At 12:05pm the knife got to me. What a knife it is! Kintaro Ame pattern looks beautiful. 330mm long blade, blazing sharp. Watanabe surpassed himself I guess :) Photos are coming soon.
Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:17:23
Well, the waiting is almost over! The blade cleared the customs and arrived at my local PO at 6:10am. So, if everything goes smoothly I should have it in my possession around this noon :) Waiting is a biatch, but that knife... Uhmm...
Saturday, August 15, 2009 11:19:24
Around 1.5 hours of cutting on its first use. All vegetables obviously, but really wide variety, 18 different kinds. Everything from soft leaves to harder ingredients like carrots and broccoli. I've sharpened it last weekend, total edge angle is around 20 deg. in my estimate. As far as cutting ability goes this is a superb blade. More like a Guillotine as far as cutting goes. Noticeably heavier than the Takeda cleaver, but still, comfortable to use, I didn't have any problem using it for more than hour. Overall, first impression is better than very good :) Preliminary review coming soon.
Thursday, August 13, 2009 21:22:30
330mm damascus pattern Aogami steel blade on my way. What's even better, Shinichi threw in keyaki handle and another small present for me. He's a really cool guy, besides being an excellent maker. Pix and initial review once I get my hands on it.
Thursday, August 13, 2009 09:08:39
Sites moved again
New host, new box, and perhaps new bugs. I have moved again. But, now I have php5, mysql 5 and the whole thing should be mucho faster :)
Saturday, August 8, 2009 23:42:45
Man, that's a knife. Well, chukabocho to be precise, a.k.a. chinese cleaver. I already have one from Takeda, but this one is bigger, 230mm vs. 210mm and the blade is slightly curved. I chose curved blade geometry as an experiment. We'll see how it will work out. Wuality is very good and the handle is one of the most substantial stock handles I have ever seen. Even thicker than on Takedas.
Monday, August 3, 2009 21:30:20
Basic review of the fugubiki is posted. There is no usage section, as I have not used it so far, but the rest is there, specs, detailed report of blade, handle and general report are all there, plus the photos of this gorgeous knife. Basically it's a 300mm long razor.
Saturday, August 1, 2009 09:35:54
Moritaka just contacted me and notified that my chukabocho is ready :) Original estimate was 2-3 moths, but I got lucky somehow and it was made in less than 3 weeks! Can't wait. Aogami Super steel at 65HRC! Talk about hard blades.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 21:38:30
No photos yet. 210mm long Aogami II steel blade. Kamagata style. Faint lines of damascus pattern, too faint to my liking, but it's a good knife, from a good maker.
Thursday, July 23, 2009 17:32:51
This 300mm long, kitaeji blade is 20 years old, and in excellent shape too. It was an lucky buy from Takeshi, the knife showed up all of the sudden on his site - aframestokyo.com, I couldn't miss it. 300mm Fugubikis are really rare, too hard to make a blade that hard and long without warping. Takes a true master to do that.
Monday, July 20, 2009 09:18:54