Iida Tool kitchen knives

[Brian]

Have any of you tried Iida's kitchen knives? Looking at the blue steel and the Honyaki. Both look pretty nice and I'm sure they are (Iida sells them after all) but wondering if their are first hand accounts of them.

[Chris Hall]

I've been looking at knives a lot recently, not on Iida's site but several other places. Most Japanese tool stores carry some line of kitchen knives, but I remember from my time spent in Japan that the better place to go was a store that sold kitchen knives and nothing but.

I've been looking around a lot on the site http://www.chefknivestogo.com/ they have a pretty good selection, but how to choose? Which steel to choose? It's a bit bewildering.

I'm not sure about those honyaki knives, as they are 100% cutting steel. I worry they would be more onerous to sharpen. I'm not really clear on what advantage is offered by a blade which is 100% hagane, as compared to the more conventional laminated system. Certainly, since it is the hagane what does the cutting, there should be no difference in cutting perfromance between the two types.

It strikes me as well that it would be harder to make a honyaki blade really thin, as it would be vulnerable to shattering, whereas the same cannot be said of laminated construction.

[Paul Atzenweiler]

Chris, I love that site you mentioned. I also like this guy's blog about sharpening.
http://japaneseknifesharpening.blogspot ... ening.html

[Brian]

I think the interesting part about Honyaki is simply that it is the traditional method of putting clay on the areas which will remain base hardness.

I doubt that there is a practical advantage, in fact I'm sure there is a practical disadvantage compared to the laminated blades.

Are you guys into the Yanagiba knives or another variety? I like the Masamoto KA series in 300mm length just for blade shape and Masamoto seems very highly regarded in the knife circles.

[dmccurtis]

Finally, something I can contribute to. I come from the knife world, woodworking being a new and still developing interest for me. Cooking, and Japanese knives, have been a long time passion.

I've not purchased knives from Iida, but I have used knives from Inotada Hamono that he sells (ironically, I happen to be selling one at the moment, not to plug). I'd have no reservation recommending them. Craftsmanship is exceptional, fit and finish are as good as could be expected.

As far as honyaki vs. kasumi goes, there are some small but significant differences. You're right to suggest that sharpening honyaki is more difficult. Indeed, it can be much more difficult, as honyaki are often hardened a few points higher than kasumi blades. Not only are you sharpening more hard steel, you're sharpening harder hard steel. The advantage of an entirely hagane blade is that it can have a much longer service life, as there is no chance of running out of hard steel (at least until the hamon is reached, but that is typically high up on the blade). Now, the average user will probably never wear out their kasumi blade, but in a professional setting that can happen in the space of a few years. A honyaki blade has the potential to last considerably longer.

As a result of higher hardness, edge retention tends to be longer with honyaki, though of course at the expense of toughness. Breaking is a very real possibility, both during use and manufacture. There is always a chance of breakage during the quench and subsequent straightening. It is said that even the best makers only achieve a one in three ratio of successful honyaki blades. That might be apocryphal, but it does speak to the difficulty of manufacture. That difficulty is also one reason why there is such a gulf in price between kasumi and honyaki blades. A honyaki knife tends to be a showcase for the best work a blade smith can do.

Besides edge retention, honyaki also feel different in use than kasumi knives. Honyaki feel crisp in the cut and telegraph what the edge is doing, where kasumi can feel damped. It's a small difference, to be sure, but it's one that experienced cooks appreciate.

I'd recommend that anyone interested in knives check out http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com. There's a real dearth of good information about knives online, and Kitchen Knife Forums is the best community there is for serious knife talk. I can post some other links that might help if anyone is interested.

I hope this helps someone. Let me know if there's anything else I can talk about.

[Paul Atzenweiler]

DMCCURTIS, why is registering with the kitchenknifeforum so difficult??

[Chris Hall]

Is is harder than registering on this forum? What makes it difficult?

[dmccurtis]

Paul, I'm not sure why it would be difficult. It's been a number of years since I registered, but I'm not aware of any changes. What problem are you having?

[Brian]

Finally made the leap. My wife wants me to make sushi rather than going out to buy sushi. I will happy oblige;



I found real wasabi online and fish mongers who specialize in sushi grade frozen fish….so we'll see how it goes.

My wife is laying claim to the rice detail.

[dmccurtis]

I was wondering who picked that up. Lovely knife. My Heiji is one of my absolute favourites. Expect a bit of chipping at first, Heiji treats his carbon quite hard.