Single bevels on Gyuto's

[Keith]

@Steven,

My Kono HD was and is symmetrical above the actual edge bevel. The edge bevel itself is "who knows" since I'm the one sharpening it.

@kcma,

Do you know if kabocho behaves like butternut squash or does it require an even thinner knife? Noticed my knives that drop through white potatoes wedge in sweet potatoes.

Tom are you refering to kabocha pumpkin,if so it is even harder than butternut squash.One of the hardest veg. to peel period.To cut a Kabocha in half I like my CCK thin carbon cleaver,It has more heft than a thin gyuto & I feel I need it wt. those things the skin is so tough.

[-dg]

That is interesting. Maybe mine is as well but I looked at it a few times and thought it wasn't. I have the Western version btw. I have read a few times people on the boards complaining that they got left handed versions so I just assumed there were different ones. I'll have to look at mine again, maybe it is just a sacrifice due to the thinness of it

That would be me. I had an HD 240mm wa-gyuto and it was a little on the leftish side of symmetrically ground. It is starting to sound like they are meant to be ambidextrous since other people are getting knives like this too. I wanted a more traditional right handed grind so I returned it and got a Sakai Yusuke Swedish stainless instead, which is possibly even thinner and is definitely right handed. I'm very happy with it so far.

[-dg]

if your knife is thin enough, the knife really just glide through butternut squash with little if any effort. and i don't find the knife steering one way or another regardless of the way it's sharpened (assuming it's thin enough). on slightly chubbier knives, i find the wedging to be a much bigger issue than steering. given that we don't use knives the same way, i can only come up with theories... perhaps, the wedging is such a problem that in the effort to overcome the wedging, you've neglected to point the knife and cut down at the direction you'd like the knife to go?

if you're having steerin problem with a waifish knife... my guess is maybe it's not you, its me... i've just develop the habbit of not steering that i don't think about or notice steering anymore?

The knife I was having trouble with is no waif. It is not a Wusthof by any means, but it definitely wedges. I recently got a seriously thinner knife so I'm eager to see it "really just glide through butternut squash with little if any effort."

[thombrogan]

Tom are you refering to kabocha pumpkin,if so it is even harder than butternut squash.One of the hardest veg. to peel period.To cut a Kabocha in half I like my CCK thin carbon cleaver,It has more heft than a thin gyuto & I feel I need it wt. those things the skin is so tough.

Thanks, Keith! I like very thin and wide gyutos (like 60mm at heel wide) for that same paper-thin + heft combination.

[Keith]

I agree wide heels on gyuto's are nice plenty kuckle clearence.Also thin blades are great for peeling pineapple to cut into spears or chunks.I have always used thin double gyuto for pines I feel it gives me more control getting just below the eyes.I am thinking for peeling a single bevel may even be better than a double since it is an away cut.

[thombrogan]

Only one way to find out and since I've had enough pineapple lately to dissolve a horse, you are your single-beveled gyuto will need to find out.

[Keith]

Tom I went through some pineapples with my evolutionary SB WS 240 Konosuki.This is the perfect pineapple knife.It just glides through the skin just below the eyes.

Keep eating pineapple bradda It's nutrient powerhouse.Manganese,potassium,vit.B1,C,A.It contains bromelain which is anti inflamatory,anti clotting,anti cancer,not some poor pill substitute

[thombrogan]

Thanks for the review of the evolutionary shirogami-fied Konosuke wa-gyuto's pineapple fabricating feats. I will indeed have more pineapple, but it's a food I tend not to consume in moderation, so all of those wonderous micronutrients go to waste.

[LumberJ]

So as advertised here are some pics of the large bevel on my knife. Sorry my photography isn't good and that the bevel is still a work in progress. Hopefully you can see where the bevel actually goes to. A few more sessions on the stones and I'll post more progress.

[thombrogan]

So I was messing about with my 'thin' Yusuke last night doing a bastidized katsura muki for carrots for a salad and the shape of the ever-so-slight double-bevel was more noticable than normal (as I normally don't cut carrotts that way... ). Like anyone else, my brain shot back to reading Eamon Burke quotes about knife edges being like rudders and to some stuff phan1 was telling me after he had been firmly in the highly-asymmetric bevel camp for a long time.

Now, intellectually, I've bounced back and forth between 'getting' and 'not getting' the asymmetric bevel thing, but would still do a 50/50 in practice. Well, last night, I resharpened that puppy by raising a burr on one side and deburring on the other (which is pretty much two passes on the left to raise a burr and one on the right to remove it - the joys of buying a thin knife and grinding it thinner ) and went on to peel an apple with it. Could've been the placebo effect, the sweet Arashiyama 6K, or the edge itself, but the apple skin sloughed off with noticeable ease. Monkeying with the apfelfleisch afterwards was same as always - a sharp, thin blade is always fun for that - but ease in peeling was appealing.

I pity the rest of the carrots.