MasterCATZ
Wa or yo handles?
Traditional western butchers' profiles? Or, something else?
I'm going to assume yo, and give you a couple of "highlights." Masamoto VG has a resin handle. VG is VG-1, not VG-10 -- imo VG-1 has less issues and is a better choice; hardness is 59ish; one of the very best stainless yo-gyutos. I recommend the knife very highly but don't know if they have any choice in butchers' profiles. Don't think so.
If I'm not mistaken, all of the Togiharu lines (from Korin) have resin handles. Togihaur G-1 is VG-10. Call Korin to make sure about the handles. I'm not a big fan of Togiharu in general, the G-1 (since the last price raise); or, unless you're in the NYC area, Korin either-- but despite my lack of enthusiasm, they're at least okay. Extremely limited choice of profiles.
You might want to check into a few Miyabis. I believe they have resin handles as well. Call SLT; it may take awhile before you get someone who knows more than is already in their online catalog, but be patient. SLT gives a 15% professinal discount -- but you've got to ask.
You should call CKTG and ask Mark; he has a big range and knows them.
No knife will hold a 6* edge in your environment -- at least not more than for a few minutes.
I wouldn't say this to a home cook, but since you're a professional you get the bucket of cold water. You're tossing around alloy names and sharpening strategies as if you know what they mean in terms of what they will and won't do for you. You obviously do not. The good part is that it opens up the thread to some discussion about them.
Almost all VG-10 knives are prone to chipping easily. That definitely includes the Togiharus, and the exceptions have wood handles. That probably includes everything you can afford to use on a butchering room floor . SG is almost always hardened to well beyond the point to where it can be steeled, you'll be sharpening TWICE a day. I doubt if any metallurgical powder ally is a good choice for a professional butcher (I could be wrong, though). Aogami Super, also too hard and not stainless to boot.
You've taken your edge angles way too far, they're wildly inappropriate for your hardware and your work. Referring to the Forschners only, they should be thinned to nothing more acute than 12* per side, then given a 17* micro bevel on top of that. 20* over 15* would be a lot better, and still on the very thin side compared to most of the knives used by your colleagues. You give up a little bit of absolute sharpness in favor of a huge increase in durability. A worthwhile trade. The Dexters should be no more acute than 22/17. I'm not sure about the F. Dick's, would start at 20/15 and switch to 17, then 20 on the cutting bevel if 15 didn't hold up. As with any knife, once the edge gets too thick, you can re-profile the entire edge. But there's no need to push it any quicker -- just a waste of metal and -- when going more obtuse -- a huge waste of sharpening time.
The basic buthers' boning and breaking profiles are very iffy when it comes to acute angles. Their so narrow and their grinds taper so much -- it's not easy to keep anything like an acute angle and get any wear out of the knife. The bottom line is that you go through narrow knives in a hurry. Don't waste your money on anything too expensive, because you'll go through those just as quickly.
An Edge Pro 1000# is as fine as you need to take any red meat cutting knife. Cutting shashimi is one thing, basic fabrication proteins is another. The "bite" of a medium finish is your friend.
About professional, meat cutting meat knives, Forschner is the gold standard in the US for a reason.
1. Forschners come in every known useful profile at every useful length; the Fibrox handles are outstanding; they're NSF certified and ready to go. Japanese knives -- especially those available in the US -- no.
2. Because Forschners are made from X50CrMoV15 hardened to 57ish RCH, their edges respond better to steeling during the day than almost any Japanese knife; also, because the alloy is so tough (as opposed to strong) Forschner edges wear comparatively slowly and actually need fewer trips to the stones per hour of use than most Japanese knives;
3. Professionals who are sensitive enough to sharpness to sharpen a given knife after a certain amount of use, will almost certainly end up sharpening any knife every day. That is, if you get 8 hours of working sharpness out of a Forschner, you're going to get -- at most -- 10 out of a Masamoto. The quality of those 10 hours might be very different, but you'll still be sharpening every day. So factor that in.
4. Forschners -- if not cheap -- are well priced; you can buy them anywhere; their warranty and US support is good.
There are limits to all this Swiss love. I wouldn't recommend a Forschner chef's knife for a line cook in a high end restaurant who's looking to trade some bucks to make prep easier, there I'd say buy Japanese. But, you aren't a line cook in a high-end. Horses for courses.
Hope this helps,
BDL
Edited by boar_d_laze - 9/14/11 at 9:13am
