Takeda Knife Review

Takeda yanagibabocho AS (Special Large)

Price: $335
Length: 311mm
Height @ spine: 41mm
Width @ spine: 3.5mm

Weight: 194g
Blade material: Aogami Super Steel
Blade finish: kurouchi (forge finished)
Balance: 3" above bolster
Hardness: HRc 61+
Handle type: Eastern, octagonal
Handle material: rosewood

Scores:

Performance: 9
Usability: 9
Ergonomics: 8
OOTB Sharpness: 10
Edge profile: 7
Blade fit & finish: 8
Handle fit & finish: 6
Quality Control: 8
"Wow" Factor: 9
Value: 8

Overall: 82

This Takeda Yanagi measures 300cm (about 12" on the blade) is a monster of a knife. It's the longest knife I own, and OOTB, it was by far the sharpest. The rough textured sides and obviously hand-polished edge and sides all scream "handmade". This is the knife you'd leave out on the counter when the little cretins come by to visit your daughter — that, and a cleaver. Yeah, that'd do it.

First things first — the finish. It's what you're going to notice right away as soon as you handle it. It looks like its unfinished, as if someone said, "eh, whatever" and moved on to the next thing. This so-called "forge finishing" (kurouchi is the Japanese name for this) is a rustic sort of style, and you have to actually like that sort of thing to appreciate this knife. If the only thing that moves you is a mirror finished knife, kurouchi is not for you, and your interpretation of the finish will be quite a bit different from mine. As you can probably tell, I'm a fan.

This finish is very textured, almost mottled looking, with raised patches that are slightly darker than the less-raised, and lighter still from the lightly polished blade road to the highly polished cutting edge and point. The spine and choil are very slightly rounded which makes the knife very comfortable in the hand and the whole of the blade, excepting the cutting edge, is very smooth to the touch, belying the texture, almost as if there is a very fine film or layer of plastic over it. I have no idea if that's the case — whatever, I'm not taking it off, if it's there, its protecting that part of the blade.

This knife is a special-use knife — it's a slicer. The edge is pure Aogami Super, one of the very finest steels available, and it'll take and hold a devastating edge. The length is a personal favorite — it's long enough to cut through a roast, steak, or breast in a single fluid stroke (or a push/pull if it's tough hunk of meat), and sharp and agile enough that I was able to take a cooked pork loin into paper thin slices. Not that I was supposed to, but I guess I got carried away. Did I mention its fun to use? On salmon, I was able to get beautiful sashimi. With tuna, I got cuts I could see through. Did I mention its a fun knife to use? Edge retention is excellent, and given the kinds of use I'm putting it to — soft proteins exclusively — I'm not sure when (or if) it's going to hit the stones!

While it's called a "yanagiba", this knife is not single beveled — it's edge is very symmetric, 50/50 to each side. Maintenance should be a snap. I think it might be more properly considered a "sujihiki", but the blade profile is not sujihiki-thin as the blade tapers fairly quickly to the edge and does so only in the last 5mm — the drop off prior is only 1mm from spine to this point, which makes it pretty beefy as sujihikis (or slicers, more generally) go, but narrow when compared to a yanagiba. The grind is gently convex and there is no cutting edge micro-bevel. In my hand, this slicer feels very stable and rigid, allowing me to put gentle pressure on the stroke and feel it conveyed throughout the cutting edge — almost like a true single-beveled yanagiba. So, with all that said, I'm not sure how to classify this knife. It's not a Western slicer — it looks like a sujihiki, except for its late-beveled heft, which remind me of a yanagiba. Whatever. It's an excellent slicer.

Handle is octagonal and narrow, with a buffalo horn ferrule in a traditional slicer profile — thin and narrow. Fit and finish is very nice, but nothing to write home about. Given the finish of the blade, the dark wood and black ferrule "fit" the character of the knife and give it a bump into the professional realm. The handle fits very comfortably into my (large) hand.

A nit I have is with the machi — that little notch in the tang as it disappears into the handle. In the Takeda, there isn't one. Or if there was, it is completely lost to the giant gob of epoxy that sits a full millimeter off of the ferrule. It's not the prettiest junction I've seen, but that said, nothing is going into the tang hole and that tang is never, ever going to rust. And that's my only nit.

Not bad, all in all.

v VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Scot Hull

Takeda Knife Review

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