Unagisaki and Deba

BenR.T.

BenR.T.

Tanto grinder & High performance blade peddler
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Apr 18, 2011
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I don't make many kitchen knives and almost all of them go to Eatingtools in Brooklyn.
Here are a couple firsts for me. A Deba and a less common Unagisaki, which is used specifically for filleting/butchering eel. They are both CPM 3V, chisel ground with hollow backsides. The thick spines and choil are generously rounded and polished.
The Unagi has some of my shop made rag micarta and an antique black micarta bolster.

Here is a cool video showing how the Unagisaki is traditionally used.












 
Have ya processed a couple of eels to try it out yet?

Fine job on those....
 
I've always loved the shape of the eel knife and you've made it look really nice. I've never cut up an eel but would totally use that knife for everything else Because it looks so cool haha
 
Love that video......and the blades. Great seeing their intended purpose. Thanks.
 
Very cool, Ben! I always enjoy seeing the variety of knives you make as you always know how make them your own, and they always turn out great. I hope you share more of you kitchen cutlery here in the future. For whatever it's worth, I've always found that large bevel/chamfer at the choils on the thicker Japanese kitchen knives to be very appealing.

~Paul
My YT Channel
Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)
 
That's pretty cool. We had eel growing up in NJ so it was interesting seeing how to properly fillet an eel. Dad would just skin them so they looked like fried snakes.

Yes please share more it's very interesting.
 
Here on the Upper Delaware River there are still eel weirs but not as many as in earlier times . Then it was a big business . Recently high water levels have reduced things even more .
I've often been laughed at with the idea of putting a nail through the head for easy handling but the video shows how efficient it is !
One my earliest memories was watching a tractor pull a fully loaded crate of eels from the river . I was only a kid so I didn't say anything but the crate was just that -- no skids , no wheels . How could that work , I thought ??? Well it didn't ! the crate broke open and many hundreds of eels slithered back to the river ! :D:D:D
 
coldsteelburns said:
Very cool, Ben! I always enjoy seeing the variety of knives you make as you always know how make them your own, and they always turn out great. I hope you share more of you kitchen cutlery here in the future. For whatever it's worth, I've always found that large bevel/chamfer at the choils on the thicker Japanese kitchen knives to be very appealing.
Click to expand...

They are very visually appealing for sure, and quite comfortable as well!

mete said:
Here on the Upper Delaware River there are still eel weirs but not as many as in earlier times . Then it was a big business . Recently high water levels have reduced things even more .
I've often been laughed at with the idea of putting a nail through the head for easy handling but the video shows how efficient it is !
One my earliest memories was watching a tractor pull a fully loaded crate of eels from the river . I was only a kid so I didn't say anything but the crate was just that -- no skids , no wheels . How could that work , I thought ??? Well it didn't ! the crate broke open and many hundreds of eels slithered back to the river ! :D:D:D
Click to expand...

Thats funny! Unfortunately common sense isn't so common! :)

islandblacksmith said:
those ura look lovely!
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Thank you Dave. It was a first for me. Blending it put with only a 12" wheel was tricky!
 
Thanks everyone for the kind words!
 
Beautiful knives, I just picked up a Deba a few days ago, nothing to compare to yours, but it is Japanese manufacture and sharp as the dickens.
 
I don't know how eels do it in the West but here in the East the female eels spends three years in the river [males wait on the coast ] then proceed to the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic . IIRC eels in Italy also go to the Sargasso. Riccardo can confirm this .
 
mete said:
I don't know how eels do it in the West but here in the East the female eels spends three years in the river [males wait on the coast ] then proceed to the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic . IIRC eels in Italy also go to the Sargasso. Riccardo can confirm this .
Click to expand...

In the West coast there aren't freshwater eels that travel downriver to the sea to spawn the way the Sargasso Sea eels do, which disperse along the East Coast and into Europe via the Gulf Stream. The nearest spawning grounds for that type of eel in the Pacific is near Guam, the spawning grounds for the Anguilla Japonica which disperse into freshwater rivers in Asia. But the West coast is too far away for them to get there and back to Guam to spawn! There are also giant freshwater eels in New Zealand that have a third spawning ground in a different ocean. They are very remarkable (and delicious) creatures. :D

Sweet knives, Ben. :thumbsup:
 
Great looking tools Ben, I grew up fishing the Susquehanna river in north eastern Pa. Ruins of eel walls cross the river. Every town along the river had at least one. Damming the river has stopped the eels migration now the walls are favored for small mouth bass fishing.
 
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