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310mm Wrought Iron San Mai Integral Sujihiki [Repost]

Feedback: 8 / 0 / 0
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Messages
306
I just finished up my first integral knife build! This knife is a sujihiki which roughly means "flesh cutter". They are similar to yanagiba (the traditional blade used for sushi prep), but are a little more versatile and easy to use because they feature a western double bevel rather than a chisel grind. Blade lengths 270mm or greater are pretty common for this style of knife, the idea being that you can complete a full slice on a piece of meat or fish in one stroke without sawing back and forth, in order to prevent the grain of the meat from being torn apart. They can also be used in other forms of food prep (veggie slicing, etc), although the long blade length does take a bit of skill to manage.

This blade I made with wrought iron cladding on a W2 core. I have been having great results with W2 in my kitchen knives lately and have all but entirely switched from using 1095. For those of you who haven't used W2 before in a kitchen setting, you can expect a keen high RC edge, and a bit better edge retention and stability than 1095. It is somewhat similar in composition to aogami super with less carbon and tungsten. Between the core and the cladding is a shim of pure nickel which prevents carbon loss in the core and also shines very brightly after the etch :)
The blade itself has a nice long distal taper starting at 1/8", and both the spine and choil are rounded for comfort. The heel of the blade is just over 1.5" tall so your knuckles can clear the cutting board. It's sharpened on stones up to a naniwa 12k, and is ready to go to work!
The handle is a modernized octagonal wa design, and features a great cut of african blackwood that has been polished to a high finish. The integral bolster is etched right up to the handle.

But enough talk about the blade, here are some pictures so you can see for yourself!

https://i.imgur.com/nNUmkqa.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/uXwM6Ki.jpeg

I'm asking $600 USD shipped for this one! First one to say "I'll take it!" gets it. As always, if you have any questions about the blade don't hesitate to ask below or at my email YozakuraForge@gmail.com and I'll do my best to answer!

Let me know what you guys think! Because this is my first integral knife, some constructive criticism would be appreciated. I really enjoyed this build and would like to make more integrals in the future, so let me know if you all like integrals in general and it is worth me making more :)

Thanks for looking everyone,
-Grant
 
Very nice. Love your work. San mai stands out for sure. Quite a bit larger than my needs, but would love to see something in the 6" range.
 
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback as well, I personally like large knives so that's what I tend to make but I've been thinking about making some smaller knives soon (6"-8"). I also make a cool s-ground nakiri model that's around 7" that I will probably make more of in the near future!
 
Very nice work.

Any pics of the blade sans handle?

I also would like to see one in the 7-8” range, as this one is more of a full size roast type slicer to me, which wouldn’t see a lot of use in our kitchen.
 
Very nice work.

Any pics of the blade sans handle?

I also would like to see one in the 7-8” range, as this one is more of a full size roast type slicer to me, which wouldn’t see a lot of use in our kitchen.

Thanks for the kind words, and again I appreciate the feedback on length! I have one 280mm chef I just finished up that I will post soon, but the knives following that will all be shorter based on everyone's feedback. Planning on having several shorter boning knives, a 7" nakiri, and a 6-8" bunka or gyuto, they'll probably be finished in a couple weeks! Thanks again to everyone giving constructive feedback, this really helps me in figuring out what knives will sell well :)

And I'm not quite sure what blade sans handle means but I can absolutely take more photos or video if there's something specific anyone wants to see on this knife and can't from the pics above
 
And I'm not quite sure what blade sans handle means but I can absolutely take more photos or video if there's something specific anyone wants to see on this knife and can't from the pics above
Sans = Without
 
This is an absolutely gorgeous knife. I would love to own such a fine blade. As others have stated, it's larger than I have the skill or general use case to make it viable for me. I wish I had the disposable income to buy it as a show piece or to gift to a friend who would give it a useful life. Super excited to see your next several offerings! Good luck with your sale.
 
Thank you! I very much appreciate the kind words and constructive feedback on length as well. I am hard at work on some shorter blades as we speak! :)

And unfortunately I don't have any pictures without the handle on, but the construction is similar to my other hidden tang kitchen knives, this one has a tapered tang that goes from about 3/16" down to 1/8" if I remember correctly
 
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