Pascal's knives

[Pascal]

Hello

As my first post to this forum, I would like to present you my modest knifeset, acquired over one year.

When I became aware of Japanese knives and damascus steel, Kasumi seemed the top. I got the santoku and the 21cm chef.



As you can seen they have suffered from my attempts at sharpening on stones.

After getting those, musing around the net, I discovered that knife nuts exist and even have whole forums dedicated to their passion !!!
A whole new world to me, which gave me plenty of new ideas...

I added a sexy hankotsu (Misuno sweedish steel) a short western deba (Misuno inox ) and a chinese Cleaver (Shun) to the set.





Of course, this was not enough. I needed even sexier knives. Hattori being unavailable, Tanaka's R2 damascus seemed a nice alternative. The nakiri and 24 cm slicer are really great. Very light, very thin blades, fabulous handles, sharper than I thought possible.



Thanks for looking, I'll post more images of these later...

[blwchef]

those Tanankas are damn sexy. They tempt me every time I go to EE.

[ordo]

What a collection! Excellent photos. Thanks for showing.

[VHo]

nice round up.

[Pascal]

Thanks, for your comments.

A very nice thing I learned on this forum is that knives right out of the factory
are only a starting point. It is possible, sometimes necessary, to tune them
to our needs and desires. Well, I'll try soon to upgrade those kasumi that
I scratched on the stones.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure I will mess with this one



Oh, and here is a hint




Get it ?

[Landshark]

Those Tanaka's R2 look very nice, the last knife is very cool

[Pascal]

Well, I'm not sure I deserve this knife, but I cannot get my eyes from it.







When ordering it, I was not aware I was making a tremendous deal :
2 knives for the price of one !!!

At least, here is what Korin (or Suisin) says: "The pointy blade tip and
slightly wider blade than the traditional Yanagi offers a wider range of uses
such as chopping, peeling, vegetable carving, and slicing sashimi. The
Kensaki Yanagi is the ultimate knife and has the capabilities of both a Usuba
and Yanagi."

Sincerely, it doubt it will replace my Tanaka nakiri for veggies. It is way too
long, wide and heavy. Maybe for unrolling a daikon or a cuncumber ?
This knife craves for animal proteins...

Anyway, now that I own the ultimate knife, I will find no excuse to get new ones. Too bad...

[Pascal]

Here it is. I put my name on a waiting list a JCK in november, hoping to
have a year or more of hopeless desire. But, bang ! Here it is. Too soon.
I really had no time to crave for it...

I'm a little bit disappointed:

1/ out of the box, the damascus pattern is rather dull, lacks of contrast,
maybe not etched enough ? Or was I abused by contrast-enhanced pictures I saw ?
I think I will re-etch it soon.

2/ as mentioned by others, the spine of the knife is very sharp.
I can also handle that by myself.

3/ the worse point is that the handle literally stinks. I did not expect micarta
to be so pungent. Any idea of how long it takes to "cure", if it ever cures ?

Outside of those cosmetic details, well, I never had something like that in my hands.
If sharpness needed a definition, I am holding it! Wow!

A few pics of the beast.



Compared to the Tanaka slicer, the pattern is rather dull. It is
clearly visible only at specific angles. Front pics show the whitish sheen.

And here it is finally ! Better than new...




I etched it with a glass vinegar + a couple of teaspoons of pool acid (sulfuric,
I guess), applied with a cloth. It went smoothly. The pattern revealed quite slowly.
It helped to run hot tap water on the blade every 5 minutes or so.
It remembered me my old days in the photo darkroom...



I also re-etched those dulled kasumis.

[Alchemist]

impressive knives!

[kcma]

you're gonna hate this... the Suisin is gorgeous, but the bevel will need to be flattened and re-plished like all other single bevel knives and the pattern is gorgeous! you might have to hit So up for a j nat