The Kekoa TJ Custom Knife Log

[Kekoa]

OK, wasn't able to make meat loaf yesterday, but got around to it today. Too hectic to get prep pictures, but I got it plated up; meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and that's my favorite tea right now in the mug, pumpkin chai.

The knife did great on potatoes as expected, and definitely better on onions than the first time! Could be the blade getting a little less sticky with use, could be me getting used to the feel of the knife, or a combination of both. It wasn't a very crisp onion, which made it more difficult to dice, but the knife handled it without trouble. I will probably do a side by side comparison of my Yoshimitsu and my custom on an onion dice some time and see how they feel next to each other.

I should probably look into onion dicing techniques too, I had never before seen the method Tim used to dice an onion with this knife in his test video. I pretty much come up with how to do things myself, I haven't educated myself much on what techniques are out there for many tasks.

[taz575]

Once the onion is halved, peeled and the stem end left intact, do 2 or 3 horizontal cuts through it, then several vertical cuts, going almost to the stem each time. Then chop straight down. Gives you a nice dice.

Glad you are liking it and putting ot through its paces!!

[Kekoa]

Oven roasted chicken thighs for my kid siblings' lunch today. This chicken tends to get a good thick patina going.

[taz575]

I use the McCormick Rotisserie Chicken seasoning on a lot of stuff. Killer on chicken thighs on the grill! Chicken should be no match for the gyuto...lol.

[Kekoa]

I use the McCormick Rotisserie Chicken seasoning on a lot of stuff. Killer on chicken thighs on the grill! Chicken should be no match for the gyuto...lol.

Yeah the cow sword had that chicken handled.

So this evening I went through 6 green bell peppers, 4 cucumbers, 2 heads of broccoli, and 3 roma tomatoes. These were fun to get to try. While this knife doesn't give an effortless glide through broccoli and peppers, it handled it all quite efficiently. I particularly liked it on cucumbers.

About on cue I am noticing the first perceptible change in edge performance. To be clear I could keep cutting with this edge for another couple weeks with no issue in all likely hood, I was going through tomatoes without complaint, but this is about at the point that I usually do a touch up on my Yoshimitsu. I'm hoping to put it to stones tomorrow morning. It will be mostly a touch up, but will start with my Cerax #1000 till I'm happy, then go for a pre-specified number of passes that I always do on my #2000 Naniwa Super Stone. This is the pattern I typically do, I'm excited to see how it comes out on this knife.

[Kekoa]

I sharpened my gyuto for the first time today! It ended up more involved than I initially planned. When a knife is hand sharpened, it can take removing some material to get the edge to "know" your hand, so I ended up dropping down to my coarse stone. I also steepened the edge a bit, which I didn't realize I was doing until I looked carefully at the edge under magnification, but I wanted to finish it off at that angle once got going. It is now roughly 12 dps using angle wedges as reference, obviously with some variance do to any amount of wobble in my hands.

I did my typical edge ending with my #2000 Naniwa, but because I started on my coarse stone, there is likely some extra toothiness left over even though I did make a conscious effort to remove most of the coarseness from the edge on my #1000 before going to the #2000. I haven't tested it yet, but hopefully I'll have something to cut tonight.

I was irritated to notice after I finished sharpening that at some point I allowed a small pit to form on the tang right where it enters the handle. I took a toothpick and some Frog Lube and scraped at it till there wasn't any orange, then I put some wax around the tang like I have on my Yoshimitsu so that no rust can form on the tang where it is difficult to get at.

[TheLegalRazor]

I was irritated to notice after I finished sharpening that at some point I allowed a small pit to form on the tang right where it enters the handle. I took a toothpick and some Frog Lube and scraped at it till there wasn't any orange, then I put some wax around the tang like I have on my Yoshimitsu so that no rust can form on the tang where it is difficult to get at.

I have found it impossible to keep the tang free of rust in the area where it joins the handle, no matter how well I dry it. I have also found the solution. I now apply a liberal amount of CKTG Handle and Board Wax to that area every time I wash and dry the knife. Rust problem solved.

[Kekoa]

I got to use this knife with my new edge on it to make burrito bowls, lots of chicken to cube and about four onions diced or sliced and I did some more carrot testing. This knife seems to feel toothier at this finish than anything else I have, I was quite surprised that I felt like I wouldn't mind going finer with the edge. I don't have a finer stone available, but I do have a balsa strop and diamond paste that hasn't gotten used on any of my other blades in a while. I think I'll give that a whirl to see if I like it.

Also starting to get a thick patina going pretty well.

[taz575]

The original edge was on 3 micron/5000 diamond stropping compound after coming off a 1000 diamond plate. Curious to see how the toothier edge holds up! It should strop up to a finer grit pretty easily, too!

[Kekoa]

I had some potatoes on hand that I really wanted to make fries out of, so I got some burgers to go with the fries. I picked up on the proper way to julienne these and it made it SO much easier to do them. Quick and fun to do it now! I love the taste of homemade fries.

I did some diced cucumbers afterwards starting with the same julienne technique, then cutting across for the dice. They came out in such perfectly crisp cubes that the conners almost felt sharp! If that's possible to believe on a cucumber.

[taz575]

Just don't cut yourself on a cucumber! You will have a hard time living that one down!

[Kekoa]

[Kekoa]

The knife has been holding up really well over the last so many weeks! It has a pretty thorough patina going now and I'm quite happy with how it looks.

It takes me a bit of a warm up period to grow accustomed to how a new knife feels, the balance, how it moves through food, and how the blade shape contacts the cutting board. I haven't used hardly any other knife since getting this one and I now feel like I've gotten into a good groove with the knife. I've never had any real flat spot on any of my knives before, so I had to adjust to the flat for the first third of the blade. With the familiarity I have now, I am appreciating this shape, it requires less movement and thought than my Yoshimitsu does.

The one thing I feel like I'm still figuring out with this knife is getting my onion cutting technique down pat. It isn't that it doesn't work effectively, but it is the one ingredient I feel like I have to put some thought into to get exactly what I want. When I ordered this knife I fully intended it to replace my Yoshimitsu, but it just so happens that my Yoshi is also the best onion knife I have ever had, so now I am just a tad hesitant about the idea of selling my Yoshi off. Despite the fact that I have been willing to invest money into premium cutlery, largely because I have been cooking a lot and good knives make me more efficient, I don't have a huge budget so the redundancy between the two knives makes it difficult to justify keeping my Yoshimitsu around despite everything I like about it.

I have to admit I thought it sounded a little silly when I heard people talk about having five Gyutos that they preferred each for different jobs, but when I sit here wondering if I should keep my Yoshimitsu because it's my favorite onion knife, I think I get the sentiment now!

All that said, I am a person who finds consistency comforting, I like using the same knife for as much as possible. I have not felt inclined to reach for any other knife unless it was for a specialized task. At this point my custom knife has gained the status of being my "little buddy" in the kitchen. I have confidence in getting a meal cranked out with it, so I am getting more comfortable with the idea of finding a new home for my Yoshimitsu.

[Kekoa]

Here's some patina pictures:

[taz575]

The long flat spot takes getting used to, but I really like it. I do a lot of veggies, so it's like having a nakiri at the heel end for chopping and you have more length as well.

Onions are interesting. With a thicker blade, I change the angle of attack on the onion a bit. If just straight chopping, I turn the edge into the onion slightly as I go around the round portion until the area I am cutting gets a bit flatter with less curve (less slipping off the rounded portion).

For the dice with a thicker blade, the horizontal cuts are better done fast with the tip, but make sure the onion can move up a bit due to the thickness of the blade. If you push down heavy on the top of the onion while doing the horizontal cuts, the blade will wedge and slow down. For the vertical cuts in onion before dicing with a thicker blade, I will often cut down with the tip, and then pull the knife back towards me instead of going back up through the onion. Sometimes if I go down and up, the layers will pop apart more. With a thinner blade, these issues are less noticeable!

[salemj]

The knife has been holding up really well over the last so many weeks! It has a pretty thorough patina going now and I'm quite happy with how it looks.

[...]

I have to admit I thought it sounded a little silly when I heard people talk about having five Gyutos that they preferred each for different jobs, but when I sit here wondering if I should keep my Yoshimitsu because it's my favorite onion knife, I think I get the sentiment now!

All that said, I am a person who finds consistency comforting, I like using the same knife for as much as possible. I have not felt inclined to reach for any other knife unless it was for a specialized task. At this point my custom knife has gained the status of being my "little buddy" in the kitchen. I have confidence in getting a meal cranked out with it, so I am getting more comfortable with the idea of finding a new home for my Yoshimitsu.

Sounds about right! In my experience, there are very few magic knives that are ideal for everything. My best all-around knives that work under basically any conditions are also my least used, but that is because of my preferences, technique, and the variety of knives I have on hand. That said, they are also the knives that I give to others to try, that I take on road trips or to other's homes to cook together, that I use outside, etc...so they can be my favourite knives to bring people together and celebrate cooking even if they are not the ones I chose for this or that ingredient when prepping a small meal at home. This is a way of saying you shouldn't feel pressure to sell the Yoshimitsu, but you should revel in the versatility of Tim's knife and that you will probably find it is one of your favourite knives to use no matter how many other knives you have.

It is likely also the kind of knife that other family members will feel the most comfortable trying out from time to time and getting exciting rather than intimidated by Japanese knives! Kudos to Tim: I feel like he knows the ins and outs (meaning the limits, advantages, and compromises) of grinds very, very well and produces grinds he knows will perform excellently across a variety of conditions while being no-fuss for just about anyone. But this is also why it can be fun to have less versatile knives around: you start to have something for everyone and every meal, from knives that can do everything, to ones that you maybe just enjoy for a handful of ingredients or tasks but just make you grin when you use them.

I will say, after enjoying breezing through your thread for the first time, the handle thing catches my attention. I've had a handful (pun intended) of knives that I have worked a bit on the handles. In every case, the original handles were terrific, but they were just not dialled in for me. It can make a tremendous difference. I also have two knives that have handles I don't particularly connect with (both Bloodroots) that are exquisite in design but just not quite ideal for me. If I ever make it to Georgia, I will likely ask them to try tweaking them...but I'm not up for doing it myself. Honestly, the handles are too nice and the blades too special for me to mess around with. Despite both being among the best-performing knives in the kitchen under real conditions that I have ever experienced, full-stop, the handles keep me from having as special a connection with them as several of my other knives. If you think the handle could be adjusted in a way that would make the knife "sing" more in your hand, tell Tim!! He's the kind of guy that can tweak something in an instant if needed. If I had to guess...and it isn't my place to, but if I venture anyway...I'd say you wished the knife had a touch more of a blade-forward or tip-forward balance and that this would shift it to feeling that tiny bit more "effortless" in use where all your thoughts about it simply disappear when you go to work. Maybe I'm way off. But I know in my own experience that I've had knives shift from feeling like they needed a tiny bit of thought in any ingredient or two to feeling like a lightsaber just by adjusting the balance.

[Kekoa]

I think that I can definitely learn to use this knife more effectively as time goes on. I'm eager to become more competent with some of my knife skills at this point because I know that I am nowhere near pushing my knives as far as they are capable of. I'm at the point that I have figured out what I wanted for my primary chef knife and now have it, and I only need a few more specialized blades to go with it, so I feel good about the idea of focusing less on looking into other knives all the time (as if I will ever really stop doing that ) and learning to use my knives to their potential.

I think you have an interesting point about balance salemj, but I don't think it needs to be more forward balanced... I don't think. It has quite a bit of forward weight to it as is. It does make me think about weight balance though for my knives in general. It might be fun if I could come up with a way to attach weights to different parts of my knives to see how it effects the feel.

Also, based upon recent evaluations on what type of edge I prefer on this knife, I finally have a reason to use my balsa strop and diamond paste, I think it's 3 micron, because this thing definitely is feeling better to me with a more polished edge. It doesn't need much off my #2000 Naniwa, but it makes a big difference in the feel. Really liking how the edge performs with that strategy so far. I'm quite surprised actually, I haven't wanted to use my diamond paste on any knife before and I'm not sure what to equate the difference with this knife too. My thoughts would be either the thinness behind the edge, the hardness of the steel, or a combination of both make this knife very pleasant with the more polished edge. It seems to still cut very aggressively at this finish, and it doesn't lose it too quickly. It can go through tomatoes with stupid ease. Just cut 4 cups of carrots with it this evening for a white bean soup and it was quite fun.

[taz575]

You can tape metal washers to the end of the handle to shift the balance more rearward.

Balance does have interesting effects and is worth playing with. Your blade is heavier than what I normally do and from what I am used to. The blade I finished for myself is lighter than I am used to blade wise and balances at the heel, so the blade portion feels very light and floaty and it feels like the board contact is more gentle? The overall heavier weight also makes it feel more solid and need less force, even though the blade itself is light and thin.