1 hour ago, paul o' vendange said:
Great perspective. Thanks Paul. Very cool imagery on the "axe v. violin bow." That's one helluva selling point.
Edit: Neglected to ask. Would you mind sharing the make of your gyuto? And do you happen to know, "wa" is one form of "harmony," as in, "please do not disrupt the wa of the room." Is this implied with the feel of the handle?
"Wa" just means Japanese. They call any handle in the traditional style a wa-handle. They call western-style handles yo-handles. (I believe "yo" literally means "western"). Wa-gyuto means "Japanese cow-sword." But what they really mean by cow-sword is a western-style chef's knife (because westerners like to eat cows?). So it's a Japanese-style western-style knife. Try not to think too hard about it when there's something sharp in your hand.
Mine is by Ikkanshi Tadatsuna. They make it with either carbon (white #2) or stainless (ginsan ko / silver #3) steel. I had the carbon for a minute but traded for the stainless, and have had this one for 12 years.
It's not easy to find now, and the price has gone up. But there are knives by other makers that are almost identical. Probably the best known is Suisin (their inox honyaki wa-gyuto) which might be the first knife in this style. If I were buying a gyuto today, I might go to Japanese Knife Imports and get the Gesshin Ginga. Jon the owner says the performance between these knives is mostly identical (I trust anything he says).
I just weighted them ... the wee-looking goldhamster is 308g. Almost double the tadtsuna's 163g.
Here's a choil pic. Shows why it's so light and why it cuts the way it does:
The spine on the tad is about 2mm thick. The spine on the hamster is 3.5mm.
