# Misono Sweden Steel Series Gyuto 190 Lefty



## esoo (Jan 30, 2018)

I recently had posted a thread about looking for a lefty gyuto, and a few people suggested the Misono. In a few other places, I commented that I had one coming and people wanted to know my thoughts, so I figured I'd put up a thread on the knife (as searching didn't find one in this sub-forum).

I had been looking in the 180-210 range, and was just about to pull the trigger on the 210 when I read a comment that the 195 had a slightly taller profile. As I like taller knives, I ordered the 195






As you can see, the lefty knives don't get any engraving. However, this doesn't bother me at all as will become clear.

The specs were exactly as stated on the JCK website:
- 210 mm Blade length
- 167g
- 45mm blade height (Ok - it is 44.5mm, but that's splitting hairs)

Out of the box, fit and finish is very good. My only knock would be that you can feel the tang is slightly raised above the handle. And when I mean slightly, I mean that - it feels like the slightest ridge as you run your finger across the tang. The one thing that I found a bit sloppy was that there was grease from fingerprints on the blade when I took it out of the paper. Would've been nice to have a clean blade for the first look.

The other thing that I did not expect was that the bolster was stamped with a number on the off side (right in my case).




That was confirmed as normal with Koki. I'd just never seen it in any comments anywhere so had been a little surprised

Obligatory Choil shot:




Not the best shot, but the grind of the knife is meant for the lefty.

In the hand, the knife feels very nice. It has a nice heft to it that I like, with a slight weighting to the handle. One thing I'd read after I purchased the knife, but before it arrived, was that the balance point was on the bolster. This made me worried, but it was not an issue. On this length at least, the balance point is slightly behind the pinch grip at the curve of the front of the bolster. To me it feels natural and nimble.

My previous experience with carbon knives are a couple of Tojiro Shirogami (in the grinding finish) and Zwilling Kramer Carbons. As a home chef, I tend to do my prep by collecting ingredients, chopping everything and then wiping down my knife. So far this has treated me well without any rust. The Zwilling Kramers I've had have also had forced patinas, while I've left the Tojiro alone.

My first cutting test of the Misono, with factory edge, was a single onion. Cut in half, put knife down, peel onion half, chop, put knife down, peel other onion half, chop, wash knife. Initial cuts were nice and crisp. Horizontal cuts were not quite as smooth as I hoped, but that may have just been me and my technique. When it came to washing the knife, it had onion juice all over, and was patina free with the exception of a 2mmx2mm square on one side that decided to change color to a nice dark grey.

At this point, I decided to start forcing the patina. A 50/50 mix of 6% vinegar + hottest tap water for 20 minutes, clean the knife, then reheat the solution in the microwave, and two more 20 minute soaks with fresh water cleaning and scrub in between and I've gotten a very dark patina on the knife:





I expect the knife to be pretty much non-reactive at this point. The only thing to point out was that during the process I did get a bit of rust on the bolster (which I thought was stainless and didn't expect to rust). You can also see that the color in the etching was completely eaten away by the vinegar and the etching is hidden by the patina. If I'd had a dragon or flower, it would pretty much be hidden, so no big loss for me compared to have a righty knife

I then put the knife through my standard sharpening (400 Superstone, 1000 Shapton Pro, 5000 Shapton Pro, 8000 Imanishi and black latigo strop). The edge sharpened very nicely and was shining by the time I was done.

Only had one meal prep on it since, and the knife handled beautifully. Sitting here after my mise en place for Pad Thai:





I'll have to spend more time with it to give more details, but through my couple of initial home cook sessions with it, the Misono is a keeper. I'll add more to this thread as I spend time with the knife.


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## chiffonodd (Jan 30, 2018)

It might be that the choil shot is a little out of focus at the edge, but, the factory grind looks a bit thick to me behind the edge. Thinning that area will vastly improve cutting performance - especially on those cuts through the onion that you were talking about.


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## esoo (Jan 30, 2018)

Im pretty sure thinning the blade will be in its future, but Im going to use it as is for a while to get a good feeling for it.


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## chiffonodd (Jan 30, 2018)

esoo said:


> Im pretty thinning the blade will be in its future, but Im going to use it as is for a while to get a good feeling for it.



Sure, no reason to rush  Nice review btw - thanks for taking the time.


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## daddy yo yo (Feb 2, 2018)

Are you sure about the indicated length, 210mm? JCK indicates 200mm...

I found it interesting that F&F on your knife was not perfect. Mine was immaculate, simply perfect! Not even the smallest blemish... And yes, mine also has that stamped number on the bolster...


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## esoo (Feb 2, 2018)

Dang it, you are correct - I meant to put length at 200. 

The knife looks perfect without magnification. Even with an 8x loupe its hard to see the issue, but I can feel it with my fingers. It is very close to perfect. Way better than my last Zwilling which has flaws right out of the box.


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## K813zra (Feb 2, 2018)

I think some people are more picky on what constitutes perfect fit and finish. None of my Swedish are perfect but all are very good. I do not own any knives with perfect fit and finish. Even my HD2, if I play with it long enough shows ever so slight flaws. 

Anyway, nice write up and than you for taking the time to share your thoughts!


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## Benuser (Feb 2, 2018)

chiffonodd said:


> It might be that the choil shot is a little out of focus at the edge, but, the factory grind looks a bit thick to me behind the edge. Thinning that area will vastly improve cutting performance - especially on those cuts through the onion that you were talking about.



The blade thickens quite some towards the choil. I got used to that and even sharpen that area more conservatively, to use it for harder tasks, thus allowing a more audacious edge with the middle section. A choil photo doesn't mean much in this case.


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## chiffonodd (Feb 2, 2018)

Benuser said:


> The blade thickens quite some towards the choil. I got used to that and even sharpen that area more conservatively, to use it for harder tasks, thus allowing a more audacious edge with the middle section. A choil photo doesn't mean much in this case.



Cool thanks for clarifying. I find that there's a similar phenomenon with my itinomonn SLK.


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## Benuser (Feb 2, 2018)

The Misono factory edges are weak and overly convexed by buffering. Get rid of it. At this stage, I would only thin the dominant side a bit while sharpening. It will perform much better.


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## Grunt173 (Feb 2, 2018)

Nice write up.Thanks for taking the time to give a good review.I am hoping my Misono 240 Dragon arrives here today.Not much to do on this cold snowy day then to sit in the house and play with knives and get up a posse together to go lynch that darn Pa. groundhog that calls for 6 more weeks of winter.


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## esoo (Feb 2, 2018)

Benuser said:


> The Misono factory edges are weak and overly convexed by buffering. Get rid of it. At this stage, I would only thin the dominant side a bit while sharpening. It will perform much better.



At this point the knife has gone through the first sharpening - due to the hot vinegar process - so some of the factory edge is gone.

We'll see if I get to thinning it this weekend. May be a little busy...


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## buffhr (Feb 2, 2018)

Thankd for the review, was looking into getting a 270 suhji from them, but think ill pass a stamped bolster is off putting to me and from your pic i can see a somewhat "wavy" pattern in the finnish, seen a few with that and well while it's different it's not something i would want as well.


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## Benuser (Feb 2, 2018)

esoo said:


> At this point the knife has gone through the first sharpening - due to the hot vinegar process - so some of the factory edge is gone.


You should't take that convexed factory as a starting point or reference when putting a new edge on it. I use to start with a 400 stone and make sure the factory edge is really gone. It contributes to edge stability later on.


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## esoo (Feb 13, 2018)

So after using the knife for a few weeks, the forced patina has lightened quite a bit (staying dark under my pinch grip).

I will also say that it does seem to patina faster than White 2. It seems like I polish the edge on a leather stop, use the knife, clean it and the edge has a patina on it by the next time I use it. My white #2 seems to last longer before it loses the polish and develop a patina.

I lent the knife to a co-worker who thought it was a very nice knife with nice steel, but with the balance point on the bolster, he thought it was too handle heavy.


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## esoo (Feb 19, 2018)

About the reactivity: remember that my knife has a forced patina on it, but I sliced up the cooked chicken for dinner with it, left it on the carving board and then ate dinner without cleaning the knife. When I came back a half hour later, nothing adverse and just some slight changes to the existing patina. That is the lack of reactivity that I like.


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## Benuser (Feb 19, 2018)

Sounds good. Make sure to clean immediately the very edge though, or it will dull. By the way, the same applies in a lesser degree to stainless blades as well.


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## chinacats (Feb 19, 2018)

This is a very thoughtful review and one that should've been done some time ago.

A thought on the balance point is that it is partly due to length and partly due to the western handle which is heavier than WA and the reason some prefer it.


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## esoo (Feb 23, 2018)

Today, as I needed to sharpen another knife, I spent a little time attempting a thinning of the blade. I won't say I did the most fantastic job (as I probably should have spent more time at the thinning), but it is cutting nice. Thinned on a 400, then edge sharpened 400 Superstone, 1000 Shapton Pro, 2000 Naniwa Green Brick, 5000 Shapton Pro, 8000 Imanishi, and some stropping on leather.

I was able to take slices off a ripe tomato with no hands (like all those videos on YouTube). Never done that with one of my blades so I consider that a win. The blade does sharpen really easily.


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## esoo (Mar 3, 2018)

I know this is sounding like a running blog for my use of the knife, but I think it is important to get past the first impression to the longer term.

So this week, I did a beer can chicken and the fiance picked up the Misono to cut the meat off the bird. Not a big deal until I turn around and see her cutting out the breast bone. Well, it did manage the task of cutting through the bones, and under magnification the edge that I put on it seems to have come out intact. Pleasantly happy with that performance.


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## DanDan (Mar 3, 2018)

Keep on blogging, I'm a lefty and have interested in one of these for a long time :thumbsup:


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## K813zra (Mar 4, 2018)

Yep, that knife can handle that without issue. My mother in-law uses mine to split rabbit spines into 4 sections without issue. That and my FKH are meant for that, abuse and relatives.


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## esoo (Mar 4, 2018)

I hadn't really expected the knife to handle the bones as well as it did, simply because the almost common refrain is not to take the Japanese knives against bone. It's nice to know, since I really didn't have knife in my current setup for that kind of work.


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## HRC_64 (Mar 4, 2018)

esoo said:


> I think it is important to get past the first impression to the longer term.



good thing IMHO...way too many reviews are done in the honeymoon period


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## Jovidah (Mar 4, 2018)

esoo said:


> I hadn't really expected the knife to handle the bones as well as it did, simply because the almost common refrain is not to take the Japanese knives against bone. It's nice to know, since I really didn't have knife in my current setup for that kind of work.


Keep in mind that there's a wide range of different metals and heat treatments used in Japanese knives. Somewhat more robust and softer knives like Misonos, Fujiwaras, Masahiros, etc are all more on the durable and forgiving side of the scale.



HRC_64 said:


> good thing IMHO...way too many reviews are done in the honeymoon period


x2. Not blaming anyone; it's inescapable human psychology. I remember how happy I used to be about my first half decent knives. Then a few years later... I saw them in an entirely different light. 
But sadly it's not an exception to see a glowing review followed a few months later by a sales thread...


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## esoo (Apr 18, 2018)

Wonder what happened to my pics in the original post. I still see all the images up on postimages.


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## esoo (Aug 14, 2018)

So as a continuing follow up:

I abuse this knife - spatchcock chickens, break down cooked chickens and then leave the knife on the board, cut citrus and leave it on the board without cleaning it. 

The forced patina is holding up exceptionally well and is keeping the knife free of rust. 

My gripes, which are personal preferences, is that is wish it was a little taller and that the balance point was on the pinch.

All in all still finding it a very decent knife .


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