Hey everyone! I don't post that much, but I come to this subreddit literally every single day, and I wanted to thank all of you for the conversations, stories, knowledge and advice shared here. For me, this has become the best source of information about Japanese kitchen knives, and honestly one of my favorite corners of the internet. It's where I come to unwind almost every evening.
I'm just a passionate home cook who loves cooking for family and friends — your classic dude in his 30s from a small EU country. I've always loved knives, but for years I was afraid of buying genuinely good ones because I was absolutely terrible at sharpening. I went through pretty much every stupid sharpening gadget imaginable, never got satisfying results, and it genuinely bothered me that I couldn't properly maintain my knives. Then last year my wife gave me a whetstone sharpening course as a present. I loved it. The instructor was a fantastic young guy, we eventually became friends, and after a lot of practice I finally reached the point where I could get pretty much any normal kitchen knife cleanly through paper towel. So I was finally ready for a better knife. I started researching, found this subreddit... and fell permanently into the rabbit hole. The rest is history. :)
Photo 1: My three Shindo brothers — Santoku, Bunka and 210 mm Gyuto
Like many beginners here, I eventually caught the Kyohei Shindo disease. They seem to be one of the best gateways into traditional carbon Japanese knives: handmade, full of character, fantastic performers and still absurd value for money. The only problem is actually finding one before everyone else does.
By sheer luck I discovered a tiny knife shop near me — and when I say tiny, I mean basically a garage. :D It's run by an absolutely knife-obsessed Greek guy who isn't even from my country, but somehow has incredible connections in Japan and gets knives from some seriously respected makers, including the occasional honyaki grail. All three of my Shindos came from him, and he even calls me before new shipments arrive now. These knives are special to me partly because they introduced me to that shop and to a person I've now met 10+ times just to talk about Japanese knives and drink Japanese tea. I've bought several of my own knives there since, plus quite a few as gifts for friends.
Shindo hardly needs an introduction here. They're wonderful knives, but what I especially love is that they have personality. My Santoku is unquestionably the biggest laser of the three and an absolutely phenomenal cutter. The Bunka sits somewhere in the middle. The weird one is the Gyuto. Mine came surprisingly thick for a Shindo — 210 mm long and about 49.9 mm tall at the heel — and at first I was disappointed because it would wedge and split carrots instead of just falling through them. That was especially painful because I had given it my nicest handle, and I'm ridiculously proud of changing my own handles because I am not naturally good with my hands. :D The handle came from a respected Japanese maker whose name I've never managed to track down; I've seen the same kanji on handles fitted to Nakagawa and Takeda knives. The ferrule is almost completely white buffalo horn with one beautiful dark streak, and the wood is Arizona desert ironwood. Eventually I stopped expecting the Gyuto to behave like the Santoku, accepted it as more of a workhorse, and somehow it became one of my favorite knives in the collection. I wouldn't sell it now.
Photo 2: Yoshida Hamono SUJ-2 & Hatsukokoro Hikari SLD
There's a particularly special knife in this photo: my first proper Japanese knife, the Yoshida Hamono Tosa SUJ-2 Kuro-uchi Santoku 170 mm with the koi engraving. The koi is much clearer in person; the photo lighting washed it out a little. I think this knife is seriously underrated. Yoshida is probably best known around here for the insanely cheap SUJ-2 knives that appear at Dictum, but this SharpEdge version has much nicer fit and finish. More importantly, the geometry is excellent. It's extremely thin behind the edge, has a nice grind, and in performance it gives absolutely nothing away to my laser-ish Shindo Santoku. SUJ-2 is fantastic stuff too: it takes a beautiful patina, gets screaming sharp with very little effort and is simply a joy to sharpen. I love this knife.
Next to it is my Hatsukokoro Hikari SLD Kurozome Damascus 150 mm. Technically it's sold as a ko-santoku, but in my kitchen it fills the petty role. Performance-wise I don't think it's anything extraordinary, but I got it for less than half of its normal price, so I'm certainly not complaining. It's ridiculously light — you almost don't feel a knife in your hand — and absolutely gorgeous. My only disappointment has been edge retention. I expected a little more from SLD, although that may simply come down to the particular heat treatment. Still... just look at it. :)
Photo 3: Takamura SG2 210 mm Gyuto
My newest knife, and currently my favorite knife to actually use. 11/10. I genuinely struggle to imagine what more cutting performance I could realistically need from a kitchen knife. I've had it for about two weeks and have barely touched anything else since. This is about as close as I've ever come to having a lightsaber in the kitchen: insanely thin, fully stainless, and with fantastic edge retention. After 10+ cooking sessions I've stropped it exactly once, and it still feels basically fresh out of the box. And speaking of out of the box, this is the sharpest out of the box edge I've ever experienced.
Interestingly, the Western handle originally made me hesitate. I had become so used to beautiful wa handles that somehow a Western one felt less exciting. Now I feel exactly the opposite. Among all the exotic woods and horn ferrules in my collection, that simple red pakkawood handle actually stands out, and it looks much better in person than I expected. The Takamura isn't my fanciest knife. It might simply be my best knife.
Photo 4: The knives from before the hobby :)))
And yes, I still love them and still use them. My wife uses them constantly too, mostly because she's terrified of the Japanese ones. :D I will happily die on this hill: Global makes genuinely excellent kitchen knives, and 99% of normal home cooks probably need nothing more than a Global G2 as their main chef's knife. Mine is a little unusual because I had it professionally thinned. That made it a much more aggressive cutter and considerably easier to sharpen, although also rather more chip-prone.
Then there's the little Global petty, my Victorinox Fibrox boning knife, which gets everything involving bones or questionable abuse, and the German WMF bread knife. Not glamorous. Not handmade. Still useful as hell.
Photo 5: The sharpening / knife-spa rabbit hole
I may love sharpening almost as much as I love the knives themselves. My main setup is Naniwa Chosera/Professional 400, 800 and 3000, with the 3000 easily being my favorite and most-used stone. I got the whole set for almost nothing second-hand. The previous owner had apparently decided he was going to learn sharpening, immediately bought expensive stones... and then discovered it wasn't for him. They were basically new. His loss. :D
I also have a Norton India combination stone and a brutally fast 220-grit Norton coarse stone for repairs and shaping, both gifts from a friend who represents Norton in my country. Then there are three tanned-leather strops, two of which I made myself. Recently I added Jende Poly Diamond Emulsion in 4 µm and 1 µm. It's very good and cuts quickly, but I'll commit a small heresy here: for normal Japanese kitchen knives, I honestly don't find the final result dramatically different from good old green compound. I also have a double-sided diamond plate that I use mostly for Globals, German knives and friends' knives. It's fast and effective, I just don't enjoy sharpening on diamond nearly as much as I enjoy stones. Add the cheap flattening stone, rust-removal stuff, camellia oil, polishing compounds...
Bonus photo: the non-kitchen guys
My little EDC corner: a Victorinox Huntsman, which goes almost everywhere with me; a simple Kershaw in D2 that cost me an absurd €27 and has been fantastic; and, of course, a classic Japanese Higonokami friction folder.
So... that's my collection. I know it's genuinely nothing extraordinary compared with some of the insane collections posted here. There are people in this sub who own a single knife worth more than everything in these photos combined. But this one is mine, and I love it. More importantly, these knives make me want to cook. They make me curious, make me want to improve, and somehow make something as ordinary as chopping an onion interesting again.
My next goal is the obvious hole in the collection: a proper Sakai knife. I'd really love my next one to involve Nakagawa. Grail-level money is simply outside my budget, but something around €300–400 is realistic, and there are still wonderful knives around that price if you're patient. Right now I'm looking particularly hard at Baba Hamono Kagekiyo White #2 Gyutos in 210–240 mm, ideally one with confirmed Nakagawa provenance, but I'm completely open to suggestions from you guys. Researching the next knife is half the fun anyway.
And finally, I want to end by quoting myself from a comment I wrote here a few weeks ago. Someone was asking about price, value and diminishing returns with Japanese knives, and for some reason I got unusually emotional while answering:
"Do I need all the knives I already own? Not really.
But every time I look at them, and every time I know how incredibly they perform, they make me want to cook.
And sharpening them, finishing them, maintaining them, putting camellia oil on them... that stuff genuinely calms me down. It’s part of my escapism from the pretty heavy reality we all live in.
For me, like for a lot of other people, this hobby makes me happy. It gives me joy. It feeds something in my soul.
And really, what matters more than that? There’s no price tag or diminishing return on that"
I love Japanese knives, and they make me happy. That's really all there is to it.
Thanks again to everyone here for making this such a great community.
