u/rivenwyrm

I bought this blade (2nd hand) a little impulsively but in pursuit of trying out more of the "young" knifemakers of Japan. Haruki Miyazaki apprenticed at Yoshimitsu and then with Toshio Ohba. There's a really wonderful video of Miyazaki practicing the craft that you can watch to get a sense of the man. Serious, intent, focused but I think not stern or proud. He always seemed to have just the hint of a smile lingering.

> Mr Ohba himself only accepted Mr Miyazaki as his apprentice after turning him down 2 times, and only opened his own workshop after 5 years of training.

Whatever the story behind this, it speaks to me about passion for the craft and it comes through in the blade.

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After a week of primary (home cook) trialing as a 'do everything it reasonably can' knife:

An enchanting blade to hold in the hand, feels confident without being overly aggressive on the board, by which I mean the weight distribution and tip agility are very pleasing to me.

Dreamy cutting feel, weighty without being overbalanced.

Most intriguing and fun about this is the hakata blade profile. The spine curves upwards like the arched back of a breaching dolphin, if you'll forgive the analogy. This is an unusual style specifically from the Tosa region.

Frankly it is probably more suited to a rock chopper and I am a pretty staunch push cutter so it doesn't match my cutting style. However... I figured out a kind of rhythmic circular cutting motion that quickly felt very fluid and enjoyable which consistently produced the thinnest slices of anything (and everything) I've ever achieved. Easily repeatedly got paper thin see through slices of apple, cucumber, potato but I am not super fast at it. However that's due entirely to my knife skills.

Pretty good food release considering polished dammy, blade height probably helps. The steel, ATS-34 (said to be equivalent to 154CM), is a solid all around stainless but not at the apex of performance. It takes a very good edge very quickly which holds quite well but loses the bite fairly fast.

In terms of my collection I'm wanting to focus on carbon steels but more than that I'm enjoying the idea of trying out the 'new masters', Kurosaki, Miyazaki, hopefully soon I'll get to try out some Manaka & Mazaki blades! I'm definitely now interested in trying a carbon steel Miyazaki.

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Summary: Overall, very pleasing! Fun unique shape, really excellent slicing ability, f&f are great.

🤌🏽🔪

It's a good knife. It cuts.

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• Grind: I believe it would be categorized as wide bevel, the shinogi is very distinct and midway up the blade. It does not seem to have any concavity or convexity to the kireha.
• Edge Profile: Hakata
• Performance: Holds an edge very well but noticeable loses bite faster than my Aogami Super knives. Extremely precise easy cutting. Absolutely no wedging on anything I cut, only the tamest quietest crack while cutting straight through the center of a very dense sweet potato.

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• Blacksmith: Haruki Miyazaki
• Producing Area: Nagasaki, Japan
• Knife "type": hakata / kiritsuke gyuto (only Miyazaki really knows?)
• Finish: Damascus
• Core steel: ATS-34
• Steel type: stainless

Blade Specs (from a retailer site)

• Blade length (heel to tip): ~215mm
• Blade height at the heel: ~50mm
• Blade height at the ktip break: ~44.5mm
• Spine thickness:
• at the handle: 2.6mm
• at the heel: 2.5mm
• midway: 1.8mm
• 1cm from the tip: 1.1mm
• Weight: ~195g
• Edge/bevel: 50:50

This knife is an amazing union of skill, style, function

It's not a rare piece but it holds a meaningful spot in my collection, uniting (as I understand) Shibata's sharpening with Yoshimi Kato's forging, the son of Hiroshi Kato who trained Yu Kurosaki - the maker of one of my favorite knives. As a low intensity home cook I'm not planning to buy a typical Shibata so the opportunity to pull all these threads together, sampling Shibata and Kato who is connected to Kurosaki, in one knife is really fun.

Plus it takes a wicked edge very easily with great bite! Until recently would say it was sharpest in my modest stable tied with my Kurosaki SG2, now it's behind only a near BNIB super steel. Has a very satisfying weight in the hand though balance is pretty far forward. Really good food release!

I put on a coffee patina for fun and through carelessness let the coffee touch the kurouchi at the border, which ate away at it and actually looks really nice IMO.

Admittedly it has taught me that I'm probably not a rectangle fanatic despite really appreciating how much blade road you get for aesthetics and the wonderful food release control. I'll probably buy more nakiri but they won't dominate my collection.

* Blacksmith: Yoshimi Kato (Master Forger)

* Sharpener: Takayuki Shibata (Legendary hand-sharpened edge)

* Core Steel: Aogami Super (Blue Carbon Steel) at 63–64 HRC

* Finish: Kurouchi Tsuchime (Hammered "River Pebble" finish for superior food release)

* Blade Dimensions: 165mm length | 59.1mm ultra-tall profile for maximum knuckle clearance

* Spine Geometry: 2.8mm at the heel with a distal taper for effortless "laser-like" slicing

* Weight: 160g (Perfectly balanced for all-day professional use)

* Handle: Octagonal Cherry Wood with durable Black Pakka Wood Ferrule

This NKD is about two months late and I'm the second owner, I guess that's just the nature of the beast

This mystery yanagiba was my second japanese knife purchase (I now have quite a few more 😵‍💫). I acquired it from a local hobbyist sharpener/reseller who (AFAIK) has no info on the provenance.

• Maker: ?
• Steel: ?
• Handle Material: ?
• Length: 190mm
• Prior Life: ?

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It came to me in pretty bad condition, honestly, with large chips and very dull polish on the blade though for $30 it's hard to complain. Plus it's been a quite good slicer even with all that and especially after light touchup.

I've mostly used it as a small petty but also sliced some salmon & chicken with it in an attempt to get a patina on it however I had no luck and it just got a bit brown. This led me to wonder whether it might be a nameless low quality stainless or semi-stainless steel.

So I put it on the rack to rest while I decided how to approach the project.

Meanwhile I read & learned some about JNATs and polishing. But the vast prices on JNATs and the feeling that I neither deserve nor need them had prevented me from going any deeper.

But then I acquired a few new knives (yet to be NKD'd) which I feel will eventually deserve JNAT treatment. Which left me in a pickle...

But curiosity kills the cat and I keep reading posts & looking at WTSs. So I asked a seller if they might have some low grade koppa for me to mess around with as an intermediate step on my journey.

So yesterday, having come into a surplus of unexpected free time, I got to work!

The koppa were a little hard to manage, as I have not yet devised a good jig to stabilize them but it worked out mostly fine and I'm not at all worried about mistakes on this blade. I kept some notes on them but will spare the details for brevity. I tried to spend a roughly equal amount of time on each stone just to learn about them & the knife.

The stones, in no particular order (per the seller):

1. Aiiwatani Akapin 3.0
2. Aiiwatani Karasu 4.0
3. Nakayama Kiita 4.5
4. Ozaki Asagi 3.5
5. Nakayama Asagi 4.5
6. Shobudani Asagi 4.0
7. Nakayama akapin 3.5

Then, somewhat coincidentally, I finished cooking some chicken thighs & put it to the test.

Delightfully, as you can see, all that work brought out a really beautiful patina (with the hot water aid) that I could see forming in real time. 🤌🏽

Remaining goals: Swap the handle, check the tang for maker's marks, even out the primary bevel, set the secondary bevel a little better, get the small remaining chips out of the edge

Thanks for reading!