Need some opinions on my next chef knife - Page 2

8" stainless for me... doesnt matter what or who, so long as the handle feels good and its all steel... i can put an edge on a steel blade with a straightener, but when ceramics start getting involved then you need some skill to sharpen it

so update on the MAC... nice knife still, but not quite the ideal knife for me. the way i am naturally holding it has created an entirely new callus on my finger and the knife has too much belly. i'm simply used to flatter knives like a more traditional gyuto, cleaver, or santoku. granted anything works at this point as long as its sharp, but its not the perfect knife i had hoped it to be...

i'm done buying knives for now, though. my chef-instructors call me "the guy with many knives". i have 5 "chef knives" and a full assortment of all the other knives. granted i cook 5 to 6 days a week, but i've gone a bit overboard. lol.

If the spine is bothering your index finger, put the knife in a vise and use a strip of sandpaper to round the spine -- or if you don't have a vise you can do it with your coarse stones.  Relieve the corner at 45* with your coarsest stone; relieve the new cut by half (22-1/2* obviously) again with your coarsest stone; and then try to round the whole thing over with your medium grit.  You don't have to a perfect job to make a big difference. 

FWIW, a MAC Pro already has as traditional a gyuto shape as you can find.   It's difficult for me to understand how anyone who was happy with Shun's extremely arced, high-tip German profile would be so unhappy with a MAC that he would want a knife with a an even lower trip and even flatter profile.

BDL

i never liked ANY iteration of Shun's Chef's Knife. i have the Shun Santoku and like it, but its too short. the gyuto i have has a lower tip and less belly. the MAC seems like its trying to appeal to german knife users looking for a gradual transition to japanese.

why was my post deleted?who can tell me?

I deleted it for a couple of reasons.

First and primarily because it was spam.

Squidoo pays kickbacks from Amazon and Ebay so you're plugging your review pages for profit. Fine line but it crossed over into spam. You can delete your current signature yourself or I'll delete it again for you when I finish here.

Secondly, the content wasn't topical.

The Original Poster was specific about two Japanese knives .While the Forschner is a fine product in its class, it wasn't on topic for this discussion. Not the right design, not the right steel, not the right length.

Huy Bui

Curiosity only and no challenge intended -- which gyuto do you own that has substantially less "belly" than a MAC?

Also, what specifically do you mean by "belly?"  I gather from context that you're probably using the term correctly, but it's so often misused it seems like a good idea to ask for clarification.

Finally, not every knife is the right geometry for every cook.  The MAC 9.5" chef's, which by the way qualifies as a gyuto, is typically French and has very little belly compared to a German profile -- but there are certainly flatter profiles especially with Japanese chef's knives, some of which, Takedas for instance, are almost kiritsuke flat.

Some Japanese chef's knives/gyutos sport a late drop to a low tip which tends to make the knife not only look flatter and also slightly more amenable to a straight push cut than the more French (and also common among Japanese makers) profile with a more spear-point shape by reducing the amount of belly in the approach to the tip.  Also common, perhaps most common of all, is a late break on the spine to a mid-line tip which looks flatter, but actually has the same shape.

BDL

PS.  Phatch, thanks for cleaning out the spam.

It is a Tamahagane San 210mm.

I call belly the area of the edge to the imaginary line from tip to heel, but i also look at how much blade is in contact with the board at any given angle of cutting. I have adjusted to the MAC, but initially I was left with incomplete cuts because the blade had less contact with the board at that area of the knife vs any of my other non german profile knives.

the MAC cuts great though and I shouldn't get another knife right now. I was eyeing the Kikuichi at Williams Sonoma, though... i like the feel and the profile...

tadatsuna changed my life and that's coming from someone that has owned more knives than I can count. The tadatsuna gyuto if you don't abuse it and know how to sharpen for your needs is insane for actually prepping food.

there is another knife in the works that is fairly expensive based on the tadatsuna design being put together by devin thomas who is a rather famous maker of pattern welded stainless. While the knife is not "damascus" it is looking like it is probably going to be one of the finest knives on the market at approx 62 hrc and made of AEB-L which is a fairly amazing steel. Word on the street is that with a little sharpening know how it is besting some of the most of expensive gyutos on the market in shear performance. as for availability that is another issue as there is some intense demand for it.

mac has some good stuff but it seems you had already scoped them out. Tojiro and misono as mentioned also make some damn fine knives. the misono is a nice step up from the tojiro in the handle dept.

masamoto has several lines of fantastic chefs knives.

and most knives unless you are spending a fair amount of cash could do for a little spine rounding but that callous is a fact of life if you spend the majority of waking hours with knife in hand.