After a good tiki tour around the pacific Huberts lovely Honesuki turned up on my front doorstep.
Hes happy for a public review so off we go. Well start with form then move on to function. (excuse the streak on the blade just had a quick wipe after boning out a chicken.
Overall the knife is very well finished and very clean. Its an aeb-l blade with what looks like a well executed vertical scotchbrite machine finish. You have to look pretty closely to tell its not a 100% hand satin finish. Handle is cocbolo and blackwood, with a nice satin finish which looks good and is tactile in hand when wet/greasy. The handle fitup is pretty close to bang on and very good for a slim blade in timber bolster. The wa handle is beautifully symetrical and edges rounded where needed. I would not be dissapointed with this handle on a very high end JPN chefs knife, the execution is fantastic.
Huberts (I assume) lazer etched logo is gorgeous and makes me want a lazer. The choil is nicely radius-ed and feels great in hand. Probably my only criticism of the fit and finish is the spine is a bit sharp, a little 45 degree here would add to pinch grip comfort. There is an element of preference here as some prefer a sharp spine on boning knives for scraping bones, Ive personally found this isnt needed.
On to Function:
A honesuki is really a specialist poultry knife designed primarily to break down birds. Im a bird hunter and butcher most of our own meat from home kill so it will get plenty of use. First impressions after knocking out a chicken is this knife functions fantastically for this role. It is fairly slim stock and a medium grind BTE. The grind is thick enough to the tasks of punching through cartilage and thin bone, but still thin enough to slice well. The edge is a true double bevel as opposed to the asymetrical bevels that are traditional,. I prefer double bevels over assym so this is great for me. AEBL is a great match for this with its fantastic toughness and excellent edge stability properties. The steep cut "k" tip leaves plenty of meat behind the edge which is perfect as the tips of these knives do a bit of levering in thigh and wing joints. Again really my only critcism in funtion is the sharper spine being a little harder on the hand when pushing pressure down through joints etc, this will be a little bit exagerated due to the relatively thin stock compared to a trad honesuki. Nothing 2 mins on the diamond stone wont fix! Over all early impressions are great! I like it much more than my previously owned misono molybdinum honsuki, which are a very well respected honesuki.
The knife is light, well balanced and thin enough for general food prep/petty tasks. It will also work well for meat trimming and I pick would deal to small and mid size fish filleting tasks pretty well too. The robust tip means it wont be the best for fine dicing onions or garlic and other precision tip use tasks but that is secondary anyway.
Overall its a lovely knife, and Im super happy to have it in my quiver. It will get plenty of use for its primary task and will likely end up in my traveling knife roll as well.
Thanks Hubert!
