right. I am NOT ambidextrous, so right handed cutting was very tentative, but food release, as you might expect, is going to be great on the right side. The knife did cut through the mushrooms and peppers with ease. We'll see what happens with onions, potatoes, carrots, etc.

That's it for now. I'll test it more this weekend and report back.

Steve
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Re: Pass around Ishikawa Santoku

Post by ChefKnivesToGo »

I would love some feedback on whether we should finish sharpen these at no charge for customers just so they get a blade that will wow them when they try it. Keep that in mind as you pass it. The one I sent was stock with no touch ups or stropping on it.

Also Steve, if you want to give me a shot I'll be happy to put it on the site. They're coming to us with no handle so we can switch them up very easily with the other stock stuff we supply.

BTW we're going to do that maple handle dyed in green in the next few weeks. Some customers dig the colored handles. Others want to vomit when they see them. :)
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