Rockstead Knowledge Thread

I hope you are wrong as well! I have a ZDP-189 Higo and a Shin in ZDP-189 STILL on its way to me (thanks...DHL). I am also sure that Rockstead will take care of you should you request special services outside of what their basic warranty service entails.

Knifecenter has a few YXR7s in stock now. Awfully tempting, but something about that mirror polish ZDP just gets me. I know we all split hairs over the minutia and rightfully so with such expensive items, but both steels are beyond exceptional and will stand up easily to any task where the knife is the ideal tool. I don't think Rockstead's YXR7 is as corrosive or ZDP is as chippy as the forum posts will lead us to believe. Treat it with care and it will last more than a lifetime.
 
I hope you are wrong as well! I have a ZDP-189 Higo and a Shin in ZDP-189 STILL on its way to me (thanks...DHL). I am also sure that Rockstead will take care of you should you request special services outside of what their basic warranty service entails.

Knifecenter has a few YXR7s in stock now. Awfully tempting, but something about that mirror polish ZDP just gets me. I know we all split hairs over the minutia and rightfully so with such expensive items, but both steels are beyond exceptional and will stand up easily to any task where the knife is the ideal tool. I don't think Rockstead's YXR7 is as corrosive or ZDP is as chippy as the forum posts will lead us to believe. Treat it with care and it will last more than a lifetime.

Take a look a couple pages back when you get a chance and I do so as well. I also plan on taking a look at the Rockstead website because it's very possible it might be mentioned there as well. Anyway the good thing is that one way or another this probably will flush out fairly soon and it certainly helps to have a thread like this to discuss and share information.
 
You sure they don't restore the mirror polish on the ZDP blades? I don't see that from Mr. Ishida's response.


Rockstead will not restore the mirror polish to a ZDP blade surface under warranty.

I highly doubt they would even do it upon request.

It would take a tremendous amount of time and it's a painstaking process.

Even if they did offer such a service, guaranteed it would be extremely expensive.

You would be better off just buying a brand new replacement knife.
 
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I noticed or it seems that inventory seems particularly low at least at the places I've been able to find that sell Rockstead knives. Is this normal and does it typically take awhile to get the exact Rockstead knife your looking for?
 
I noticed or it seems that inventory seems particularly low at least at the places I've been able to find that sell Rockstead knives. Is this normal and does it typically take awhile to get the exact Rockstead knife your looking for?

Low production numbers=low inventory

I've come to believe that the number on your blade is how many have been made (at that point).
 
Low production numbers=low inventory

I've come to believe that the number on your blade is how many have been made (at that point).

This would certainly jive with what the retailer who I ordered my Shu from was saying with regards to their pretty limited production runs. Anyway as long as they remain successful and the ordering process does result in too long of a wait I don't mind.
 
Current production spec sheet:

http://rockstead.jp/collection/spec_list.html


SHINOGIZUKURI:

CHOU

HIZEN-TIN

HIZEN-ZDP

CHI-DLC

CHI-ZDP

According to the Rockstead site the SHINOGIZUKURI is the newer (better?) of the grinds they use. If you want SHINOGIZUKURI grind and a clad layered steel blade, the CHI is the only option available to you. Also the CHI steel was updated in 2015 according to the spec sheet. I talked to Heinnie-Hayne recently and they claim that Rockstead is going into production on a fresh batch of CHI knives in late March.
 
Good news. I heard back from the retailer regards my Shu Pre-Order. The owner confirmed today that my knife would be part of their June Shu production run.
 
Happy Monday

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See currently this is my dilemma. I want the Higo. And am getting ready to put the full court press on my wife about getting one from her for our anniversary. I'm torn about which steel to go with. I fondled the gig in YXR7 with DLC and totally loved it.

Also it will be a user. And I do question the claims of 2 years between sharpenings. I have a spyderco in cts hxp I use daily and I strop it once a week the first night I go back to work and it's edge is done. Cutting mainly boxes and plastic wrap. Which surprises me considering the quality of steel.

That and do I really need to send it to back to Japan to have it sharpened? Or is stropping going to suffice as they show on there site?
 
See currently this is my dilemma. I want the Higo. And am getting ready to put the full court press on my wife about getting one from her for our anniversary. I'm torn about which steel to go with. I fondled the gig in YXR7 with DLC and totally loved it.

Also it will be a user. And I do question the claims of 2 years between sharpenings. I have a spyderco in cts hxp I use daily and I strop it once a week the first night I go back to work and it's edge is done. Cutting mainly boxes and plastic wrap. Which surprises me considering the quality of steel.

That and do I really need to send it to back to Japan to have it sharpened? Or is stropping going to suffice as they show on there site?

Stropping can only do so much, if you're away from your stropping equipment for a day or two and you do some really intense cutting, you're probably going to degrade your edge past what can be restored with a strop. I've found touching up the apex with a Spyderco UF stone is easy and effective for keeping it sharp.

I also bought a 8" x 11" sheet of 3M lapping film in 0.3 micro and using very light pressure to hit the edge works well.
 
that Shun on the left - OMG! wow!

anyone know if it comes in YXR7?

No. According to Rockstead, beside Shun production is ceased, it was only produced in clad ZDP - you can verified going to Rockstead JP site. FYI, the knife next to the SHUN is even more elusive!!

Further more, for first hand unbiased knowledge, without second hand interpretations, it is best to get it directly from Rockstead JP site.

Or:

I have email Ishida-san directly many times, he has been consistently prompt to answer all my emails. Twice, in as many days, in my search for a discontinued SHUN, he helped me located two European Rockstead Dealer.

I purchased my two Rocksteads direct from Japan - both $100 less than the US Mainland vendors with free EMS Priority to boot and beside, Ishida-san defines customer service.

Hths!
 
After receiving a PM from a member about their Hizen having some lateral blade play, I checked my Higo; sure enough, there was a tiny amount of play. After finally breaking the loctite on the pivot and disassembling, cleaning, and lubing my knife, I put it back together and tightened the pivot to the point of no play. I was surprised to find how much more resistance there is in the action of the knife with the pivot properly tightened. Is this normal?

EDIT: after disassembling it again and reassembling it, the increased resistance is gone and there's no play. A testament to high the tolerances are on Rockstead's pivots, it's very easy to throw something off.
 
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Just in case someone reads a rumor going around that rocksteads ZDP blades are cast I would like to put that rumor to rest. The rumor is that on the tang of a Ryo someone spotted a seam in which they are positive that its an indicator that the blade was cast. I would bet money that what they were seeing was the remaining portion of a tab that was ground off from either bolting blanks to a CNC or waterjet plate.
 
After receiving a PM from a member about their Hizen having some lateral blade play, I checked my Higo; sure enough, there was a tiny amount of play. After finally breaking the loctite on the pivot and disassembling, cleaning, and lubing my knife, I put it back together and tightened the pivot to the point of no play. I was surprised to find how much more resistance there is in the action of the knife with the pivot properly tightened. Is this normal?

EDIT: after disassembling it again and reassembling it, the increased resistance is gone and there's no play. A testament to high the tolerances are on Rockstead's pivots, it's very easy to throw something off.

Yep, I believe I mentioned something similar in this thread.

When my Higo-X was new, it was stiffer than any knife I have; it had more tension than a strong slipjoint. I did the same as you, crack open, clean, and relube. Afterwards, the action was still extremely stiff but now I had blade play too:(

I was confused about this, so I inspected the knife really closely. What I found, was that since the Higo/Hizen has only two points of contact (pivot and spacer) it is crucial that each contact point be perfectly in sync with eachother with equal amounts of torque on the screws. The two handles should be perfectly parallel, and if one point of contact is out-of-whack, the handles tend to push away from eachother and become non-parallel. Essentially, this caused blade play, stiffness, or both.

What I found as a solution, is to torque the screws almost as hard as you can. My Higo-X requires a ton of torque to make the action feel right. To be honest, the amount of torque it takes feels like you are going to break the knife...but you won't. Those screws need to be very tight.

Even when properly tightened, mine still felt a little stiff for a few months, but now it has broken in very nicely and feels great. My Higo-X is the only knife I've ever owned that had such a drastic break-in period.
 
Just in case someone reads a rumor going around that rocksteads ZDP blades are cast I would like to put that rumor to rest. The rumor is that on the tang of a Ryo someone spotted a seam in which they are positive that its an indicator that the blade was cast. I would bet money that what they were seeing was the remaining portion of a tab that was ground off from either bolting blanks to a CNC or waterjet plate.

We're not that gullible...this thread is for all the Rocky aficionados:thumbup:
 
We're not that gullible...this thread is for all the Rocky aficionados:thumbup:

I know man. I just had to type the words somewhere because all the places where it should have been said were shut down. I read that and the confidence it was said with and I felt like this guy.

This%2520is%2520basically%2520me%2520when%2520Twitter%2520was%2520down.jpg
 
I know right? That thread was crazy with self proclaimed experts of rockstead; those of who have probably never even held one. made me feel like this guy .....:D


Just in case someone reads a rumor going around that rocksteads ZDP blades are cast I would like to put that rumor to rest. The rumor is that on the tang of a Ryo someone spotted a seam in which they are positive that its an indicator that the blade was cast. I would bet money that what they were seeing was the remaining portion of a tab that was ground off from either bolting blanks to a CNC or waterjet plate.
 
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