Recommendation? Some questions about Higonokami

I

ImperialBouncer

Joined
Jun 20, 2023
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Hello.
I bought my first higonokami a few weeks ago and I’ve been looking at the larger, blue paper steel versions on Amazon.
It boiled down to two similar knives. One is $27 and has 3 kanji characters on the blade. The other is $32 and has 4 kanji characters. (See pictures below). I looked through old threads on here and some other places and it seems that the $32 one has aogami warikomi stamped on it. The $27 one doesn’t seem to have the steel type stamped on it, but rather the name Mitsuo. I haven’t seen that one anywhere else other than on that amazon listing and non-supporting vendor link removed.
Both are sold as blue paper steel and both seem to have warikomi, judging by the review photos. Also, both are sold by the same seller.

So what is the difference between the two (if any)? Is the $32 version worth the extra $5? Do they have different types of blue paper steel?

Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.
Photos
 
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You won't believe the reason::)

The color (white paper and blue paper) steels are named after the color paper the blades are wrapped in:
both made by Hitachi Metals. White paper is 1.0-1.2 % C, 0.1-0.2 Si, 0.2-0.3 Mn (Manganese). Blue paper steel also
contains 0.2-0.5 Cr and 1.0-1.5%W (Tungsten).

Found this info on a paper enclosed in one of my Nagao Higonokami boxes. Have three.
 
I found the exact same knife on eBay shipping directly from Japan. It also has a different box with “Higonokami” written on it, same as the $27 one on Amazon.

I also looked at kickstarter and found that they make limited edition versions for their kickstarter campaign. They’re not exactly the same characters but both reference Mitsuo.

So based on all that, is it possible that the $27 version is just newer or some sort of limited edition and the $32 one is old stock made by the previous master?







 
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ImperialBouncer said:
I found the exact same knife on eBay shipping directly from Japan. It also has a different box with “Higonokami” written on it, same as the $27 one on Amazon.

I also looked at kickstarter and found that they make limited edition versions for their kickstarter campaign. They’re not exactly the same characters but both reference Mitsuo.

So based on all that, is it possible that the $27 version is just newer or some sort of limited edition and the $32 one is old stock made by the previous master?







Click to expand...
Not a clue, but doubt Kickstarter are true Nagao Higonokami. :confused: I ordered mine from Kniifecenter a good while back.
I guess anything is possible. The Higonokami website shows quite a variety of knives they make.
 
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