Well, I got lucky again. Friend bought the new Takeda special size gyuto, in other words, it's just 52-54mm wide, vs. much wider normal ones. 280mm long blade, kuro uchi finish, and that thing is a laser in terms of cutting ability. Really thin blade past midsection. Edge measures 10 per side at most. I have my usual mega salad cutting test planned for the evening. That's about 15lbs greens to chop, mince and shred. We'll see how it fares, but I'm already excited to play with it. Expectations are very high.

Sunday, January 16, 2011 13:18:52

Menu link sizing was incorrect for the whole site in FireFox, any version. Fixed.

Saturday, January 15, 2011 23:52:41

I got it for my friend a while back. Well made small fixed blade, and I think a good choice for surfers and other folks hanging out around the salt water. Myodo H1 steel used in this knife is impervious to rust, not just tain resistant. Didn't use it to much, but it was enough to get a good idea about its performance and ergonomics. Sharpened it twice. Second was a minor touch-up, to restore shaving sharp edge after testing. Overall, I'm quite positive about it, details in the review.

Thursday, January 13, 2011 20:37:17

I was revising the steel compsition chart yesterday, when I've noticed rather big difference in Chromium content between AISI D2 steel and KAD181, 11-13% for D2, and 18% for KAD181, while I had them both listed in the same group. Anyway, I did more research, and found KAD181 listed as half a dozen other steels, D2, Sleipner, Rigor, A2, SLD8, etc... Weird, to say the least. Luckily I had compositions of all the other alloys in the chart as well, and it was very different from anything they list. As such, KAD181 was moved into its own reference group. To make things even better, I managed to dig up science paper from two Japanese authors, which provided more accurate chemical composition of the KAD181 steel, all earlier sources, including interactive knife steel chart listed just C, Cr, Mo and V. In addition to that the paper contained Si and Mn content, plus more precise values for the earlier data. In short, very good find :)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011 20:42:42

Added steel steel makers website links to the knife steel resources page. I go through those periodically, hunting for the new alloys, or newly published compositions of old secret alloys ;) Anyway, if you happen to find anything in there that I missed, please let me know.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011 11:32:54

Friday, December 31, 2010 16:15:49

Fellow BF forumite, Knarfeng provided data, thanks a bunch for one more piece of info. Detalied info - 1095 Cro-Van steel composition.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010 19:51:12

Nachi Fujikoshi produced, Fax 18 high speed tool steel, JIS equivalent SKH59, AISI equivalent M42 high speed tool steel.

Saturday, December 18, 2010 17:51:37

Added more precise data, Rottman provided :) Mainly contaminants like Sulfur and Phosphorus, trace elements of several other metals. I doubt most of them are there on purpose, simply impurities. Very clean alloy though.

Friday, December 10, 2010 17:15:05

Finally! After about 2 years of research and waiting for test results for almost 7 months we have the formula :) Special thanks to Rottman of KF. Interesting steel and I am glad we finally have gokinko steel composition.

Saturday, December 4, 2010 09:32:00