OT - Miyabi Kaizen II Chef’s Knife $99

danv23

I don't need a knife, but this is a beauty for $99 from sur la table. https://goo.gl/BQWxoC

GrateEggspectations

I have a similar Miyabi in my collection and for the price, this is hard to beat. 

Ozzie_Isaac

I hate this money pit of a forum.  I don't need a knife, but now I want a knife.

U_tarded

I’m with Ozzie, gonna need to start justifying this to the wife.  

dmourati

Timely. I've been studying Japanese knives. I started with a Shun Premier Santuku. Someone please school me.

HeavyG

Knifewear (a Canadian knife shop) has an annual sale each February - 15% off all their Masakage knives. Bought a couple last year, unfortunately the one I wanted this year is out of stock so no joy for me this time.

Some might be interested in the Masakage sale (or their other stuff) - starts in just a few days!

https://knifewear.com/

logchief

I love my Shun knives.  My favorite is the Classic Kiritsuke.  Check out this outfit in LA.  Jon is very helpful and carries some beautiful Japanese cutlery.  I haven't been able to bring my self to spending the bucks for one of his knives yet.  But his site is loaded with lots of info and great videos.  I've bought sharpening supplies from him.  

https://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/

GrateEggspectations

HeavyG said:

Knifewear (a Canadian knife shop) has an annual sale each February - 15% off all their Masakage knives. Bought a couple last year, unfortunately the one I wanted this year is out of stock so no joy for me this time.

Some might be interested in the Masakage sale (or their other stuff) - starts in just a few days!

https://knifewear.com/

Thanks Heavy. Was not aware of the Masakage sale. I do however own a Masakage Koishi AS as well as a Takeda from Knifewear, as there’s a Knifewear shop about a 10 min drive from me. Thanks for the tip. 

kweitz

Daaaaammmmnnnnn....bought one

gdenby

dmourati said:

Timely. I've been studying Japanese knives. I started with a Shun Premier Santuku. Someone please school me.

The knife for sale is a "fusion" style. Its as much Western as Japanese. Blade shape is western, tho' a little slimmer than the deep belly that is standard for most German style. The Japanese makers have been using layering for some time, tho' the fancy "Damscus" pattern weld is not so common.

The cladding may used to protect vary hard, often brittle and not stainless steel thin core. In the Miyabi, it appears that the core steel is a variant of one called AEB-L, which was developed about 100 years ago for straight razors. I have a couple of AEB-L knives, and they are very nice. Very corrosion resistant, and will take a good edge and hold it. I wouldn't take them to a 9 degree bevel, but 12 should be fine. It is a good bit harder than average, but not at the top end. With an edge like that, they would be about 2X as sharp as standard.

The price is decent. I suppose the $99 version is 6". For myself, that is not a good size. To big for fine work, not big enough to slice large pieces, and the blade isn't wide enough for chopping thick stuff like cabbages.

hoosier_egger

I gonna quit coming here. 

Spaightlabs

why would't the company and site be knifeWARE versus WEAR?

Ware is an item for sale.
Wear is an article of clothing or a force resulting in degradation.

Canadians...

dmourati

gdenby said:

dmourati said:

Timely. I've been studying Japanese knives. I started with a Shun Premier Santuku. Someone please school me.

The knife for sale is a "fusion" style. Its as much Western as Japanese. Blade shape is western, tho' a little slimmer than the deep belly that is standard for most German style. The Japanese makers have been using layering for some time, tho' the fancy "Damscus" pattern weld is not so common.

The cladding may used to protect vary hard, often brittle and not stainless steel thin core. In the Miyabi, it appears that the core steel is a variant of one called AEB-L, which was developed about 100 years ago for straight razors. I have a couple of AEB-L knives, and they are very nice. Very corrosion resistant, and will take a good edge and hold it. I wouldn't take them to a 9 degree bevel, but 12 should be fine. It is a good bit harder than average, but not at the top end. With an edge like that, they would be about 2X as sharp as standard.

The price is decent. I suppose the $99 version is 6". For myself, that is not a good size. To big for fine work, not big enough to slice large pieces, and the blade isn't wide enough for chopping thick stuff like cabbages.

Thanks. I may start a new thread to ask more specific knife questions, especially about Japanese blades for the kitchen.

GrateEggspectations

dmourati said:

Timely. I've been studying Japanese knives. I started with a Shun Premier Santuku. Someone please school me.

I’d suggest to have a look at various carbon steels. A very different experience from stainless. 

HeavyG

Spaightlabs said:

why would't the company and site be knifeWARE versus WEAR?

Ware is an item for sale.
Wear is an article of clothing or a force resulting in degradation.

Canadians...

Just a guess... Knifewear opened their doors in 2008.

Doing a whois lookup the domain name knifeware.com was registered by someone in 1998 so the "ware" was already taken.

gdenby

dmourati said:

Thanks. I may start a new thread to ask more specific knife questions, especially about Japanese blades for the kitchen.

This sort of thread comes up every few months. Its a topic about tools which will split hairs, and people will get into hair splitting about it. Nevertheless, you should get lots of worthwhile advice.

There are other forums and sub-forums devoted to kitchen knives. You might want to search for some of them

YukonRon

My Beautiful Wife bought me an unbelievably nice chef's knife last year. It is so beautiful, I am hesitant to use it. It is still in the box, never used. I just use the old white plastic handled knives from restaurant depot, and keep lugging. Using a chef's knife would imply I know what I am doing, which is 180 degrees from fact.