Usage - Initial Edge 8°-10° included
- As mentioned above, the longest I've ever used Watanabe honyaki gyuto continuously, was approximately 4.5 hours. Now, that, by any standards is a very long time for a home cook. Even for the pro-amateur cooks that is a long time. Besides, unlike me those guys do some other things in the kitchen besides cooking. I was just cutting, non-stop for 4.5 hours. As usual, that happens when bunch of my friends get together at my place, and we're cooking for the party in the evening. Due to my hobby specifics, and the sad fact that all of my friends don't qualify as knifeheads, I get to do all the cutting, which I do enjoy, with sharp knives of course, they do the rest of cooking. Plus, because every cutting session is an opportunity to practice cutting skills, I get to cut lots of veggies, which has dual benefits, salads are good, I get to practice shredding, mincing, batonneting and whatever else in process. That was the reason I was swinging my honyaki for 4.5 hours that day, no breaks, just to rinse the knife or wipe it clean between different types of ingredients. Can't say I wasn't tired, but I was very happy with its performance 150%.As a part of the edge holding control I was cutting tomatoes form the same batch throughout the session. That is, cutting them without pressure, just slide the blade over the tomato, if it falls though under its own weight, it's good. For the record, so that I don't give you a false impression that honyaki gyuto is heavy. The precise weight of this knife is 264g. For comparison, average German kitchen knife of equal size, or even slightly less size, weights 450g+(1lbs). Yup, full pound or more. So, as you can clearly see, the blade weight wasn't the deciding factor here. Just the sharpness and a thin blade with a thin edge on it. So, I've started with the blade that sharp...
First up, I think 3-4 lbs of baby spinach leaves to shred. Damn, that takes time. 3-4mm wide stripes or even thinner. Anyway, after I was done with spinach, control test slice of the tomato. Success. The blade literally fell through it, while I was holding the handle with just two fingers. Next was approximately 7 lbs of cucumbers. Half of it I had to peel, the rest not. Then the fun part of dicing, mincing and slicing cucumbers. I am not so sure everyone was happy to find matchstick sized and shaped cucumbers in their salad, but sure was good practice for batonnet. Peeling cucumbers can be used as a way of practicing katsura muki too. Although, I have to admit, single bevel knives work best for that.
After I was done with cucumbers, control test with tomatoes again. Same success. Couldn't tell the difference from the first one. Well, all that stuff is soft anyway. Next - shredding cilantro and Italian parsley. Which is done on the cutting board using rocking motion. That part, as usual gives real hard time to softer, well pretty much any knives. I've had even Globals noticeably loosing their initial sharpness after a workout like that. After I've shredded and minced all of that, same test with tomato. Exactly the same result, knife just fell through. Next was the meat. On a different cutting board, Mat King rubber instead of mahogany to be precise. That was 9lbs of meat to clean, chop and stripe. Just for the sake of the experiment, another tomato fell victim to honyaki gyuto. With the same ease. Now, I had to go back to veggies. Radish was the next one. I wasn't really supposed to do that, but I made batonnet anyway. Just cutting thick rings wasn't interesting or challenging enough. I'm not so sure that was properly appreciated, but knives, cutting and tests were my turf ;) Anyway, raddish was finished, and another tomato was cut under the weight of the honyaki.
Having cut all those ingredients, I've decided to proceed with Broccoli. Cutting the stems into translucent slices. That's not very easy job with many chef's knives. Honyaki performed superbly. I've skipped the tomato test this time, and proceeded to avocado. As usual, I use one of my smaller knives for that, either Tojiro Paring knife, or Watanabe Small Knife. This time, since I was already running out of things to cut, I've skinned and cleaned several avocados with honyaki. Frankly, that's not the best use of this knife. Might be my skills, but using 270mm long blade as a peeler is still way beyond my knife skills. Anyway, I managed it without any damage to the knife and myself. By the time I was done, two heads of califlower were waiting for me. I guess I've shredded them too small too, but whatever. Next, julienne from Basil. Approximately 1lbs. Annoying part was rolling the leaves into cigars to make julienning easy. I was barely finished with that, when I got onions to mince. That is always fun. Onions were followed by few cloves of garlic, which I refused to crush in the garlic crusher and instead I've minced them thoroughly. May be very thoroughly. This time, I've decided to test tomato again. Starting with the belly of the knife on the tomato. Obviously, the heel was less affected by cutting board contact, so I figured the belly, which is most of the time in contact with the cutting board would be beaten more severely. Nevertheless, as I pushed the blade forward, holding the handle with two fingers again, it just went through the tomato. Just like when I've started. So, to cut the long story short, after that I still had to do: carrot batonnet, around 1 lbs, shred 6 or 7 bell peppers, green onions, some potatoes, approximately 4 lbs and I was done. Now was the time to cut tomatoes for the salad. Whatever was left of them. Control test cut with knife weight slicing went through ok with both, belly and heel starting points. Just because I was on the roll, I've diced two pineapples and called it a day.
Final result? Well, the knife still could slice through the tomato using only it's own weight. Exceptionally good edge holding, or alternatively, using more Japanese knife speak, honyaki gyuto's kirenaga was very high.
Overall my impressions are very positive. The knife is surprisingly light, only 264g(9.31oz) and maneuverable, despite its 270mm blade and 150mm handle attached to that blade. Wide blade is very convenient for scooping ingredients off of the cutting board, that's one. Second, I already mentioned it's convenience of a wide blade, when using guide hand. Obviously, thin blade plus thin edge combo does wonders for cutting. More than once, I've put aside other gyutos that were sharpened 20°-30° angle(included) and picked up Watanabe honyaki because I felt I was exerting too much force during cutting. Don't have much on that topic, very efficient cutter. Balance is still a little bit blade heavy, but not much, at least doesn't feel that way. Apparenty, because the overall weight of the knife is not that great. Weighs the same, as the western knives half the length. For those who say a good kitchen knife must be heavy... Perhaps you should try really sharp knife at least once, even if it's not honyaki. May be then you'll think again, why do you need those extra ounces on the blade.
Conclusions
- Exceptional performer in terms of cutting performance and edge holding ability. Very light, comfortable, even for long term work. The only con is the high price. Other than that, nothing but positive impressions.Image Gallery
Specifications:
- Blade - 270.00mm(10.63")
- Thickness - 3.00mm
- Width - 60.00mm
- OAL - 425.00mm(16.73")
- Steel - Aogami 63-65HRC
- Handle - Ebony
- Weight - 264.00g(8.93oz)
- Acquired - 09/2008 Price - 850.00$
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Last updated - 05/19/19