Any experiences with Kanetsune knives?

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Razorwind

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Sep 6, 2004
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I was looking around on Knifecenter when I came across Kanetsune's 10.63" Damascus blade, which they called the "Samurai Sword." Anyone have any idea how they hold up in real world applications (chopping, slicing and etc...)? I've searched through the matrix and this forum, and all the information is spotty at best. I've never heard of the company until recently and even jumped on their website to try and get more info but no luck. They do have a number of product shots and the designs are nice but again nothing to get a feel for what the quality of the blade is like.
I might bite the bullet and give them a try. Any thoughts or opinions?
 
I was just looking at that same knife, and wondered the same thing. So I did a search. Still no information. Any body have any information??
Razorwind - Did you bite the bullet and buy one??
Dave
 
I have a couple of them. One using the Aogami blue steel damascus and one using Super blue. Good steels, good grinds but kind of on the obtuse side for my tastes.

As far as the heat treat, and the strength of the tang I can't speak on that. I've never taken them apart or tested them to destruction. I've heard they run on the hard side but haven't seen any tests.

I would enjoy it if I was you. Use it and see what it can do. The Blue/Super blue steel is very good stuff. It's not going to compare to a Busse, or other expensive, heavy duty chopper but still can be a good user if chopping stuff isn't your main use.

Did I say I like the blue steel? It takes a great edge. Joe

Info on Blue & white steels. http://www.paragoncode.com/temp/YSS_HCC_spec.pdf
 
I've read that there were some brittlness issues with the tips on some of their fixed blades, around 6-7" overall length.
 
Recently I bought Kanetsune 8" Gyuto and extremely impressed with this knife.
Sharpness, balance, ergos are great.
 
Can't comment on their products but in general using 'Samurai Sword' instead of 'katana' is a bright red warning flag.
 
I've often wondered about the type of steel they use as well. I think it looks great and would work very well in their smaller knives but I'm not convinced that it would be very durable for a heavy duty cutter/chopper that would be required in a sword.

I would go to www.cheness.com and look at the 9260 steel swords for that application and price range. 9260, 5160, 1060, 1095, etc seem to be much better choices for something used as a sword.

The Kanetsune market seems geared more towards knives so the steels they use appear to be excellent for that application. I just swapped a few emails with the president for Kanetsune's U.S. distribution and encouraged him to participate on Bladeforums.

I would love to have the new 2008 model Kanetsune called the Tsume!!
 

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I have two of their knives, got them from knifecenter. The blue steel is great but the angle was horribly obtuse. One is the Tsuya in 15 layer damascus and came razor sharp. The other is the Matagi Hunter in standard blue steel and was VERY dull and couldn't even draw cut newsprint. It took me a long tome to re-profile the dull one because the grind was nearly 46 degrees!!! I had to remove a lot of the surface from the sides and took away a lot of the knife's "character" but in the end the steel is very functional and holds an edge well. Don't use it as a chopper as it is a bit brittle and the edge chips easily under moderate impact into soft woods (2X4).
 
This is real authentic Japanese knives. They try to sell it here and came with wrong names, or it may be some Americans who "helps" them to name it this way. But this is for sure real Japanese knives and they are known to be performance crazy.

So it is top grade Japanese Shirogami or Aogami steels both used for custom and top working knives. Grind is traditional for Japanese hunting utility knives - Convex. Again with their attention to performance in the field what else you may expect - some nonsense like single bevel or something?

Hardness is bit harder than in western tradition and so may require waterstones to sharpen. Also for this reason blades are thicker.

Sometimes they have suminogashi blade. Which is laminated blade with Shirogami or Aogami in core and damascus on sides (pure damascus does not perform good enough, so Japanese made blade looks damascus but cuts like real deal).

Traditionally they do not pay too much attention to sheath and handles. But blades are very good.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
Shirogami - literally white paper, right translation "White Label Steel"

C=1.3
Mn=0.2
P=0.025
Si=0.1
S=0.04

Aogami - "Blue Label Steel"

C=1.3
Mn=0.2
P=0.025
Si=0.1
S=0.04
Cr=0.2-0.5
W=1-1.5

As you may see the difference is in some W content.
I heart that real Japanese knifemaker suppose to recognize
hardening temperature of the blade by it's color only and so
it is pretty easy to miss right point. W expands hardening
temperature range so it is easier to heat treat it right then
Shirogami. But real makers uses only Shirogami.

Nihhon-to and Tan-To is totally diferent story. Swords suppose
to be made out of Tamahagane and so they costs starting no
less then from $3500...

Thanks, Vassili.
 
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