# Masamoto KS 2924 Wa Gyuto (San Mai) anyone tried one?



## Von blewitt (Mar 29, 2014)

I've seen a few mentions of this knife in various threads, but I'm yet to find any reviews/ opinions on it. It's the Masamoto KS 2924 (240mm) San Mai Gyuto. Has anyone owned/ used one. I had ordered a couple of Masamoto knives through Korin, but there was to be an extended delay in delivery. Fortunately Mari was happy to let me change my order, so I will be receiving one of these in the next couple of weeks. I'm interested to see how it performs, and compares to the monosteel KS Gyuto that so many love. I'll update this thread when I recieve it.

This is the only picture I can find online




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## labor of love (Mar 30, 2014)

I wonder if you Can find it on rakuten?


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## Von blewitt (Mar 30, 2014)

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/subaru/ks2924/
Not global rakuten, but the domestic site


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## cclin (Mar 30, 2014)

you can find it on global rakuten if anyone interesting.
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/subaru/item/ks2924/?s-id=borderless_browsehist_02_en


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## Chefu (Mar 30, 2014)

I would be very interested in how this one preforms. I didn't even know they made this in san mai. I've got the mono steel and I really like the knife. It's not the best at some tasks, but there is something about it that makes me reach for it quite a lot.


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## dmccurtis (Mar 30, 2014)

I've been wondering about this knife for years. I'll be very interested to see what it's like.


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## Von blewitt (Apr 11, 2014)

The knife arrived in the mail this morning, very well packed, and fast shipping from Korin, I also recieved a small bottle of tsubaki oil as a gift.

Mini Review, bare in mind I've had the knife for only a few hours, but I got a chance to put it through a variety of tasks, including brunoise onion, slicing shallots, dicing potatoes, dice & julienne carrots & slicing mushrooms.

F&F 
The fit and finish is ok, spine slightly eased, choil very rough, not polished at all, but it is chamfered on the right side, quite sharp on the left side. It still has the horizontal grinder marks, though they are quite even and relatively fine, I'd estimate its finished at about 320 grit, there doesn't appear to be any deeper grind marks. Handle is nicer than some other masamoto handles I've seen, pretty basic, a bit of a lip between the handle and ferrule, quite a nice piece of blonde horn with no cracks. There is about 5mm of Machi exposed, which might annoy some people, I plan on taking the handle off to polish the knife, and will try and reinstall it with no Machi showing. Overall I'm pretty happy with the F&F, its not up to shigefusa standards, but I'd put it on par with the Katos I've had, grind marks are a bit more even. It came with a nice friction fit Saya.

Grind
The knife is ground assymetrically for a right hand user, convexed on the right side from spine to edge, left side has some convexing from around 1/4 the way up the blade, and looks to have a slight hollow grind just above the convexed section. Not A huge amount of distal taper, but starts thinning down about 5cm from the tip. 

Performance
The knife cuts really nicely, a good mix of food release & ease of cutting. I had no problem with wedging even on some pretty large & fresh carrots. Good food release a little bit of sticking on the left side when slicing cold potatoes, no sticking on the right side. Tip is thin enough to glide through onions on the horizontal cut without any resistance. Overall I'd rate cutting performance as excellent, on Par with most of the the best knives I've tried. Out of the box I touched the knife up on an 8k DMT, and stropped on hard felt with 1m diamond spray, edge retention wasnt great, with noticeable degrading after a small amount of time (edge grain boos board) however as the knife is ground so thin this might just be some weakened steel right at the edge, so I'll reserve judgment on retention till after I've given it a full sharpening. Reactivity is pretty minimal, it doesn't appear to have any lacquer coating, it is slowly building an even patina, and I didn't notice any reactivity on any of the food I cut.

Some Stats
Edge length 230m 
Handle to tip length 240mm
Height at heel 46mm
Spine above heel 3.6mm
Spine 1/2 way 3mm
Spine 5cm from tip 2mm
Spine 2cm from tip 1mm
Weight 188 grams

And some pics



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I actually think the rough finish makes the choil shot look less impressive than it is, it does make it easier to photograph though.


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## schanop (Apr 11, 2014)

Thank Huw for the initial impression report.


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## Von blewitt (Apr 11, 2014)

Forgot to mention, the Kanji is stamped, and on mine the lower symbols aren't particularly deep, I think I may lose some of it when I polish the knife, not a big deal, and doesn't bother me, but I thought it worth mentioning


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## Salty dog (Apr 11, 2014)

Boy that looks a lot like a Mizuno. Slightly different profile that I'm used to seeing from Masamoto.


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## Von blewitt (Apr 11, 2014)

Salty dog said:


> Boy that looks a lot like a Mizuno. Slightly different profile that I'm used to seeing from Masamoto.



Yeah, grind wise it's very similar to my Mizuno honyaki, lighter & a touch thinner though.


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## rami_m (Apr 11, 2014)

Not to hijack this thread, but when I first started getting interested in j knives I was very interested in Mizuno But I couldn't find anything around them to be honest.


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## Dardeau (Apr 11, 2014)

It's definitely not as spearish as my KS. Looks good though.


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## EdipisReks (Apr 11, 2014)

Salty dog said:


> Boy that looks a lot like a Mizuno. Slightly different profile that I'm used to seeing from Masamoto.



That was my first thought, too.


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## stevenStefano (Apr 11, 2014)

Looks a little like an A-Type too, I like that profile a lot


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## Von blewitt (Apr 12, 2014)

After a quick polish, sand & oil handle and sharpen
I'm happy with how it ended up 



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## rami_m (Apr 12, 2014)

looks good.


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## Dardeau (Apr 12, 2014)

How does it cut?


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## Von blewitt (Apr 12, 2014)

Dardeau said:


> How does it cut?



Very well, the white#2 takes a screaming edge as you'd expect, and its hard! the grind marks were easily removed from the cladding, but 120g wet/dry was hardly able to make a dent in the core steel, so they'll have to wait a while.


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## EdipisReks (Apr 12, 2014)

Sounds like a winner, for sure.


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## labor of love (Apr 13, 2014)

cool find:thumbsup:. killer profile.


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## mpukas (Apr 14, 2014)

Great to see this knife for real. Been wondering about it for a long time. Looks great, especially after the love. I think I like the profile of this better than the mono KS. Thanks for sharing Huw! mpp


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## panda (Jan 14, 2016)

do you still have this? how about a comparison to the mono version?


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## Von blewitt (Jan 14, 2016)

panda said:


> do you still have this? how about a comparison to the mono version?


I sold it a while ago, it's a completely different knife to the mono, much more similar to a Mizuno but from memory about 50% more expensive


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