I’ve been lurking on a few forums for a little bit trying to learn a bit more about knives by searching through threads. This process yields mostly long distractions, new questions, sometimes semi direct answers to my questions, and a lot of desire to throw my life savings at a drawer full with of knives.
Now I’m looking to get something new and a bit smaller, and to help make my decision I’m hoping to ask the forum in hopes of getting some more direct answers to my questions.
My first legitimate knife was a 8” shun classic. Ten years later, with perhaps a bit of over sharpening and no thinning, I realised no matter how sharp I kept my edge my knife wasn’t working as well as it should. I started to look around for a new knife. My first criteria was to steer away from VG10. My first bit of reading confirmed my observations that it was a brittle steel prone to chipping. Recalling a conversation with another cook long ago appreciating the thinness of his misonos I decided I wanted to try a laser. I didn’t feel ready to rely on my discipline to care for a reactive knife, but I also wanted something that would be easy to sharpen as my shun took quite a bit of effort on my inexpensive king 1k and 6k. Settling on an HD, it took a few years and an upgrade to the HD2 and some gorgeous new handles before I was finally ready to pull the trigger.
I’m really... friggin... stoked. But with such a dramatic change, and a newly ignited excitement for the potential in new knives, I now want just one more—hehe
My new vs old knife has given me some things to consider:
As my shun had been reduced to about 190mm and a much flatter profile, I have grown accustomed to a rather short blade with low height. The 240 was a huge jump and while I like that for many tasks I’d like to get something smaller for other tasks. I love the feel of cutting with a laser, but I quickly realised that I had overlooked the issue of food release and at times it slows me down with prep. Not to get too distracted but I would also welcome any feedback to help with this: i notice if I come down harder on the board this helps with the release (but scares me with chipping and edge retention) and I’ve heard it suggested that a microbevel could help with release but this seems to take away from the joy of a laser with steel that can take such a fine acute angle. I also considered trying to change it to a 70:30 bevel, or doing something different to the finish. Also while I still like my old shun and intend to thin it into a long petty/short Suji, I enjoy the height of my second hand beater santoku for some bulk prep tasks.
I’ve been looking in particular at bunkas between 170-180mm. In particular the kohetsu hap40 wa 175 bunka, the Shibata Kotetsu R2 170 bunka, the Makoto Sakura SG2 165 bunka, and the Kohetsu SLD 170 bunka.
I like the Makoto because looks like it starts more thin but widens more abruptly towards the middle, something I imagine would give better food release tham the other two thin knives. I’m also a bit partial to a pretty knife and I love the lighter ferrule on this one.
I like the shibata because it’s a bit flatter then the other three. I also like that the shibata is the thinnest overall, but I’m not sure how different it will feel to cut vs the Makoto or the hap40. I’ve read the finish is meant to help with food release and I’m curious if anyone out there can verify this with their experience.
The kohetsu hap40 interests me first of all because I’ve heard a few good things about the way they cut. I am most interested in this steel and like the idea of its great edge retention: this would be the knife I would use for many bulk prep jobs and sometimes harder veg, it might get a fair bit of board contact. I like that the edge should persist through all of this. I would love to get an AS knife, but I am often working pastry and have noticed that even with a forced patina (on an unknown second hand reactive blade) I can still perceive a metallic taste on apples and citrus. I do strop often on a loaded strop and I’d imagine the polished cutting bevel could be the culprit. I wonder how much harder hap40 would be to sharpen (for the time being in working with Shapton gs 500, king 1000, king 6000) although I would expect it wouldn’t need work very often. I also like the handle least on this one, and a related question would be how one goes about getting a custom handle. Is this something I can ask Mark about with my order?
I like the kohetsu sld because of the promised good food release, but Im concerned I’ll prefer the feel of a thinner blade for most tasks. Also, this has the least flat profile.
Im hoping to hear from anyone that has experience with these knives or any similar suggestions. Also, if anyone could offer any links to threads or videos relating to my several sidetracked question I would greatly appreciate it. I have searched for many keyword combinations on some of these topics only to find a lot of unrelated threads.
Thanks!
