B&B Group Buy for Japanese knives!**CLOSED**

How to order BUY IS CLOSED

Send an e-mail to [email protected] with your choice(s) Jon will send an invoice via paypal or you may pay with a credit card.


The knives will be ordered from the manufacturer in Japan and shipped directly to Dave for him to perform his magic.

The freshly sharpened and tuned knives will then be shipped from Dave's workshop to you.

Lead time - Varies from knife to knife, please see the list of knives below for approximate delivery times.


Time frame-

The buy will be open until September 15th so don't delay!

Delivery-

The kanemasa knives will be about 1.5 months (+/-)
The kochi knives will be about 3 months (+/-)
The Yoshihiro knives will be about 2-3 months (+/-)

These knives are being hand crafted for us and not just pulled off the shelf.

So here we go...

Special SKD Nakiri with octagon handle and saya-
165mm Nakiri- $130 with sharpening ($100 without)

This Nakiri is SKD steel, a stainless tool steel that is extremely hard, durable, and tough. The SKD steel forms the core of this knife. It is clad by softer stainless steel to provide a little protection to the core and flexibility to the knife overall. Nakiri are vegetable knives. They come with nearly flat edges and are great for dicing, julienne-ing, or mincing vegetables and herbs. This knife will come with an octagon ho wood handle and matching saya. Delivery time on these knives will be about 2-2.5 months including sharpening and tuning. This knife works well for both right and left handed users.



Kanemasa AUS10 Western Gyutos (in 210mm, 240mm, or 270mm)
These knives have relatively tough steel, hold an edge well, take a pretty good edge, and most importantly make great all around knives. They are on the thinner side, but not super thin. I initially started carrying these knives in my store for local chefs looking for a pretty nice knife that they could beat the hell out of and would still work well These knives work for both right and left handed users.
Prices:
210mm(~8.2 in)- $165 ($140 without sharpening)


240mm(~9.5 in)- $180 ($155 without sharpening)


270mm(~10.5 in)- $190 ($165 without sharpening)



Kanemasa AUS10 Western Petty
Same as above, but in a petty size. These knives work for both right and left handed users.
Prices:
150mm(~6 in)-$125 ($100 without sharpening)



Kochi 210mm V2 Kurouchi Wa-Gyuto with burnt chestnut octagon handle (HAND FORGED)
The Kochi line is an exclusive to Japanese Knife Imports. These knives have a great in-hand feel... not too heavy, but not super light. Near the spine they seems to be more substanital, however, behind the edge, the are EXTREMELY thin. They are awesome cutters. Near the heel, they have a nice flat spot, and towards the tip, a gentle curve. The octagon burnt chestnut handles are very comfortable and retain grip very well when wet. These are carbon knives, so they will need to be cared for as such. They can rust if left wet and/or dirty and will develop a patina over time. The cladding on these knives are reactive, but not as reactive as many i have seen.

When I began testing this knife, I was really impressed with the cutting ability of these knives and how easy they were to sharpen. These knives work for both right and left handed users.

Price:
210mm(~8.2 in)- $270 ($245 without sharpening)


Yoshihiro White #2 Yanagiba with ho wood octagon handle and saya (HAND FORGED)
For a long time we have been searching for a line of single bevel knives with a great balance of quality and value. We’ve finally found them. This line by Yoshihiro fits the bill perfectly. These knives are made of white #2 steel with a kasumi finish. They come with ho wood octagonal handles and matching ho wood sayas. Unlike many low cost single bevel knives, these ones are very well finished and have significantly less problems than lower cost knives (all knives have some imperfections… even high end knives… but these have less high and low spots, less sharp non-cutting edges, less prevalence of wavy backs, less prevalence of torsional twisting, etc.)

These knives are great for beginners and for professionals looking for a great, functional work knife. These knives are for right handed users only.

Price:
270mm(~10.5 in)- $240 ($190 without sharpening)


300mm(~11.5 in)- $265 ($215 without sharpening)


In order to make each type of knife a possibility for this group buy we will need a minimum of 5 knives from each maker to be ordered (i.e. 5 knives of any type from Kanemasa, 5 kochi knives, and 5 of either size of the yoshihiro yanagiba). If we can not meet this minimum for any of the categories, that particular category will not be possible to do for this group buy.

A little about Blade shapes and names-

Gyuto- The gyuto is the Japanese equivalent of a chef's knife. The profiles are very similar. On the whole, gyutos tend to have less belly (or curve to the cutting edge) and tend to be thinner and lighter than their western counterparts. Gyutos are all-purpose knives and if you're only getting one knife for your kitchen, this would be my recommendation. You can do everything with a gyuto (and i have). Gyutos generally come in a variety of sizes ranging from 180-360mm. The most common sizes are 210mm, 240mm, and 270mm. I generally recommend 240mm for home cooks unless your space is cramped, in which case 210mm may be a better fit. I personally use a 270 gyuto and find it to be very comfortable. If you are a comfortable cook, you may want to consider a 270mm gyuto.

Petty Knife- A petty knife is a Japanese version of a paring knife/utility knife hybrid. Depending on the size you choose, it may be more paring knife like or more utility knife like. Petty knives come in sizes ranging from 100mm to 210mm. The most common sizes are 120mm and 150mm. 120mm feels very much like a pairing knife. Its small, nimble, and easy to use. It can be great for fruits or other small cutting tasks. 150mm feels a little more like a utility knife. It can also be used for fruits and small cutting tasks. I've even used that size to debone chicken or trim silver skin and fat off of meat. These are very useful knives and if i had just two knives I'd have a Gyuto and a petty.

Sujihiki- Sujihiki are slicing knives. They are long, narrow knives with great profiles for slicing. They generally come in sizes from 210mm-360mm, the most common sizes being 240mm-300mm. These are great knives for slicing meats of all kinds, fish fillets, carving turkey, and so on. Some people even use them as all purpose knives, as the short blade height causes less food to stick to them. I have found the most useful size to be 270mm. Its enough length to make long slices through just about anything. Recently, I've found a lot of people prefer the 300mm size as they are working with large roasts and the extra length helps them slice through in one clean slice.

Santoku- Santoku are rather recent inventions. They are a hybrid between a gyuto and a nakiri (vegetable knife). They generally have blunt noses and relatively flat edges. Many home cooks are comfortable with these kinds of knives and especially the sizes they come in. They generally come in sizes from 165-180mm.

Nakiri- Nakiri are vegetable knives. They come with a moderately tall blade height, squared off tip, and very flat edge. They are great for dicing, mincing, and julliannes. The flat edge makes it very easy to get consistent cuts. Nakiri tend to be very thin behind the edge so as not to wedge too much. Though they may look like cleavers, the way they are used is completely different. Instead of hacking away at foods, you employ a forward thrusting motion, where the edge stays parallel to the cutting surface. The knife is thrust forward (away from you) while also moving down toward the cutting surface (in a rather diagonal fashion), then back up and all over again.

For this group buy all knives except yanagiba will be sharpened to our Level I service.



LEVEL I - Approximately 8000-10000x equivalent. Good for most kitchen tasks. The LEVEL I edge is shiny although it is not a mirror polish, it is a stout working edge.

*Note - The LEVEL I is powered sharpening, it offers the same level of sharpness experienced from hand sharpening however it affords the delivery of work quicker and thus less expensive. It is also a great way to first time sharpen many knives to set the bevel for future hand sharpening work. The only real noticeable difference between Level I & Level II sharpening of double bevels knives is that the hand sharpening looks a tad prettier/shinier, the edge quality is identical.




LEVEL II - Hand sharpened edge to the max! 30,000x + edge!! This is the ultimate edge that we can provide for your knife. It is more expensive because it is more labor intensive. This edge can be put on most knives but it is the only edge that we will provide on single bevel knives like the yanagiba.

Single bevel knives require hand work because of their complex grind. It is strongly recommended to allow us to sharpen a yanagiba should you purchase it with the group buy because even though these knives will be sharp they will not be nearly as sharp as they can be. This "opening" or first sharpening of a single bevel knife (like yanagiba) is very customary to have the knife shop do in Japan at the time of purchase unless you are a very skilled sharpener. This first sharpening will set up both the wide front bevel and flat back side for ease in future sharpening sessions as well as increasing the performance of the knife.

Oioioi.... that Kochi 210mm V2 Kurouchi Wa-Gyuto.
Ain't that a piece of beauty!

Well done.

Is it possible to offer any nakiri models in this group buy?

I'm sitting is a puddle of my own drool and tears. Drool because those are BEAUTIFUL knives and I want them all and tears because I can't get any of them right now.

Well ... I guess I'm not buying any more pens for a while ...

Holy Moses, like I need another AD....

.....resisting the urge........

Jake said:

Is it possible to offer any nakiri models in this group buy?

Click to expand...

Jake I will ask Jon.

i realize i forgot to put the lead time in there

the kanemasa knives should be about 1.5 months (=/-)
the kochi knives should be about 3 months (+/-)
the yoshihiro knives should be about 2-3 months (+/-)

on the nakiri, what kind of nakiri are you guys interested in? Something like last time or something different?

Just shot an email off for a 240 mm Kanemasa! Gotta make sure I jump on this one ASAP, don't want to miss out.

JBroida said:

on the nakiri, what kind of nakiri are you guys interested in? Something like last time or something different?

Click to expand...

Exactly the same as last time ... so I don't want to buy one ...

Nakiri added!

I happen to own this exact one and am more than delighted with it.

Will the Nakiri work for lefties?

yes sir... it works for both right and left handed users

Holy Gyuto Junction Batman....looks like Tacobell might just be getting an early birthday present

Thanks for adding the nakiri -- just what I was looking for. Will send an email promptly.

fyiw, i have one of those nakiri and it gets a pretty decent amount of use... i have been very happy with those since i found them for the group buy last year

For non us buyers that buys knives with different delivery times, will it be possible to only get one shipment when the last knife is ready to avoid shipping and custom fees?

johsa said:

For non us buyers that buys knives with different delivery times, will it be possible to only get one shipment when the last knife is ready to avoid shipping and custom fees?

Click to expand...

Yes it would be, You would just have to let Dave know when he contacts you for shipping.