# Three 270mm Shigefusa Yanagibas



## Zweber12 (Mar 6, 2016)

It has been a pretty amazing last 4 days, as Thursday I received a 270mm Kitaeji Yanagiba from Tokyo, then a day later I picked up a 40 year old NOS Kitaeji from Maksim at the Gathering. As I already owned a 270mm Kasumi, I figured I do a little side-by-side for the forum to enjoy. 

To start off with a group photo: from top to bottom: Kasumi, Kitaeji, Kitaeji (NOS). As this will be a lengthy post and for simplicity reasons, I will refer to the Kitaeji from Maksims as NOS and the more recent Kitaeji from Tokyo as New.








And a few individual yanagiba shots:

Kasumi:





New:





NOS:







*Kanji Close-ups*
A few overview shots of the Kanji on the knives. There are variations in the length of the Kanji as well, if measure from top to bottom:
Kasumi: 34mm
New: 39mm
NOS: 45mm
In all three cases, the first two individual kanji are stamped, with most detailed in those two on the NOS.

Kasumi:





New:





NOS:







More detailed images of the Kanji:

Kasumi:





New:





NOS:







Could not help myself, had to test the limits of my Nikon 110mm Marco lens. Even the individual hammer marks creating the engravings are clearly visible, as well as the bulging of the steel around the indentations. Interestingly, the Kanji on the NOS appears a lot rougher compared to the New and, yes, those specks are dust marks.

New:





NOS:







*Kitaeji Pattterns*
I do recall one KKF thread on Shigs patterns, stating that newer Kitaeji Shigs have patterns that are grouped by three lines, whereas the NOS stock does not, or at least a lesser extend. This is pretty much confirmed and indeed clearly visible (see New on left of the two images).The does NOS have a similar pattern, yet tighter grouped. The two clear, visual difference between the knives are that the lines on the NOS appear straighter compared to a mere wavy pattern on the New. The other difference is the number of lines, I counted 22 on the NOS and 18 on the New.








*Coils*
A side by side of the three coils; FLTR: Kasumi, New, NOS. Notes to self, need to improve my coil shot resizing, not switch angulations during shots and color management.








*Price*
With some digging you can figure out the actual prices, though in terms of ratio (Kasumi, New, NOS), this was 1/1.78/2.10.



*Measurements*
I believe most of you are interested in the stats of the knives, hereby (FLTR: Kasumi, New, NOS)

_General_
Weight (gr) 151 137	185
Overall Length (mm) 414 412	415

_The Handle_
Length 139 140 139
Width 23.9 23.9 24.6

_The Blades_
Handle to Tip Length 275	274	275
Heel to Tip Length 258	258	260
Blade Height at Heel 31.9	29.8	33.5

Width of Spine
At The Handle 5.4	4.6	5.7
Above The Heel 4.2	3.8	4.7
At The Middle 2.9	2.7	3.3
1cm From The Tip 1.3	1.3	1.2

Cross Section, measured halfway
At Spine 2.9	2.7	3.3
2cm from edge 2.7	2.3	3.0
1cm from edge 2.2	2.0	2.3
0.5cm from edge 1.3	0.9	0.9

Ill let you guys draw conclusions from these stats.


*General*
If you have any request of additional photos, info etc, just ask and I will get around to post this. Hope you enjoyed the read and images!


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## aboynamedsuita (Mar 6, 2016)

Now this is what I call a comparison, nice pics too!

For some reason, when I'm viewing in the KKF app, there are no delimiting characters (e.g. tabs, spaces) shown between the specs, so it looks like one string of numbers, but I was able to figure it out


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## Asteger (Mar 6, 2016)

Thanks for the comparison. They all look great. Jeez, you must like your fish, or at least slicing some soft things. 

I do like the newer kitaeji vs the older, based on the pics. Both kitaeji have great engraved kanji, vs the stamped in kasumi of course, and your photos bring out the detail. However, aside from the kanji, objectively to me I can't say I'd really prefer the kitaeji over kasumi all other things things being equal.

Now's time to put these to stones and mess up the finish!


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## mikedtran (Mar 6, 2016)

Awesome shots! 

The most interesting measurement or most different in my mind is the cross section 0.5cm from the edge. The Kasumi is significantly thicker there even while the NOS is generally thicker at the spine. 

I'm possibly getting a 300mm Kasumi Yanagiba in and if I do will do a quick compare to my 300mm NOS to see if these are consistent trends.


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## Asteger (Mar 6, 2016)

mikedtran said:


> I'm possibly getting a 300mm Kasumi Yanagiba in and if I do will do a quick compare to my 300mm NOS to see if these are consistent trends.



Mike, you must know full well that, for your study to have any validity, a sufficient sample size is required and just a couple of 300mm would not be enough for anyone. You should be looking at double figures, at least. :spiteful:


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## mikedtran (Mar 6, 2016)

Asteger said:


> Mike, you must know full well that, for your study to have any validity, a sufficient sample size is required and just a couple of 300mm would not be enough for anyone. You should be looking at double figures, at least. :spiteful:



As an economics/stats major I have to agree that you are completely right. Will have to find more 300mm Yanagibas =D


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## Asteger (Mar 6, 2016)

mikedtran said:


> As an economics/stats major I have to agree that you are completely right. Will have to find more 300mm Yanagibas =D



'WTB 1 dozen 300mm Shigefusa yanagiba' - No, don't even ask. I can post now for you on BST :doublethumbsup:


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## daveb (Mar 7, 2016)

What's a dozen in metric?


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## schanop (Mar 7, 2016)

A very very long yanagiba.


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## Asteger (Mar 7, 2016)

daveb said:


> What's a dozen in metric?



Twelve (12). Mike needs twelve knives (12x 300mm yanagiba) so at last ten more (metric equivalent: 10 more).


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## daveb (Mar 7, 2016)

I was thinking 1.2K something. 12 is just boring....


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