# A pair of Tanaka's



## icanhaschzbrgr (May 12, 2014)

Since I catched knives addiction I tried a few knives by Shigeki Tanaka: a petty in VG10, a petty in blue#2 and two different nakiris. More or less liked all of them, however among all those my favorite is 150mm petty in VG10. Last summer I bought one for 50$ and used it a lot in our home kitchen. It was my wife's go to knife because it doesn't required any maintenance, light, sharp and a good cutter overall. 

So I decided to buy 2 more knives to be presented to my relatives on my next visit to them. Tried to persuade Shigeki to sell me some knives directly from him, but he refused (with the official reason being that customs doesn't allow sending knives). So I went with 330mate on Ebay. 120$ and month later I got my knives. 

My own Tanaka knife went to my parents kitchen not a long ago, so I couldn't compare grinds, but I have a feeling that new knives has a bit different profile and thinner grind. But maybe that's just my memory playing tricks with me.

Anyway, when knives arrived, I quickly destroyed stock handles (they deserved to be destroyed, not removed) and tried to fit on of the older handles that I've made for another knife. The fit was ok, but I needed to reshape a bit a part of blade near the heel/tang. Also rounded those parts that should be rounded.





Original on the left and slightly reshaped on the right.





Here's a choil shot.




There's a pretty minor convex so in terms of food release there's nothing special about those knives. My Watanabe petty has a way better food release but cost almost 3 times more. So I guess you get what you've paid for.

Anyway, lets get back to handles. Both made from Ringed Gidgee (which, as you already knew, is the most awesome wood in the world) with some black spacers. I've mixed up a pieces of Grenadil and stab/unstab ebony so I have no idea what that wood was actually used for ferrules. What a shame. 

Nuff talk. Pictures.

The group photo in original boxes. Cause no one want's to be gifted a knife without box (unless it's Rader or something like that).





One of handles has a nice 2 tone piece of Gidgee, while the other features a more complex 7 piece design.








There was a very cloudy day and I couldn't capture wood chatoyance on photos. While Koa might feature better 3D texture, that Gidgee is still really nice in natural sun light. I'd call it an aristocratic look.









So which one of two do you like more?


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## Lefty (May 12, 2014)

Beautiful, as always, Anton!


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## erikz (May 12, 2014)

Very nice job Anton! I envy your skills!


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## mark76 (May 12, 2014)

Really nice work!


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## XooMG (May 12, 2014)

Very nice Anton, I like your work with Gidgee a lot. I especially like the two-toned piece, but that's because I'm fond of relatively simple designs.


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## WarrenB (May 12, 2014)

Really nice work, will have to try one of your re-handled Tanaka's one day:wink:


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## rdwng303 (May 12, 2014)

Love the handles Anton, nice work as usual.


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## apicius9 (May 12, 2014)

Looking great, I love the two-toned one.

Stefan


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## mkriggen (May 12, 2014)

Looking good Anton. I like the two piece one the best but both look great.

Be well,
Mikey


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## icanhaschzbrgr (May 12, 2014)

Thanks guys!
I hope those would be a nice gift.


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## cheflarge (May 12, 2014)

DAMN...... I wish I would get a gift like that.


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