The Masamoto VG-10 Gyutou, 8.2 “
Eastern knives are different from Western. Most fundamentally, Japanese knives are harder steel, thinner, designed for a specific hand (right or left, not both!), and keep an edge longer. The down-side is that they are more brittle, harder to sharpen, and are designed for very specific tasks so that you need more of them. This is because the Japanese food culture calls for slicing food without crushing it. In the West, we’re more likely to have a favorite knife with which we hack away at everything!
Recently, the Gyutou knife has become more popular in the West. The big three Japanese knife companies (Masamoto, Misono, and Masahiro) all have a version of this knife, which approximates the Western Chef’s Knife. The Gyutou is thicker than the traditional Japanese knife, and the blade is curved like a chef’s knife instead of straight (for rocking instead of for slicing). I don’t know how much they’ll catch on in Japan, but I’m certainly finding them interesting.
Image: Japanese-Knife
[...] talked awhile back about the differences between Asian and Western style knives. Most important to remember is that Japanese and other Asian techniques call for cutting the food [...]
waay to many years ago before Dad moved the family to Schaumburg, Il in the 60’s. After Grad school I lived over the border in NH for a while – but back in the midwest now.
We used to have a fuller brush store. I only remember one salesman other than the ones I invite for cooking stuff. And that was waaay to many years ago when I was a kid in Wellesley or Needham.
Since I’m capable of cutting myself with just about anything (don’t ask…), ceramic might be too dangerous for me! Ok, just kidding. I know sharper knives are actually less dangerous, but still.
It used to be that there were door to door vendors selling lots of different things. Do you remember when a guy who sharpened your knives and scissors would come door to door? We had him, the Fuller brush man, the milk man (eggs too), and occasionally pot and pan salesmen who used to come by. Not anymore, and I live in a small town. I kind of miss that
Please check out the ceramic knives. I cannot say how much they have been useful for several of my projects. Also leave them locked up where a child cannot get to them (*painful story*)
There are many “door to door” commercial vendors selling Japanese knives that also do custom knives – including making plastic grips of you hand to make sure that the knife is nothing less than awesome. Please do a google search for awesome knives by people who represent small manufacturers if you want an awesome knife to last for ages (sorry – used the word awesome too many times).
As a joke, one of those vendors gave my son a “samuri” sword made out of cheap metal after he delivered my knife. Something like that you will NOT find dealing with importers.
I didn’t know you grew up in MA! I didn’t grow up here, but that’s where I am now