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cotedupy

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I only have a handful of kiridashi, but I can see myself falling fast down another rabbit hole. Help me in that venture by showing us what you've got...
 
Noooooo! I was thinking of getting some kiridashis. But I could resist the urge to buy some but with this thread, I won't be able to anymore 😭

(Looking forward to seeing some pretty kiridashis though)
 
I only have a handful of kiridashi, but I can see myself falling fast down another rabbit hole. Help me in that venture by showing us what you've got...
Nothing special and cutting edge totally destroyed. Ordered something custom and spicy, can’t wait for it to show up 😬
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Nothing special and cutting edge totally destroyed. Ordered something custom and spicy, can’t wait for it to show up 😬View attachment 229972


Ooh... watcha got coming?

I have a couple that are probably the same as your one in the picture there, or at least look it. Perfectly serviceable and polish quite nicely I think, especially given the price. I'll dig out some pics later...
 
I have two.

A generic one, that served me well, years ago, when I was doing woodworking, and used it with a straightedge to make lines on wood.
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And a TF. Part of that purchase was that I like the knives, and could not resist. The other part was convincing myself that I was buying a polishing tester for stones, if I ever got into polishing. The second part was a failure; turned out I had too much regard for it to experiment on it. So I guess I might need a third one, someday.
1678293055498.jpeg
 
I have two.

A generic one, that served me well, years ago, when I was doing woodworking, and used it with a straightedge to make lines on wood.
View attachment 229993
And a TF. Part of that purchase was that I like the knives, and could not resist. The other part was convincing myself that I was buying a polishing tester for stones, if I ever got into polishing. The second part was a failure; turned out I had too much regard for it to experiment on it. So I guess I might need a third one, someday.
View attachment 229994


The new one I got yesterday was a version with a saya like those. I hadn’t realised they have a tang like a knife, rather than just being being a normal kiridashi stuck in a bit of wood.

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Also, just out of interest - do you know what the little notch at the end of the saya part is for...? Mine has that too.

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(That TF is pretty beautiful eh! :))
 
I don't know definitively what the notch is for, but since it comes in very handy for deciding which way the saya goes when you're putting it back on, I have been assuming that's why it's there.
 
I don't know definitively what the notch is for, but since it comes in very handy for deciding which way the saya goes when you're putting it back on, I have been assuming that's why it's there.


Ah yeah, mine's the same way round. I imagine you're probably right! A kinda bit for your thumb when pushing the lid back on type thing.

(I wonder if you got a left handed version whether it'd be on the other side...)
 
Ooh... watcha got coming?

I have a couple that are probably the same as your one in the picture there, or at least look it. Perfectly serviceable and polish quite nicely I think, especially given the price. I'll dig out some pics later...
Something hand laminated and rough hewn from one of our very own forum members! Durability was a concern with one pictured.

And that TF piece is super nice.
 
Here’s what I did today with the one pictured above. At some point I may knock up a fancier handle for it, but for the moment I just thinned and re-shaped the original into a tapered octagon, gave it a bit of oil, and stuck the blade back in.

This is apparently iron clad Shirogami.

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Any good kirdashi options for not so much money, lets say below $200.
 
I have a couple of others too but these are the three I have here atm, along with some various portability / storage solutions.

Inexpensive shirogami number, it may be Okeya, it's basically identical to another Okeya I have. Made a little box with some foam packaging foam which works nicely.

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This is a NOS one I got from JNS the other day, shirogami with iron cladding, though not fancy iron unfortunately. The brand / maker is Takeshi Masuwa. I modded the fatter, oval handle and saya into slimmer, tapered octagons.

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And my favourite; this is wrought iron and 1095 from Elder Dos Santos, which polishes very interestingly. Like the first one above I wrapped the handle here, which also allows you to make a quick cardboard saya without it slipping down and the end of the blade poking through.

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I started getting more serious about kiridashi about five of so years ago when finding Shig knives was becoming more difficult. Now I have a slightly less silly number of kiridashi than I do knives so that’s working out well ….

I’ll try to get some pics in the next few days …
Ok so I just counted 11 kiridashi including 3 or 4 kogatana. Not as bad as I thought. In fact, there must be room for a few more ….
 
Ok so I just counted 11 kiridashi including 3 or 4 kogatana. Not as bad as I thought. In fact, there must be room for a few more ….


Ah dammit! I was going to say - if you felt like you had too many, then I could always be in the market for another one. ;)

Looking forward to seeing some of them nevertheless when you have a chance.

Oh also - what's the difference between kiridashi and kogatana? The terms sometimes seem to be used pretty much interchangeably to me, but I must be missing some nuance...
 
Ah dammit! I was going to say - if you felt like you had too many, then I could always be in the market for another one. ;)

Looking forward to seeing some of them nevertheless when you have a chance.

Oh also - what's the difference between kiridashi and kogatana? The terms sometimes seem to be used pretty much interchangeably to me, but I must be missing some nuance...
My understanding is kogatana have the (usually) Ho wood handle and sheath, kiridashi are bare.
 
Here’s mine before and after a whole lot of use. I also have this cool old Nigara, but haven’t used it yet. Finally, I have a new one on its way, I’ll add a photo when I get it.
 

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