@@mohammadmg2015 thank you. No its the mono steel one

@@omrijhan3065 cheery cutting board. Thank you!

thank you. There is a very very slight push on the cut as well so not fully up and down.

@@agibson2005 omg, amazing job!

Thank you for the kind words. Of the two I would go with the Shibata

@@agibson2005 thank you !

Are the Konosuke white 2 and Shibata still your top lasers ? Are there more at the same level ?

@@lieminhson2982 yup they are. Hmm not overly sure as have bought a gyuto in a while

Hi. Sorry for the late reply. only time i go stright up and down is when I do the tomato test. Others i put a very very slight push in the cut. But only ever had micro chips which will happen regardless. Hope you like your knife!

Nope never use a rod. Sometimes use a 2-4 k stone for a touch up

Hi. Thanks and sure. 15 degrees per side is the norm so other than that should be good

@agibson2005 thank you very much for responding I have seen a few of your videos you have a ton of very high quality knives of all you have used if you could just pick 1 chef knife to use forever what would it be?

@@Kurt830 hmm. The kono honyaki. Was perfect just up keep on the finish was what led to babying it

Yes little better performance and stainless

Hmm. Old school Kono laser. just hit all my sweet spots. Id say Shibata his R2 is something impressive

Lol thanks. I'll correct

Mmm think that was natural edge and strop

Thanks! It's relatively flat, laser grind. But didn't bother me any with performance

@@agibson2005 Thank you!

Thank you! Yes a lot of bang for the buck

@@agibson2005 yeah whereas most Japanese knives we get in the West are overhyped and overpriced and basically meh bang for a lot of buck. Just shows you how marked up so much stuff is, stuff thats lower quality, lower fit and finish and ues lesser grades of materials which are easier to work with. Some of them are so ridiculous you just have to embrace it as more of a hype knife or luxury good, like say a TF denka. $1000 USD for a 240 gyoto for something that's no better than a $200 Morikata. At that point it's so absurd you have to embrace it for what it is. But other stuff like say a dumb ass masakage koishi for like $400 or whatever. Just absurd. I do custom regrinds on these and so many of these expensive hype knives aren't even worthy of being turn key, you have to work on them to make them reach potential. It's like, insane. You have to spend that much for something which still needs hours of work to make it all it can be? Nah. The gems are worth it tho. imo this Takamra R2 migaki knife is worth every cent. But it's more of a tool. If I could get the quality, fit and finish, tolerances, warranty and handle that comes on a tojiro R2 pro with the geometry of this knife. then I'd have something I could suggest to everyone.

I do both. Just depends on mood. Going just straight up and down you have to apply little more strength

if you think zdp is hard to maintain then forget hap40. and no hap40 barely has any better edge retention than R2, it's nowhere near zdp regardless what those who promote it might claim. And yes you are 100% correct, R2 is very much like VG10++++ it's very similar to VG10 but everything is slightly better, slighter harder, slighter tougher, slightly more stainless, slightly finer grain, but then you get a decent slightly more than slight bump in edge retention to boot. Otherwise very similar to vg10. It's basically powdered vg10 with an order of magnitude more vanadium. Great stuff. The best thing about it is how common it is, so there are millions of knives to choose from made in that steel. Something for everyone. Much better choice than something niche and kind of weird like hap40... which isn't a steel that was ever intended for knives much less kitchen knives.

Thank you. The finishing stone is naniwa gouken Fuji 8k

yea sg2 and any other kitchen knife steel can be easily maintained with regular stones. this stuff is already well thought out. the only steel you might find on some niche knives that can't be maintained easily with regular stones is called hap40 and it's mostly only promoted by CKTG. Aside from their influence it's not really a thing. Almost no one in Japan uses or prefers that steel. It's really only a thing they sell to overseas customers, mostly in the US, and mostly just because of CKTG. Get whatever you want. The knife in the video is pretty sweet. I'd suggest the standard Takamura R2 240 for something similar but more budget friendly. Also comes with western style handle which some might find preferable... or if you want something different, get a flat ground factory made R2 knife and do a regrind on it yourself to make it a laser or however you want. You can easily find some for as low as $120 brand new with a full warranty. The fit and finish and build is generally higher than these knives for the same price range as well.

@@jeffhicks8428 The Ogata was sold but in the meantime I got a Shiro Kamo SG2 and Yoshikane SKD 😅

@@westsenkovec sick

@@jeffhicks8428 The Shiro is a Santoku 170 or so long and it looks twice as thin as the Yoshikane gyuto but the Yoshi cuts better and the food barely sticks, unlike the Shiro. I didn't think that was possible. The Shiro is so thin that when I cut a tomato and I slide the edge across the skin to initiate the next cut, the blade is ringing.

@@westsenkovec yeah man I agree the Yoshi is a much higher quality and more desirable knife. I'm not really a fan of the takefu stuff but it's not bad or anything.

Hi! No its a 210 gyuto

@@agibson2005 Thank yuo !!! 🙂👍

Santoku*

Hi no problem. Hmm you would like a knife that is convex edge. That will help with release

Hi! They are great. More surface area for glue so lower chance of twisting. End grain are ok but can warp more and aren't as edge friendly. Just don't put in dishwasher and you'll be ok

@@agibson2005 oh that's different from what i read in knife forums i thought that endgrain are more edge friendly because the knife go through fibers not cutting the fibers, there's just one article from america's test kitchen that say there's no difference and your old videos using edge grain board, Another question does any wood work because I'm not from us and maple here is way too expensive.

@@loay5639 cherry, maple, walnut all kinds. Check Etsy and just make sure it's not treated or such

There is ZERO difference in edge retention. This is an evidence free myth that everyone just blindly repeats because someone selling end grain boards said it one time. Do yourself a favor and ask for EVIDENCE next time before you believe something. Or better yet, it's not hard to test it for yourself. Try it and see what you find. The same type of wood you will find there is zero relevant difference in how quickly end vs edge grain will dull the knife. What matters much more is picking a good type of wood and a good quality cutting board. Personally, I have both end and edge and both have pros and cons. Edge is overall better and will be easier to maintain and less work and more robust. The end grain does have benefits also in that some of them are very pretty. Buy good quality stuff, don't go cheapo on it. You will regret it. Edge grain I like teak a lot. I also like Walnut. End grain I like maple, walnut, etc.. even tigerwood, which is quite a bit harder, but some of them look very nice and for end grain isn't terrible in performance either. Acadia wood is trash. Do not buy some cheap end grain acadia board.

I wouldnt recommend any type of solid wood cutting board. Any time you go up to the higher Rockwell knives, or regular knives, there’s the possibility of dragging the edge on wood which given the type of heat treat done, could have adverse affects on the edge. Would highly recommend a Hasegawa or an Asahi rubber mat. Look them up, while not aesthetically attractive like a nice wood block, there’s a reason that all of your top Japanese restaurants use them as opposed to wood. One being you won’t damage the edge or dull the edge, there’s no maintenance like oiling, they are anti bacterial and they don’t warp. They are not the cheap plastic cutting boards, these things are amazing. Will never go back to a wood block again.

Hmm. Probably the Hap40 just because of lot better retention

My favorite would be my honyaki I had owned or my M4

@@agibson2005 What knife is the M4?

No. This knife in ZDP however is a contender for best workhorse ever. This thing is nowhere near laser. Good luck finding any HAP40 or even ZDP knives that are lasers. HAP40 you just wont find because the steel is very prone to warping. It's not intended for knives. Overall not a good steel choice after extensive testing. ZDP on the other hand, amazing for kitchen knives. Not many knives that are made with it and they're all expensive, and very few are approaching laser territory. The sukenari is firmly a workhorse. In fact the Zwilling line of ZDP knives, not the miyabi but the zwilling labeled version is much closer to a laser. It's not a good knife though because the handle is a literal brick. I have a custom ordered TF Denka that is a ground very very thin and that thing is my favorite knife. ZDP feels a lot like the steel on that except the ZDP stays sharp like several times better, but also takes several times the effort to resharpen. But just to be clear it's very easily takes great edges, one just takes an equal amount more work for how how much longer it holds the edge. HAP40 is dog poop to sharpen, it's not nice.

@@jeffhicks8428 Where are you getting this information from? This knife in the video is near a laser actually, 2.2-2.3mm at the spine with a decent grind. I'm not sure what else you would consider a laser. The reason you won't find very thin HAP40 or even ZDP-189 is because of the carbide type and carbide volume present in both of those steels which lead to higher wear resistance which means more time and abrasives are needed to grind them. Also, they're relatively brittle steels, and they're usually upper 60s HRC which leads to even less toughness. Making a production knife made out of these steels that is super thin behind the edge is just asking for the blades to get a chippy reputation. All stainless or semi-stainless steels can be prone to warping, that's one of the benefits of plate quenching that's often used for stainless steels. HAP40 also has a much better range of qualities for kitchen knives than ZDP-189. Both require diamond abrasives to really get a crisp apex with the vanadium carbides on the HAP40 and the big and numerous chromium carbides in the ZDP-189. Again, I'm not sure where you're getting this information that ZDP-189 is great for kitchen knives and HAP-40 is terrible. ZDP-189 is also nothing like the Aogami Super used on the Denka line. If you have any resources to substantiate your claims, I'd be interested to see them

I have M3 knife that is a favorite.