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Tojiro DP Honesuki

Price: $90
Length: 150mm
Height @ spine: 38mm
Width @ spine: 3mm

Weight: 160g
Blade material: Swedish (Sandvik 19C27) stainless
Blade finish: matte
Balance: base of bolster
Hardness: HRc 60
Handle type: Western
Handle material: riveted staminawood

Scores:

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

If you've never seen or owned one of these little Japanese boning knives, they're pretty oddly shaped. Unlike your typical Western boning knife, this one rigid — and I mean rigid like a ramrod — with no give, no flex, no ability to follow a bone. What this Tojiro DP Boning Knife  does have is this tiny chisel-tapered point, "kiritsuke" style, with a near-straight cutting edge, a dead-straight spine jutting out from the handle, and the whole looking like a tiny, deadly little triangle like something you'd attach to a long rod and go after wild game with. The tip has a small deviation from the triangularity — it dives away from the spine and toward the edge in the last inch, creating an almost perfect equilateral triangle a bit offset from the overall shape of the blade. And if that doesn't make sense, well, it's because it's kinda hard to describe. What it gives you is a small but rigid cutting tip, perfect for wedging into tight spaces and gentle scrape-cutting away meat from bones. Growing up with a flexible boning knife, this is quite an odd change-up, but I have to confess, the conversion was nearly instantaneous — and worth it. This little knife is total keeper. I unboxed it, washed it off (box cooties and all that), and immediately dismembered my haul from the grocery store -- 3 chickens and a duck. While I have yet to attain Martin Yan-like speed (he can butcher a whole chicken in 18 seconds!), with this knife I was no slouch. Let's call it 3 minutes and say "nice knife!"

The handle is staminawood with a forged stainless bolster and three large stainless rivets in the side. The tang is full, and fully visible as it runs the length of the handle, with the wood sandwiching it. The transitions from the bolster or tang or rivets to the wood are very nearly seamless — it's one of the best handles I've seen or had the pleasure of holding. Someone took great pains to make sure this handle was up to snuff. I think the only thing that would have made it "perfect" would have been a more interesting patterned wood, but as it is, it's great.

The knife has kanji on one side, English lettering on the other, all printed on the blade. This will come off in time. To me, I really like the hand-chiseled maker's marks on the higher-end Japanese knives, but at this price, I'm not sure you can call this a fault.

The knife is asymmetrically ground with the cutting bevel being just under 1mm wide. Sighting down the handle toward the tip, you can see quite clearly that this knife is single-beveled, but the "back" edge is not concave like a yanagiba, deba or usaba, it's very flat all the way to the tip. However, there is a very slight flare toward the centerline as it approaches the tip, giving it a centerline-weighted edge. Lay the knife flat on a table, flat-side down. The tip, on my sample anyway, hovers about 1-2mm off of the table. Flip it over onto the beveled side, and the spine shows no curve but now the tip lays almost flat. An odd choice, if intended, but it looks like my sample might be a tad warped. Either way, the warp (if that's what it is) is so slight there is functionally no performance issue, so I only docked it a point.

OOTB, the knife is hair-popping sharp — if you (very, very carefully) run it along your hairy forearm at a 30* angle, it will catch and cut hair, pop pop pop! It could probably (and probably will) be thinned when I sharpen it, but the edge feels strong as well as sharp. I was able to draw-cut through wing-joints as well as heel-chop cartilage and tendon without fear or difficulty.

The knife isn't big, but it fits well into my hand. That tip is very accurate and easy to use. No complaints of fit and finish. All in all, this knife is a good deal compared to other Japanese Knives at twice the price and at list, it's a steal.


Scot Hull