NKD: Miyazaki ATS-34 "Tsubaki" Damascus Hakata Gyuto 215mm
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.
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.
Summary: Overall, very pleasing! Fun unique shape, really excellent slicing ability, f&f are great.
🤌🏽🔪
It's a good knife. It cuts.
- 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.
- 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