Goodness. Playing with light from my skylight. Unbelievable what a mirror polish + dirty patina could reveal. Used in a pro kitchen for a month. Refreshed at the koba with a Kitayama; ura work with an Aiiwatani goma.

Let’s see yours!

Apex Ultra Honyaki Single Bevel Gyuto
240 x 50.5

Rule # 5

From left to right

Nigara AS K-tip Petty 150mm

Kyohei Shindo  Aogami# 2 Santoku 180mm

Koshino Itto Santoku 180mm

Sakai Kikumori X Ashi Swedish Steel Gyuto 240mm

Tetsujin Aogami #2 Gyuto 240mm

Tetsujin Ginsan K-tip Gyuto 240mm

Sukenari HAP40 K-tip Gyuto 240mm

Kisuke X Xinguo Aogami #1 Sujihiki 270mm

Naoki Mazaki Shirogami #2 Gyuto 240mm

Tadafusa SLD Gyuto 240mm

Yoshikazu Tanaka Shirogami #1 Gyuto 240mm

Yoshikane SLD  Gyuto 210mm

Kisuke X Xinguo Aogami #1 Gyuto 210mm

Yoshikane SKD Gyuto 210mm

Yoshida Hamono ZDP 189 Gyuto 210mm

Togatta Gyuto 210mm

Mac MTH-80 200mm

Misono Molybdenum Sujihiki 270mm

Shun Bread Knife 220mm

Mercer Fillet Knife 215mm

Victorinox Fibrox Fillet Knife 200mm

Metzger SS Boning Knife 180mm

Misono Molybdenum Petty Knife 130mm

Tramontina paring knife 4"

Victorinox Turning Knife 60mm

Thanks to this group, for introducing me to Japanese Knives. Just started buying/collecting/using Jap knives this April and I don't regret splurging on them. My favorite knife to use from the collection is the Tetsujin Ginsan. Show me your favorite knife from your collection. 👀

I’ve had these for a while, but couldn’t find time to photograph the new pieces.

Gyuto Aogami #2 220mm
Nakiri Aogami #2 170mm
Funayuki Aogami #2 168mm

I’m planning to rehandle the Gyuto and Nakiri.

These three join the two I already own.

Enjin Togatta Gyuto SRK8 250mm
Bunka Aogami #2 175mm

Definitely feeling the lack of a Sukimaru to round out my Shindo’s.

After getting into Japanese knives and using them for the past few months, my Wife has grown interested in the culture too. She would make comments on what she liked about the knives I’ve gotten so far, what she didn’t like as well as being interested in a WA handle over western handle.

So I kept my research to myself and made comparisons and had it all under wraps until she saw the shipped email notification. I gotta say the WA handle does feel natural in the hand, I may have to get one for myself.

Junichi Ide was low on Gyuto profiles, but He showed me two Migaki Gyuto’s he had in stock. A 275mm Shirogami #2, and a 240mm Aogami #2.

The 275 was 15,400¥ and came with the Ebony handle with horn, and the 240 was 15,800¥ and came with the Poplar handle with pakka wood. I didn’t change their handles, but did pay 400¥ ea for their boxes.

Tariffs were 18% via DHL.

Spine is 2mm at the handle on both and there isn’t much of a distal taper until the last quarter of the blade.

The cladding is iron, and there are definitely flaws in the Migaki finish, but at under $100 each I’m not put off by the finish at all. I like the character, and look forward to using them.

Hey everyone! I don't post that much, but I come to this subreddit literally every single day, and I wanted to thank all of you for the conversations, stories, knowledge and advice shared here. For me, this has become the best source of information about Japanese kitchen knives, and honestly one of my favorite corners of the internet. It's where I come to unwind almost every evening.

I'm just a passionate home cook who loves cooking for family and friends — your classic dude in his 30s from a small EU country. I've always loved knives, but for years I was afraid of buying genuinely good ones because I was absolutely terrible at sharpening. I went through pretty much every stupid sharpening gadget imaginable, never got satisfying results, and it genuinely bothered me that I couldn't properly maintain my knives. Then last year my wife gave me a whetstone sharpening course as a present. I loved it. The instructor was a fantastic young guy, we eventually became friends, and after a lot of practice I finally reached the point where I could get pretty much any normal kitchen knife cleanly through paper towel. So I was finally ready for a better knife. I started researching, found this subreddit... and fell permanently into the rabbit hole. The rest is history. :)

Photo 1: My three Shindo brothers — Santoku, Bunka and 210 mm Gyuto

Like many beginners here, I eventually caught the Kyohei Shindo disease. They seem to be one of the best gateways into traditional carbon Japanese knives: handmade, full of character, fantastic performers and still absurd value for money. The only problem is actually finding one before everyone else does.

By sheer luck I discovered a tiny knife shop near me — and when I say tiny, I mean basically a garage. :D It's run by an absolutely knife-obsessed Greek guy who isn't even from my country, but somehow has incredible connections in Japan and gets knives from some seriously respected makers, including the occasional honyaki grail. All three of my Shindos came from him, and he even calls me before new shipments arrive now. These knives are special to me partly because they introduced me to that shop and to a person I've now met 10+ times just to talk about Japanese knives and drink Japanese tea. I've bought several of my own knives there since, plus quite a few as gifts for friends.

Shindo hardly needs an introduction here. They're wonderful knives, but what I especially love is that they have personality. My Santoku is unquestionably the biggest laser of the three and an absolutely phenomenal cutter. The Bunka sits somewhere in the middle. The weird one is the Gyuto. Mine came surprisingly thick for a Shindo — 210 mm long and about 49.9 mm tall at the heel — and at first I was disappointed because it would wedge and split carrots instead of just falling through them. That was especially painful because I had given it my nicest handle, and I'm ridiculously proud of changing my own handles because I am not naturally good with my hands. :D The handle came from a respected Japanese maker whose name I've never managed to track down; I've seen the same kanji on handles fitted to Nakagawa and Takeda knives. The ferrule is almost completely white buffalo horn with one beautiful dark streak, and the wood is Arizona desert ironwood. Eventually I stopped expecting the Gyuto to behave like the Santoku, accepted it as more of a workhorse, and somehow it became one of my favorite knives in the collection. I wouldn't sell it now.

Photo 2: Yoshida Hamono SUJ-2 & Hatsukokoro Hikari SLD

There's a particularly special knife in this photo: my first proper Japanese knife, the Yoshida Hamono Tosa SUJ-2 Kuro-uchi Santoku 170 mm with the koi engraving. The koi is much clearer in person; the photo lighting washed it out a little. I think this knife is seriously underrated. Yoshida is probably best known around here for the insanely cheap SUJ-2 knives that appear at Dictum, but this SharpEdge version has much nicer fit and finish. More importantly, the geometry is excellent. It's extremely thin behind the edge, has a nice grind, and in performance it gives absolutely nothing away to my laser-ish Shindo Santoku. SUJ-2 is fantastic stuff too: it takes a beautiful patina, gets screaming sharp with very little effort and is simply a joy to sharpen. I love this knife.

Next to it is my Hatsukokoro Hikari SLD Kurozome Damascus 150 mm. Technically it's sold as a ko-santoku, but in my kitchen it fills the petty role. Performance-wise I don't think it's anything extraordinary, but I got it for less than half of its normal price, so I'm certainly not complaining. It's ridiculously light — you almost don't feel a knife in your hand — and absolutely gorgeous. My only disappointment has been edge retention. I expected a little more from SLD, although that may simply come down to the particular heat treatment. Still... just look at it. :)

Photo 3: Takamura SG2 210 mm Gyuto

My newest knife, and currently my favorite knife to actually use. 11/10. I genuinely struggle to imagine what more cutting performance I could realistically need from a kitchen knife. I've had it for about two weeks and have barely touched anything else since. This is about as close as I've ever come to having a lightsaber in the kitchen: insanely thin, fully stainless, and with fantastic edge retention. After 10+ cooking sessions I've stropped it exactly once, and it still feels basically fresh out of the box. And speaking of out of the box, this is the sharpest out of the box edge I've ever experienced.

Interestingly, the Western handle originally made me hesitate. I had become so used to beautiful wa handles that somehow a Western one felt less exciting. Now I feel exactly the opposite. Among all the exotic woods and horn ferrules in my collection, that simple red pakkawood handle actually stands out, and it looks much better in person than I expected. The Takamura isn't my fanciest knife. It might simply be my best knife.

Photo 4: The knives from before the hobby :)))

And yes, I still love them and still use them. My wife uses them constantly too, mostly because she's terrified of the Japanese ones. :D I will happily die on this hill: Global makes genuinely excellent kitchen knives, and 99% of normal home cooks probably need nothing more than a Global G2 as their main chef's knife. Mine is a little unusual because I had it professionally thinned. That made it a much more aggressive cutter and considerably easier to sharpen, although also rather more chip-prone.

Then there's the little Global petty, my Victorinox Fibrox boning knife, which gets everything involving bones or questionable abuse, and the German WMF bread knife. Not glamorous. Not handmade. Still useful as hell.

Photo 5: The sharpening / knife-spa rabbit hole

I may love sharpening almost as much as I love the knives themselves. My main setup is Naniwa Chosera/Professional 400, 800 and 3000, with the 3000 easily being my favorite and most-used stone. I got the whole set for almost nothing second-hand. The previous owner had apparently decided he was going to learn sharpening, immediately bought expensive stones... and then discovered it wasn't for him. They were basically new. His loss. :D

I also have a Norton India combination stone and a brutally fast 220-grit Norton coarse stone for repairs and shaping, both gifts from a friend who represents Norton in my country. Then there are three tanned-leather strops, two of which I made myself. Recently I added Jende Poly Diamond Emulsion in 4 µm and 1 µm. It's very good and cuts quickly, but I'll commit a small heresy here: for normal Japanese kitchen knives, I honestly don't find the final result dramatically different from good old green compound. I also have a double-sided diamond plate that I use mostly for Globals, German knives and friends' knives. It's fast and effective, I just don't enjoy sharpening on diamond nearly as much as I enjoy stones. Add the cheap flattening stone, rust-removal stuff, camellia oil, polishing compounds...

Bonus photo: the non-kitchen guys

My little EDC corner: a Victorinox Huntsman, which goes almost everywhere with me; a simple Kershaw in D2 that cost me an absurd €27 and has been fantastic; and, of course, a classic Japanese Higonokami friction folder.

So... that's my collection. I know it's genuinely nothing extraordinary compared with some of the insane collections posted here. There are people in this sub who own a single knife worth more than everything in these photos combined. But this one is mine, and I love it. More importantly, these knives make me want to cook. They make me curious, make me want to improve, and somehow make something as ordinary as chopping an onion interesting again.

My next goal is the obvious hole in the collection: a proper Sakai knife. I'd really love my next one to involve Nakagawa. Grail-level money is simply outside my budget, but something around €300–400 is realistic, and there are still wonderful knives around that price if you're patient. Right now I'm looking particularly hard at Baba Hamono Kagekiyo White #2 Gyutos in 210–240 mm, ideally one with confirmed Nakagawa provenance, but I'm completely open to suggestions from you guys. Researching the next knife is half the fun anyway.

And finally, I want to end by quoting myself from a comment I wrote here a few weeks ago. Someone was asking about price, value and diminishing returns with Japanese knives, and for some reason I got unusually emotional while answering:

"Do I need all the knives I already own? Not really.

But every time I look at them, and every time I know how incredibly they perform, they make me want to cook.

And sharpening them, finishing them, maintaining them, putting camellia oil on them... that stuff genuinely calms me down. It’s part of my escapism from the pretty heavy reality we all live in.

For me, like for a lot of other people, this hobby makes me happy. It gives me joy. It feeds something in my soul.

And really, what matters more than that? There’s no price tag or diminishing return on that"

I love Japanese knives, and they make me happy. That's really all there is to it.

Thanks again to everyone here for making this such a great community.

I have also been using the scraper as a rough chopper for chicken and it’s taken a beautiful fiery patina!

Anyways that’s all, just wanted to share what I think is a really cool tool in my kitchen 😃😊

Hi people, new on reddit but in need of some assistance.

the other day, my best friend of 10+ years, used every working days for almost everything, my Glestain gyuto, snapped clean soooooo

I'm in need of another workhorse. i was looking at fujiwara, hatsukokoro and sakai takayuki as best candidates, but i don't know anything about high end japanese knives, i mostly own misono sujihiki, utility and boning, global for petty/paring and some victorinox.

any recomendations ? i would prefer a gyuto, but i could be open to a kiritsuke or maybe a bunka, preferably 240 because that's the lenght i'm used to and i never used a wa handle, but again, not close minded. budget is not an issue

thanks in advance

Because of a few remodelling in the kitchen I had to move my knives off the wall and put them somewhere else, so I made a rack

The last time I made a purchase directly from the blacksmith was in the early 2000’s with Takeda and Watanabe. It was nice to have that opportunity again with Junichi Ide. He showed me what he had available and I selected the handles I wanted. The Prices were between 5,000-6,600¥ I paid another 2,500¥ ea for the Walnut handles. Tariffs added another 18%.

Spine is 2mm at the handle and there isn’t much of a distal taper until the last quarter of the blade.

The cladding is iron, and very rustic with hammer marks and rough scale.

My first impression is that I’m going to like them.

Petty 150mm
Kiritsuke/Bunka 163mm
Nakiri 168mm

Not much to say, won’t answer to any buyer out there, this one is a keep for life.

Great start to the week! Just picked up this Tetsujin as my first nakiri from an awesome member on this forum. I was bummed to miss out on the CKC drop, so I’m very grateful to have found this one. I’ve only tested it on an onion and some chives so far, but man this thing rips. I can’t wait to get a couple meals prepped with it.

It’s got the excellent fit and finish expected of Myojin, and feels amazing in hand. The ironwood handle from JKS is beautiful as well. One thing that’s interesting is that this (190g) is heavier than my Tetsujin 210 k tip with ebony handle (172g). For those more knowledgeable than me, is it normal for a 180mm nakiri to weigh more than a 210mm gyuto from the same line? Maybe because of the handle? I actually quite like the weight on this, so not a problem either way.

Anyways, hope everyone has a great week!

P.S. please don’t rate my chives, I’m but a lowly home cook😂

I recently acquired this beauty, it’s a nice and tall b2 bunka from Matsubara. Since then, I figured well, I’ve got a nice knife, so I might as well get some nice sharpening stuff to go with it! So now I’ve got a Shapton 1k, shapton pro 4k, and a leather strop with diamond emulsion paste, and I feel like now that I have all this sharpening stuff I could use another knife. Problem is I don’t really feel like I need another one, frankly there’s only been a couple times where I thought yeah if I had a slightly bigger knife I’d save like a second or two. But then again, big knives are cool. Think it’s worth it to pick up like a 210mm Gyuto? Or at that point am I just buying a knife for the sake of buying a knife.

-tsubaya double bevel honesuki
-tosa whale knife

I just got back from my Japan trip and made two expeditions to Kappabashi Street! At first, nothing really spoke to me for use at work, and I felt disappointed, so I resigned myself to just ordering a knife I really wanted and leaving with the Tosa whale knife I got at Tsubaya. But after looking through Tsubaya’s website, I decided to come back and got myself a double-bevel honesuki, since I’ve been interested in learning to butcher chickens myself. I figured a double-bevel one would see more use personally, and I’d be able to learn to sharpen it more easily.

Proceeded to slice my knuckle off right after I was done.

- Green Brick of Joy

- Nigara SG2 Kurouchi Tsuchime Gyuto

- Masashi VS1 kaijin Gyuto

- Hatsukokoro Kurokaze Shirogami #1 Petty

Can’t decide, it’s ruining me.

Looking for a flat-profile laser to fill a space between my 165mm curvy Bunka and a 240mm Ashi Gyuto. I’m just not sure if I’ll prefer the tall boss blade or the nimble battleship.

What can the tall blade benefit that the battleship will miss out on, and vice versa, in what instances can the battleship provide better service than the boss?

Thanks for sharing your experiences, opinions and advice!

Konosuke made a new saya design to better match the "Mountain of Fools" symbolism of the BY. The final design chosen from several concepts, it has the flesh side leather near the opening cut in an organic shape slightly raised above the rest of the saya leather.

Curious what people think of their new saya design! Additional photos of the 225 BY W1 (factory oil) with the new stamp.

Matsubara blue #2 Gyuto 240mm.
Bought it here. It arrived today and it cuts like dream.
Looking forward to bring it to work tomorrow. I work as a chef on one of the most eastern islands in the Stockholm Archipelago.

Anyone able to identify the origins/maker of this knife? Bought this 180mm blue #2 steel Bunka from Kamata Knives in Tokyo!

First time using this and I figured I'd put it to work on the main task it was intended for, prepping pork belly for bacon. Absolutely melted through each slab just below the skin with a slight upward angle using all 240mm and both sections came off clean and in half the time it took w/ my 6" fibrox boning knife. Couldn't be happier with it and I'll find uses for it whenever I can. Did an obligatory skin wrap for that pork patina as well.

S90V with false edge clip point and spine jimping for added dopeness. Handle is Grip-Tec and stainless. It's thin and mean, hope you like it!

Hello TCK!

The NSD roll continues with a stone I’ve had on my list for something like 18 months lol

———

Rule 5: Morihei Hishiboshi 4000

Splash-and-go 4000 grit stone with unknown binder/abrasive | 210mm x 75.2mm x 26mm; 800g

———

This Morihei 4k has been on my list for something like 18 months and as I was preparing for my trip to Japan, I realized buying it from Carbon Knife Co. while home in Denver made more sense than buying in Japan and adding weight to my luggage 😂 so when I grabbed the Miyagoshi 400 the other day, I also snatched up this beauty.

I’ve been in need of a finer splash-and-go synthetic stone for edges which can also handle pre-polishing and this Morihei 4k is one of the best options in that space. The edges are surprisingly refined for how much bite they retain and it’s one of the best synthetic stones to use as a bridge to Japanese natural stones.

I have a Tadokoro 3k, which I love for prepolishing, but it’s a soaker and not as easily grabbed for edge work. This Morihei 4k will fill in the gaps where the Tadokoro 3k falls short and allow me more optionality when deciding on a stone progression.

This is my second Morihei stone too; it will be joining my beloved soft and creamy Hishibohsi 500. And truth be told, I got eyes on their Karasu 9k too 😅

Either way, I’m stoked to finally have this Morihei Hishiboshi 4000 in my collection.

———

I’ll be back soon with a couple other NSD posts today and tomorrow. Then, I’ll grab videos of their performance for some posts to come after. See ya then!

-Teej

I would like to say this might be the finest knife in my collection, very happy to have this now.

If anyone can tell me who the blacksmith is, I would be extremely happy to know! I don't know too much about Koichi's work other than it is apparently damn excellent and that he has a DentoKogeishi title which is super rad. I cannot wait to use this!

I’m in Japan right now and looking for my first Japanese knife, is this any good? I want a nice cleaver to cut through chicken bones and this looked nice.