# Mazaki 270 suji; a few ramblings



## Jovidah (Nov 14, 2021)

Model in question is a 2021 Cleancut model with the normal ho wood handle. Link: Mazaki Sujihiki
My frame of reference when it comes to sujihikis is _extremely limited_, so I'm going to keep this brief. It hasn't been in rotation that long, but since my basis for comparison is small there aren't going to be any major epiphanies.
Basically my only other suji is a Fujiwara FKH 270 that @Benuser gifted me quite a few years ago already, and it actually worked so well for me that the pressure to upgrade was always a bit limited... In the end sujis - however useful I find them for certain jobs - are not something I use daily as a home user.

Why did I finally upgrade? Because this one came on my path at a pleasant price (BNIB at a discount), and it looked like it would fix the one minor complaint I had about the FKH; it's on the flexy side. This is also something I'd expect from a lot of the other sujis I saw everytime I investigated the issue; most sujis on offer tend to be on the thin & light side, where I'd expect the same problem. This might be great when you're using it as a fillet knife, but I use my sujis mostly as slicers on larger chunks of meat... where I find rigidity and a bit of weight on the blade more preferable than a flexy laser.

This the Mazaki delivers in spades. It's stiff. Proper stiff. The total weight is actually not that far off (FKH at 175 gr, Mazaki at 180 gr) but that's a bit deceptive since the FKH has a western handle whereas the Mazaki has a much lighter ho wood handle. Lighter and thinner knives can sometimes have a tendency to bend a bit when you're cutting for example cured or cooked hams, or you at least feel the flex a bit when you're slicing steaks from large hunks of meat. This thing just feels solid as a rock. Quite a bit more weight on the spine also makes it a far more comfy and effectiveslicer. It's quite forward-balanced - it balances at the start of the second kanji - but for a slicer this is exactly what I want. It's a bit on the tall side but I don't mind it.

At the same time, if you _do_ intend to use it as a fillet knife it's probably less preferable. I used it for some trimming and it actually worked fine; the combination of taper with some stiffness behind it still made the tip work well, but it probably wouldn't be my first choice if I were to fillet a fish or something, and I can imagine the blade height getse a bit in the way more (it's 43mm). Being a bit more on the heavy side also makes it less nimble.
So to sum it up: awesome stiff slicer, but the opposite of a laser. Probably get something else for filleting.

Other things that might be relevant:
-The cladding is reactive as all hell. Not a big deal to me; it just turns blue faster, but if you're looking for something you can neglect this might not be the best choice.
-Starts off quite thick at the spine and keeps a good amount of thickness throughout the blade while maintaining a gentle consistent taper throughout. So more than just a fat neck.
-After seeing some of the scratchy pics in some recent Mazaki threads I was expecting something that looked like it got dragged behind a truck for a few miles. It actually looked quite nice IMO; distinctly hand-made and hand-polished, without a real sense of wabi sabi.
-It's basically a widebevel with a rounded shoulder, but the bevel itself is surprisingly flat. At least with my flawed naked eye methods I can't really distinguish any hollow, unlike for example my Yoshi.
-Choil is nicely rounded, spine is eased; no complaints here. Handle is just your basic ho-wood but it's nice smooth; no complaints.
-White steel so you probably shouldn't expect miracles in the edge retention department.
-Did I mention it's reactive? Great for patina lovers, but I can imagine that in a busy pro environment it might be less than ideal. This thing almost makes the FKH look like a semistainless.

Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions. And again, treat this as a 'datapoint' at best.


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## timebard (Nov 14, 2021)

Nice writeup, thanks for sharing! Both Mazakis I've owned had hella reactive cladding. Not the end of the world for home use but having one in my drawer again has been a good reminder of how much more high maintenance they are than mono carbons.


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## Jovidah (Nov 16, 2021)

Yeah; most of my carbons up until recently were mono's and I was surprised how much worse carbon clad is. FWIW, the Mazaki is comparable to my Y. Tanaka, which I also found surprisingly reactive. It settles down after it takes a patina, so it's not a deal breaker for me, but IMO the difference between mono-carbon and iron-clad carbon is large enough that you may as well put them into different categories.
Mono carbons I don't even bother to wipe in between prep... I just clean them up at the end and frankly it never gave me the slightest problems.


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