FoodZealot.com

Currently around 8am in Osaka.

After months of learning about knives and looking around Tokyo for 5 days, I finally decided on this knife, which I purchased in Osaka yesterday:

For the curious, it's made by Ichimonji Chuki which only sells out of this shop in Doguya-suji and on the web in Japanese. It's a yanagiba for sashimi, 300mm (11.7 inches, or 10 sun by Japanese measurements). It's made out of blue steel #1 (aoko), in the honkasumi method. The handle is octagonal rather than the traditional asymetric shape, and made out of kokutan wood (ebony). I decided to get a plain saya (scabbard) and stain it to match later. I thought about getting the mirror polished finish, but decided against it because this knife will discolor over time, and it's not a showpiece - it'll be my workhorse knife for fish. The next step up would have been for sumingashi, or ink pattern (damascus), which is pretty, but not any improvement in performance. Yen for yen, it wasn't the deal of the century, but more than fair for a manufacturer of this level. I've looked at a lot of knives over the last few days, and this one had all the specs I wanted and just felt right.

Now I just have to work to be worthy of it.

I had intended to go to Gifu/Seki today to see a cutlery museum, but after several people talked about Kyoto, I'm going there for most of the day instead. It won't be enough to do it any justice, but I definitely like the Kansai area a lot (Osaka, Kyoto and Nara) so it will be like scouting for next time.