# Review: Hitohira Futana Ginsan "Shotoh" 170mm



## ModRQC (Apr 5, 2021)

_On the market for a specific “petty”, I realized I perhaps shouldn’t have sold my Miyabi Shotoh so dismissively. I mean, I didn’t care about it much, but it was tough, got sharp and stayed sharp a while being abused on cheap thin plastic mats I use for prepping raw meat. I have a Victo Fibrox 6” and modified it enough that it can do this kind of work easily – but the edge rolls quickly in that kind of use scenario where the cutting surface is basically the hard countertop. 

I also liked the Shotoh “honesuki-like” profile, that it was 34mm tall for its length, and I liked stainless for this application. Sold it because it was too short at barely 140mm while the handle was smallish and slippery – hence ideally longer than 150mm, or at least with a decently sized handle (mostly no Yo) and generous height there, became a requirement additionally to some corrosion resistance.

I was more or less acutely aware such length/height is somewhat rarer to come by with petties. It became much more obvious when I truly started hunting for one. Here’s a short list of my bouncing around:

- Sakai trend of long 165-210 petties that are still like 30mm tall – yuk!
- Honesuki: nice but too thick and dedicated, must chop various veggies to go with meat cooking.
- Some nice petties (Shi.Han, Munetoshi, Hinoura, S. Tanaka, Yoshikane, Mazaki) too expensive/iron-clad.
- Most Santoku/Bunka (165-180mm) too wide, stocky or curvy.
- 180mm Gyutos easier to come by but somewhat redundant with my barely 200mm HD2.
- 150mm short Gyutos that were interesting also too expensive._







_So… from here on now I will dub the here reviewed Bunka a Shotoh – just because I can. What, if the maker doesn’t care the product being sold under another name, no one surely must care that I will dub it another type?

It was amazingly cheap, steel a mildly deceiving but overall proven good enough compromise; profile, length and height pretty spot on what I was looking for, if not slanted and fine tip enough. Basically, the knife is trading the more dedicated ideal for also welcomed general use. I thought that would work well with me, but I knew the drawbacks in various uses I would lend it too could very well be overwhelming.

On a “curioso” note, the finish is very similar to my former Matsubara Ginsan gyuto – and I’d be really surprise if it was from that Hamono. I’m thinking more along the lines of Nashiji prelaminated; both however having a pretty natural clad line, but then again at Futana prices it can’t not be prelaminated, and I know nothing of lamination but pretty sure waviness is no sure telltale. _






_Futana has the Nashiji more highly polished where the Matsubara had more darkened “scaly-ness” and dull roughness left to it, kanji a bit more rustic too:









Enough that they could be different, enough that they are highly similar.

Can’t draw any brilliant conclusion from all of that myself, but ironically enough the only other Bunka I ever tried was a Matsubara Blue #2 I sent back to vendor pretexting a very bad handle install – which it had but I just didn’t like it in use. Grind was nowhere near similar – and thicker behind the edge. Height was 10mm over for the same length or so and it had some amount of spinal taper. Edge profile and general shape could fit pretty well, however there was no real slanting, barely a few mm drop in height until the tip, with the Matsubara bunka.






Despite the absence of any proof, I liked the idea that it probably was the exact same HT I had experience with: the Futana is quite thin at the edge, which could prove problematic on the plastic mat with a steel not so tough, but from my Matsubara gyuto post-thinning I knew it was tough enough still, would get sharp rather easily, and would have decent wear resistance: _






_Despite the worry it wouldn’t do so well in specific tasks, it was really one of my best candidates especially under 200$ CAD._


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## ModRQC (Apr 5, 2021)

*RESELLER/SERIES*​*Hitohira Futana S3*​*TYPE & LENGTH*​Bunka *Shotoh 170mm*​*STEEL & BLADE*​*Gingami #3 SS Clad*​*FINISH*​*Nashiji*​*WEIGHT / BALANCE*​*117g / +20*​*HANDLE MATERIAL*​*Cherry wood & Ebony*​​​TOTAL LENGTH​323​BLADE LENGTH​188​EDGE LENGTH​*175*​​​HEIGHT AT HEEL​*43*​HEIGHT AT MID BLADE​38​HEIGHT 35mm TO TIP​32​​​*SPINE*​*THICKNESS*HEEL​*2*​MID BLADE​2​35mm TO TIP​2​10mm TO TIP​*0.9*​​​*EDGE THICKNESS*​@ 10 / 5 / 1mm overHEEL + 10mm​1 / 0.6 / 0.1​MID BLADE​1 / 0.6 / 0.1​35mm TO TIP​1 / 0.6 / 0.1​TIP​0.9 / 0.6 / 0.1​





Box is the same one as my Tanaka Yohei, and average J-knife presentation, albeit with flowers and without VCI fold. Not that the latter would really be necessary here, but I found that rather peculiar, being the first time.

* 
Handle: 1/1*
_Aesthetics & Balance_

I should point out that this handle here is also the same as my Tanaka Yohei, but more interesting still is that my former Matsubara Nashiji Ginsan also had one of the same materials, although it wasn’t nowhere near as nicely sculpted nor as well polished and lacquered. Other food for thought for the comparison in the foreword, with probably a common supplier somewhere in the equation.






As with the Yohei, its simple aesthetics please me while Hitohira makes correct use of it for balance where both knives are concerned. In this case, it may not be ideal in general use where I like to hammer pinch at neck to use the full length, but it works well still and in my specific use it has definite advantages – see Performance.

*Blade: 0.5/1*
_Choil & Spine




_

There’s the slightest chamfer of the angles, and overall the spine and choil are smooth enough, the knife lightweight enough, that it doesn’t need extra comfort. Additionally, the wide blade, flat spine and K-tip are really an awesome combination for lightly smashing, ejecting from peel and mincing a garlic clove respectively. It will see a huge amount of these, too.

*Finish: 0.5/1*
_Aesthetics & Maintenance_




Aesthetics are ok, nothing particularly pleasing but consistent enough, and obviously maintenance is no problem. However, bevels are rather quite sticky with food.

*Performance: 1.5/2 *
_Geometry & Grind_

It’s always the make it or break it criterion, but even full score here doesn’t warrant that I won’t sell a knife later on, so… In this case, to the all-purpose performance I was eager to test, there’s the added difficulty in bridging the gap with my use and needs that are rather much too specific for it, but will make for 75% of its use still.

Its first test was prepping some skinless chicken breasts for a sauté and for reserves – nothing that just any knife cannot achieve, but I was looking forward to see if using the tip area would yield particularly precise and effortless cuts to get the nasties out – and it did finely enough, surely beating both my fomer Miyabi and the Victo in such work.

Second test was trimming some red meat off the bone, which the tip does rather well, albeit the absence of any flexibility combined with the girth sure doesn’t make it best in class. In more intricate jobs, I suppose it will be an obstacle. The Victo petty can take over that part finely though, with added benefit of sparing it real contact with a cutting surface that doesn’t do it well.

Third test was removing the silverskin out of a few pork tenderloins. A quite unpleasant experience at the beginning: doing that, I could appreciate the extra blade width and forward balance much more than I thought, as I could choke the blade in a controlled grip with perfect equilibrium and more agility. However, I was bordering despair with the difficulty doing fast, neat penetration under to glide the blade along… until I slightly readjusted the way I angled at it. Problem solved instantly, and with some practice I found that I could start a bit lower off the mark, and angled further away from me, then sort of making the incision with a slight arc towards me as I pushed further under the silverskin until the spine of the tip was aligned with the skin outline, then glide forward.

That little initial move made it really easy in fact to get a larger segment of the silverskin secured over the tip, and the fast thickening of the spine there, contrary to my expectations, did a very neat job of gradually lifting the silverskin from the muscle – effortlessly yielding wide but fine peels not attacking the precious meat.

It underwent some other testing since and came out well with some adaptation, even yielding unexpected ease, but there are the odd few things where I will surely have to compromise and use the Fibrox petty. However, many tasks are much more readily dispatched with the Futana than with any petty in my use, and I like that a lot.






On with my usual performance reviewing, I think I would call the choil false since the heel is quite oversharpened and slightly rounded/upswept, and it may look a bit crazier thin than it really is from measurements further forward the heel – which I’d call regular thin. There’s a Yoshikane-ish aspect to this geometry – really nicely done for price and works really well.






Profile pretty perfect for push/pull cutting and chopping. Absolutely no spinal taper until the tip. No real purpose for it neither with such a knife in my book, and the tip tapers enough for finer use there – and that is really all I need with this one.

Grind is carried consistently, the wide bevel more than wide enough for general performance and minimal resistance even with taller and denser produces. Again, of note that the finish is rather prone to suction, which the score was already adjusted for in the Finish criterion. It is no food release king, but isn’t so bad neither with the nice geometry. May become very good with a bit of a polish on stones to give the bevels additional texture. Showing in the next pics is a slight convexing of the right cutting side, not so much on the left side.









I thought it would be a 50/50 performance score, but find myself inclined to give it a slightly better mark after some use: even using it as one would usually much narrower or specialized blades, there’s so little to fault it with. I’d say one of the best values in knives I came across so far, which would be even easier to say would this be another of my usual Gyuto review. I find I have a hard time really loving a blade I use so discreetly and rather occasionally, but I couldn’t live without the utilitarian aspects of one any longer, nor replace it with a poor steel like Victorinox, and must say that I’m highly satisfied with the risk I took buying this.

*Overall Score: 3.5/5 




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