A new knife... a rare gem!

S

stitchawl

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Jul 26, 2008
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We were in Okayama prefecture this past weekend and were fortunate to stumble across the workshop/factory of 'Takeda Hamono,' a famous knife and farm tool making house, who produce Bityuteuchi style blades from iron that they smelt themselves from black sand. Only the 'tama hagane' (jewel steel) is used by Takeda to make their blades, and that's just a few per cent of the total output created, so they are not a mass production shop. It takes days of heating just to smelt the sand down into the pig iron that they use to create the steel.

True to Japanese style, this magnificent piece of blade work is stuffed into a wooden dowel of a handle... Cuts like a laser though. Cost a bloody fortune (my wife was ready to shoot me) but worth every yen! :thumbup:

Interesting to note: the 'instructions' that come with the knife show using a marker trick (the don't sell 'Sharpie' brand here but they do have plenty of markers!) across the entire 1/2" of bevel to sharpen it correctly!


Stitchawl
 
That's the same shop. But the folks there told us they used tama hagane. Perhaps they use different steel for their export line? Who knows?


Stitchawl
 
pwet - how do you like his Aogami Super Steel? I am asking because I have been considering this one for a while:

http://forthenrycustomknives.com/shop/takeda-seiryu-hunting-knife-14cm/

It looks awesome, I have just no experience with that steel. I was burned before by a knife from Seki-cut with Takefu Damaskus. It was sturdy and well made but the steel was really soft.

Can you tell what his Aogami is comparable to? Many north american knives this size would be the common 1084, O1, 52100 or 5160. Thanks.
 
aogami super is pretty unique, very high performance "tool" steel devellopped exclusively for high end kitchen cutlery. its veeery good stuff. it takes a very acute edge without much problem, keeps the edge very well too. in your list it will be close to 52100, but harder, and a bit more wear resistant.


takeda kitchen knives are very thin, forged to shape thin and ground at a very acute angle, think scandi ground but way more acute and on thinner stock.

i love my gyuto, i rarely use my mioroshi because i have a true single bevel one that works better but still a great knife.
 
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