# Zakuri blue #1 kurouchi gyuto NKD



## K-Fed (Jul 8, 2012)

So i guess this isn't exactly an NKD because I've given myself a few days at work to get a good feel for her. Firstly for any of you that have been on the fence about a blade from zakuri due the the spine thickness measurements, put your hesitations aside. This knife cuts extremely well. Yesterday shaving paper thin sheets of ginger for my ginger beef and broccoli lunch was effortless. I have began working out the factory media blasted finish on the bevels but it is going to take a bit more work as it seems that the finish extends above the bevels just a touch and I plan on simply working it out over time. This is the first tosa made knife and the first knife that wasn't single bevel with wide flat bevels and I love how simple it is to thin little by little as you go during sharpening, plus its just plain fun. My single beveled blades don't get much use these days and I love having an excuse to play with different finishes. 

Core steel: Blue #1- It sharpens up beautifully as can be expected from the hitatchi paper steels and feels hard though not as hard as the blue #2 core steel in an older Mizuno gyuto I once had. Perhaps Jon has the proper HRC number. It's not overly reactive and noticeably more wear resistant during use than the white #2 kono gyutos I had. Simply wiping it dry in between uses will prevent rusting. 

Cladding: Material unknown. Probably soft iron or mild steel- It hasn't seemed overly reactive, though it's got a little bit of a polish on it and that helps with keeping down moisture build up in between uses. The Kurouchi finish helps too.

Profile: It's got a nice flattish area for about 1/2 the length of the blade with a gentle upsweep toward the tip. With the heel of the knife flat on the board the tip is 26mm from the board. Definitely not the flattest of profiles but I like a little bit of belly should I feel the need to do a bit of rocking. 

Grind: It's a little chunky at the spine but not too think. Thinner than the mizuno as well near the tip. The mizuno was a chunky little beast. The left side bevel was ground in pretty darn consistently with only minor low spots that have pretty much worked themselves out already after only one serious sharpening session. The right side is ground nicely at the heel and tip portions of the knife with what seems to be an under ground section in the bevel just below an over ground section. It doesn't appear to be serious and should work itself out in time. Any advice in this department is welcomed. Regardless, this knife is pretty thin behind the edge and cuts very well with sticking being of little issue. 

Handle: Typical octagonal ho wood and black horn handle. Nicely finished with no sharp edges or gaps. It is a little on the larger side. Just a tad smaller than the handle on my 270mm Suisin IH gyuto. A big plus for me as I'm not a big fan of skinny skimpy handles. It just feels right and fits this blade nicely.


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## mhenry (Jul 8, 2012)

Congrats on the new knife, thanks for the review and pics


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## Cutty Sharp (Jul 8, 2012)

Thanks for the review. Is this the 240 or 270mm?


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## K-Fed (Jul 8, 2012)

Sorry bout that. It's 240mm


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## skewed (Jul 8, 2012)

K-fed

Thanks for the nice review and great pics. What stones are you using for the thinning out?

Cheers,
rj


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## tk59 (Jul 8, 2012)

Nice review. I'm always surprised at how well these guys cut.


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## K-Fed (Jul 8, 2012)

The stone progression this time around was all synthetic. Gesshin 400, naniwa akamon 1k, king 6k, kitiyama, JKS 10k. I'm going to pull out the natural stones next time around after the right side bevel gets worked out a bit.


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## Cutty Sharp (Jul 8, 2012)

K-Fed said:


> Sorry bout that. It's 240mm



Thanks. I see - which is why you've compared the handle size to your 270mm Suisin. The handle's on the big size for a 240, or so I've read.


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## skewed (Jul 8, 2012)

K-Fed said:


> The stone progression this time around was all synthetic. Gesshin 400, naniwa akamon 1k, king 6k, kitiyama, JKS 10k. I'm going to pull out the natural stones next time around after the right side bevel gets worked out a bit.



Thanks K-Fed-

I need to jump in and do this to a couple of my knives with the fuax kasumi large double bevels.


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## labor of love (Jul 8, 2012)

Cutty Sharp said:


> Thanks. I see - which is why you've compared the handle size to your 270mm Suisin. The handle's on the big size for a 240, or so I've read.



suisin handles are larger than average. if a 240mm zakuri handle is about the same size as a 270 suisin handle, well thats really saying something!
i wish more stock handles were larger. a definite plus in my book. nice review too.


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## EdipisReks (Jul 8, 2012)

K-Fed said:


> The stone progression this time around was all synthetic. Gesshin 400, naniwa akamon 1k, king 6k, kitiyama, JKS 10k. I'm going to pull out the natural stones next time around after the right side bevel gets worked out a bit.



i haven't tried the JKS 10k, but try the kitayama after the 10k stone, next time. i'd be interested to hear how it works for you, as i, like Dave, find that it works very well after a 10k (though i often follow my green brick with the Kit, too, and end there).


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## tk59 (Jul 8, 2012)

skewed said:


> ...I need to jump in and do this to a couple of my knives with the fuax kasumi large double bevels.


What do you mean by "faux kasumi?"


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## EdipisReks (Jul 8, 2012)

tk59 said:


> What do you mean by "faux kasumi?"



i'm assuming he means knives that have been machine frosted and polished. i had a Yoshihiro Blue wa-gyuto that had been frosted and polished to look like kasumi, beneath the kurouchi cladding. it looked much better after i took it to stones.


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## schanop (Jul 8, 2012)

That's cheap kasumi method from maker, I think. With cladding, no need for faux, can go real.


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## skewed (Jul 8, 2012)

EdipisReks said:


> i'm assuming he means knives that have been machine frosted and polished. i had a Yoshihiro Blue wa-gyuto that had been frosted and polished to look like kasumi, beneath the kurouchi cladding. it looked much better after i took it to stones.



Yeah- that. The frosted bead (sand?) blasted area between the kurouchi and the edge. I have a couple of Tojiro shirogami knives and a Zakuri with this finish.


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## JBroida (Jul 8, 2012)

schanop said:


> That's cheap kasumi method from maker, I think. With cladding, no need for faux, can go real.



you'd be surprised how many use methods like this... sometimes you cant even tell.


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## schanop (Jul 8, 2012)

JBroida said:


> you'd be surprised how many use methods like this... sometimes you cant even tell.



Abundance!

But not easily replicated at home ... So go real on stone is just one option.


Hide's videos, part of the process I think:
[video=youtube;vZhrvYCqsGk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZhrvYCqsGk&feature=plcp[/video]
[video=youtube_share;Qs0HeefGwPE]http://youtu.be/Qs0HeefGwPE[/video]

And a home use version from So:


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## Justin0505 (Jul 8, 2012)

Nice review! I've been eyeing one of those for awhile. I have one of there boning knives and have been very happy. I also removed that stupid faux kasumi sandblasted finish, but I noticed that it was much less obnoxious than the finish on the tojiro ITK (which was very rough and hid some very deep grind marks.


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## Justin0505 (Jul 8, 2012)

Double post


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## Cutty Sharp (Jul 8, 2012)

schanop said:


> ... And a home use version from So:



Do you know's being used here? I'm guessing the '#1500' is some kind of polishing paste (diamond?) and the two bits of wood are probably on the soft stuff (balsa?).


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## schanop (Jul 8, 2012)

Cutty Sharp said:


> Do you know's being used here? I'm guessing the '#1500' is some kind of polishing paste (diamond?) and the two bits of wood are probably on the soft stuff (balsa?).



I probably am guessing the same. J-Bro knows, definitely.


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## JBroida (Jul 8, 2012)

no one is using diamond for polishing that i know of... a lot of this stuff i'm sworn to secrecy on. Sorry guys.


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## schanop (Jul 8, 2012)

And BTW, I love my zakuri blue #1 gyuto too, but she's been stripped naked and has been having this sexier look for a long while.


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## Rottman (Jul 8, 2012)

I would guess saving mud from stones will work for home use.


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## Cutty Sharp (Jul 8, 2012)

JBroida said:


> no one is using diamond for polishing that i know of... a lot of this stuff i'm sworn to secrecy on. Sorry guys.



Well, Jon, _someone_ seems to have finally managed to persuade you to devulge the coveted Kochi measurements... Perhaps your prized polishing secrets could be next? :evilgrin:



Rottman said:


> I would guess saving mud from stones will work for home use.



Good idea - kind of environmentally-friendly too!


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## chinacats (Jul 8, 2012)

schanop said:


> And BTW, I love my zakuri blue #1 gyuto too, but she's been stripped naked and has been having this sexier look for a long while.



Love to see pics!


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## schanop (Jul 9, 2012)

Hope this is not a distraction to original thread. This is how my zakuri looks now. It was on the stone last week and got a full body massage; since then it has seen some light usage, ence, some smudge, and light patina.










I've got some more photos posted earlier in J-Bro's sub forum.


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## JasonD (Jul 9, 2012)

Wow that looks really good. Did you have trouble getting an even finish up by the ferrule?


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## K-Fed (Jul 9, 2012)

Schanop, looks great. The bevels look much more even than the first time you posted this beauty. Here's the link to schanop's older zakuri post. I was staring at these pictures for a while before I bought mine... just added fuel to the fire.

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/4194-Softening-Zakuri-still-rustic


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## schanop (Jul 9, 2012)

Thank K-Fed, that's mainly from getting a bit better sharpening and polishing the left hand bevel. Still not any close to consistency of the right hand bevel. And natural stone helps easing the pain a fair bit.

@JasonD, the little trick I use is wrapping a sand paper wrapped wine cork -- a small sanding block would do similar job. You can then apply some pressure towards the corner where it allows the edge of the sand paper to get quite close to the ferrule.


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## Cutty Sharp (Jul 9, 2012)

Nice looking blade. 

How long did the work take and why'd you decide to take the KU off?

Did you smooth out the spine or choil along the way, too?


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## bprescot (Jul 9, 2012)

Cutty Sharp said:


> How long did the work take and why'd you decide to take the KU off?



Yes, why? WHY?! Why is the pretty KU gone? Where is it?! What have you done with it?!?! YOU MURDERER!!! YOU KILLED THE PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY KU!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Cutty Sharp (Jul 9, 2012)

bprescot said:


> Yes, why? WHY?! Why is the pretty KU gone? Where is it?! What have you done with it?!?! YOU MURDERER!!! YOU KILLED THE PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY KU!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Sigh... Human nature? I guess some guys are just never satisfied, yearn for the opposite, and love mucking around too much. :bashhead:


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## schanop (Jul 9, 2012)

KU finish was not pretty any more after I scratched it up while learning to make the left hand bevel even.

Making the bevel even takes a lot longer compared with the the time it takes to strip of KU finish. Being able to round choil and spine was a big plus in cleaning up this babe; those edges came sharp.


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## EdipisReks (Jul 9, 2012)

i took the KU off the aforementioned Yoshihiro blue gyuto, after it started to flake. i found that the metal under the KU was very reactive, but i was able to tame it (i tried cold gun blue, but it stank for weeks after the application, so i stripped it again and then applied a few light layers of mustard).


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## bprescot (Jul 9, 2012)

Mostly it was a joke. I've had KU finishes that just disintegrated. It's incredibly sad, but it does happen. I reserve the right, however, to lament the KU's passing.


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## K-Fed (Jul 10, 2012)

Interesting side note: This is the first clad knife that I've owned that "rings" when you run your finger across the edge. Usually the cladding seems to deaden the vibration. Picture is of the 240mm Zakuri and a 270mm Suisin IH gyuto for handle size comparisons.


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## Cutty Sharp (Jul 10, 2012)

Right - I can see. The Zakuri (ho) looks almost identical in size to your Suisin (ichii, I guess?). The Zakuri looks just a tad shorter.


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