# Yoshihiro Honkasumi Deba 21cm



## bieniek

The story started few years back, when I had a brief contact with deba. I dont even recall producer but it felt sooo cool.

Then for some time the subject died, even though sometimes I nearly cried when had to fillet some redfish or salmon with that flexi shite or chefs knife.

Situation changed now, when I started in company with great focus on quality, me myself are not really fond of way modern cuisine goes, I like the respect you can show the produce by taking the best out of it. Plus its quite possible I will be getting more into sushi. 
Plus of course amount of fresh fish available in Norway.


Thats how I started to look around, didnt wanted to spend fortune, as usual, but wanted decent quality, I rather pay 50 extra and have less to straighten ::spankarse:

And so after a talk to "the Jon", i bought 21o mm deba from yoshihiro. 

What was I expecting? More problems actually.
What I wanted is straightness and even grind. And I cannot complain really.






*Blade*

*Straightness 4/5 *

Blades overally straight with just minor turning in the tang area. 






*Grind 4/5*

Minor problems. Nothing that wouldnt get fixed with time.
As usually i Started on my DMT. It always shows truth...
The tip is too deeply ground off for my liking, the heel is too low hanging, there was also the overgrinds in the heel area of both iron and steel. [still visible]






The other side is even with no bumps on the edge visible or any cavities, which could be encountered in Mizuno for example.
Only small problem is the tip area, and Im not sure whether this is normal on new blade, or just a error. The tip bends to the steel side. Or was 
Because of that I had to grind little more of metal there just to allow the rest of bevel to get in contact with stone. 





It is still there, I will fix that over time.

*Sharpness 0/5*

I just mention that for those who would expect knife for that money to come any sharp. 
In my standard there was no edge on it completely, plus the primary bevel was at a pretty steep angle, changed already, in preparations for hamaguri.

*Sharpening 5/5*
Short, wide and heavy blade. Dream to sharpen, and a fast one.
As I said, straightening of the secondary bevel took some time with DMT, but polishing and sharpening went quite fast. I didnt pay too much attention to the kasumi though. Why? Cause I know I will play with the blade for next few months.

Now, Im not going to tell you how sharp this knife can get, or how sharp it got. 
Im not a fan of those silly-arse tests with tomatoes or paper.

But the sharpness is quite nice after naturals.:spiteful:

I havent got a chance to check the edge holding ability, but its looking good so far.

*Reactivity 5/5*

Which basically means, very good. 
I usually dont use a knife the same day I was sharpening, but even when I did, it didnt developed any patina after some fish prep. 
Also, after leaving for a while on wet stone, just tiny bits of discoloration showed up. And a few. 

*Blades fit and finish 3/5*

Didnt expected more from it. It is OK with some brushing marks here and there. Spine rounded enough. Choil Area nice and clean, little to crispy, but at least polished. 
The front seems little rough. 






*Handle 2/5* 
This department doesnt matter nuttin to me, but I have to mention
Maybe at Yoshihiro are thinking its good enough to give you piece of wood? And yes, I know you can get same in more expensive knives, but the horn have some overgrinds, is significantly smaller than wood. The wood as usual. 
Hole in the handle looks like the blade was alive when they mounted it in.








*So overally 4/5* 
I think its worth all the money I paid for it for the amount of knife you get. 
And big thanks to JKI for being patient and pushing Yoshihiro into me. I was little affraid of it but I was totally wrong. 




And now the fun part. Experiments with wood this time...What happens when you vacuum knife in saya in linseed oil on highest program? Then bake in 50 for 100 minutes? And then dry in 50. 

:eek2:


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## Crothcipt

:fanning:wow love the finished product of the wood experiment. Excellent critique.


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## schanop

Looks like it is ready for fish now. This is the white steel one Jon carries, isn't it?


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## Sarge

I really like the linseed oil results. Great review and a good looking knife. I also recently bought a Yoshihiro gyuto and I've been very impressed with it.


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## skewed

That is one impressive hunk of steel. I really love white #2.

Did you add any mineral spirits to the oil? The first coat of tung usually requires cutting it with spirits or else it doesn't dry out and harden. Not sure about boiled linseed though.

Thanks for the fabulous pics!


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## bieniek

Came some salmons today. 8 kilos each


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## zitangy

Lucky devil.... Referring to the fish.....


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## bieniek

4x8kg


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## Peco

you got some work to do there


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## slowtyper

Nice, I love the cryovac'ed knife! Lets see some pics of the fish after you finished with the deba! 

I have a couple yoshihiros, not from Jon though, and I like them quite a bit. I believe mine are blue steel though. I would get more yoshihiros because I find it such good value, but I want to try out other makers to get a feel for everything.


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## bieniek

Thanks man, sorry forgot to answer. I dont have time really to make photos in between fish or after. But I will try harder.

This knife is A beast. Not breast! I just worked my way through 200kg of halibut and it was a pleasure. Of course the edge got little fatigued but still holds quite OK. 

And the halibutes from photo before I prepped with the same edge. Lovely to use. The size and weight just makes it so so cool to operate, even for long time. Also, even though it was wet non stop for 5 hours, it didnt get any stains. 






Here is a photo of 50kgs of fish. 
The fish company messed up and instead of bringing 5 pieces of 40 kgs, like it was ordered, they brought these and rest in 3-6 kilo size. 
All beautiful and wild, but get through 200kgs of that small fish, its crazy. 
All in all we managed to swap the smallest ones for little bigger ones, 7-8kgs with head on.

Debbie is sooo cool


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## bieniek

50 k without head. Have a look how the bench looks like compared to the size of fish.

Part of 150k batch for friday. 

Crazy fish quality. The wild halibut is soo much better than farmed. Jess!


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## Sushi Ninja

what's linseed oil? never heard of it, where could i find em? and by 50, you meant 50 degrees for 100 minutes correct? basically it just darken the wood right? sorry for too many questions lol. nice review btw.


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## bieniek

No worries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linseed_oil

I unfortunately dont have a clue where you could buy that in US, but a drugstore is my best bet since its edible, sometimes used as midicine.

Yes, 50 celsius degrees and around one and a half hour was enough. It was just an experiment, but Ive read before that it penetrates better when warm, I think someone mentioned 44 degrees somewhere. 

It does darken the wood, or brings out the structure and colour, it basically penetrates the wood so the water cannot, leaving very very very durable surface, and actually better grip when wet.

I think its all about rancity, its pretty fast with linseed, making it "drying" faster. People says two weeks, but you could speed it up with oven. 
Where I am vikings used it for ages to protect wood. Marine wood also


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## ThEoRy

Sushi Ninja said:


> what's linseed oil? never heard of it, where could i find em? and by 50, you meant 50 degrees for 100 minutes correct? basically it just darken the wood right? sorry for too many questions lol. nice review btw.




Just use mineral oil. If you are in the usa it can be found in the laxative isle at walgreens etc.. By 50 degrees I'm assuming he's talking about celcius there. I've done a similar treatment to my saya's by vacuuming the mineral oil under extreme pressure but I didn't heat them up. It looked really good when I was done regardless.


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## ThEoRy

What's really strange is I was reading this exact review on the knives.pl site just today!!


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## heirkb

Is there some way to get the effect of vacuuming without any special equipment? Can a long soak in oil do the same type of thing?


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## ThEoRy

Just apply and let it soak in then let it dry then repeat as necessary then finish by buffing it by hand with a cloth. You can use a mixture of mineral oil and beeswax in the final step as well.


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## Johnny.B.Good

Sushi Ninja said:


> what's linseed oil? never heard of it, where could i find em? and by 50, you meant 50 degrees for 100 minutes correct? basically it just darken the wood right? sorry for too many questions lol. nice review btw.



Linseed oil is a medium used by many oil painters; it can be found in art supply stores: http://www.dickblick.com/products/williamsburg-artist-sun-thickened-linseed-oil/


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## Sushi Ninja

thanks for all the quick response guys. definitely have to give this a try when i collect all the masamoto knives i wanted


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## bieniek

heirkb said:


> Is there some way to get the effect of vacuuming without any special equipment? Can a long soak in oil do the same type of thing?



Before for handles I used a jar from olives [high but thin] filled with oil and the handle would stay there for two weeks, occasionally would warm it a bit au baine marie.


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## bieniek

ThEoRy said:


> What's really strange is I was reading this exact review on the knives.pl site just today!!



What makes it so strange? Coincidence?


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## GlassEye

bieniek said:


> Before for handles I used a jar from olives [high but thin] filled with oil and the handle would stay there for two weeks, occasionally would warm it a bit au baine marie.


I also do the bain marie with my oil/wax mix, but I havent found a jar tall enough to fit the entire handle, saya get rubbed with hot oil/wax.


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## JMac

Damn that is a lot of halibut. Guessing you work in a hotel. Can't imagine how many 6oz portions that is.


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## bieniek

No sir. 
Actually quite small catering company. Flesh was after cut in 3x3 cm strips, sugarsalted and rolled, and then slow baked. And then protioned ~80 grams

It was served cold. 

Thats what makes me use my knivesa lot I guess


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## bieniek

GlassEye said:


> I also do the bain marie with my oil/wax mix, but I havent found a jar tall enough to fit the entire handle, saya get rubbed with hot oil/wax.



I have a small jar after pitted olives and its just perfect for whole handle.


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