# Jiro Nakagawa - Initial Impressions of Western Handle 240mm Gyuto - Part1



## khashy (Jul 25, 2019)

I thought I'd note down my initial impressions of Jiro-san's gyuto as I think it is the most exciting new blade to come out in quite some time.

Please bear in mind that I have only had this knife for one day, so cutting review and further thoughts will be done in Part2. I think after that in Part 3, I might take the time to do a comparison with some other knives that this blade could be considered similar to. Maybe Kato, Shig or something else I can think of 


*Who is Jiro Nakagawa?*

Jiro-san is a blacksmith and knife maker from the Nagano region. He is a one man operation, meaning every part of the knife has been handcrafted by Jiro-san from start to finish. Because of this, the number of knives that he can produce is very low. I believe we are talking about 20 or so knives a month at best. I do not know exactly how old Jiro-san is, however he has an Instagram page and can communicate in English. I have spoken to him on IG previously and he is extremely nice and humble and obviously an exceptionally talented person. 

I do have to say that he has on several occasions stated (to me and others that have reached out to him) that the only way to place orders for his blades is through his knives' retailers and he will not take individual direct orders. I think that is more than fair enough.








*Where did you get it from?*

The blade was sourced from CarbonKnifeCo and was the first Jiro blade they had received. 

I think it's worth taking a minute to highlight my experience in dealing with CarbonKnifeCo; I have dealt with them on many occasions previously for some exemplary blades, including a wonderful 270mm honyaki gyuto by Togashi-san. 

The owner, Craig, is an incredibly knowledgeable and kind person who is absolutely passionate about all things knife and stone related. 

On each of my purchases from CarbonKnifeCo, Craignhas kindly taken the time to understand exactly what I am looking for and handpick the knife from his stock batch to best meet what I have looked for. 

He has hit the mark 100% of the time and I have been absolutely delighted with every interaction I have had with him.

Needless to say that packaging has always been bullet proof and actually we must have broken some kind of record with this knife - order placed over the weekend and the Jiro was in my hands first thing on Wednesday! So Denver to London in two days!


*What is the blade like to look at?*

The Jiro has a rustic yet refined look to it. The hammer marks and the Kurouchi on the blade surface are not rough and are not pronounced enough to hurt the knuckles while the knife is in contact with them when cutting.

I would not call this knife wide bevel per se, because there is no pronounced shinogi to speak of, however what you would consider the blade road /Kireha has been ground to be pretty wide. 

Even though a crisp shinogi line is not present, the transition between the Kurouchi part of the blade and the blade road is not unsightly along the blade on either side. There are obviously undulations but these are quite subtle and actually nice looking imo.

The blade road has an absolutely wonderful kasumi finish and it looks great. It reminds me of the polish on the kireha of a Heiji gyuto I have and I know that Heiji-san had finished that particular blade on stones. I'm not sure if Jiro-san has finished the sharpening of the blade on stones but I wouldn't be surprised at all if he has.











*What is the handle like?*

Then we have the handle. I think the handle on the western style Jiro is unique and certainly stands out among the Japanese made Yo handles I have seen.

The full tang is very beefy and it is sandwiched by a red 'spacer' and Tagayasan wood. The contrast between the brown of the wood, the steel of the tang and the red is extremely beautiful, even more so in person than in the photos. 

The contouring of the handle is very very very very comfortable to hold and the three pins on the handle have been nicely executed.











*What is Tagayasan?*

Tagayasan is an evergreen, broad leaf tree from south /south east Asia. In addition to the medicinal use of the leaves, the wood is used for multiple purposes. 

In Japanese it is also called Tettouboku meaning 'Iron Sword Wood'. It is used for making Bokken and the marketing verbiage for the Bokkens state it to be 'hard, durable and resistant to corrosion'. I'm sure this is all true, however the bottom line is that it is a good looking wood, feels nice to touch and definitely goes with this blade.








*What is the blade profile like?*

Well this is where is get really interesting. This knife has one of the cleanest profiles I have seen in a fully hand crafted blade. It has a fantastically generous flat spot, the likes of which you rarely see. I would say it covers around half of the cutting edge, maybe even more. I have put the cutting edge against a pane of glass to see just how flat the edge has been sharpened to and I must say it blew my mind. In fact it's so perfect that I'm scared of sharpening it because I know my sharpening skills are never going to be good enough to get the cutting edge to damn perfect again. 

The tip profile is also nice. It reminds me a lot of the profile of the tip on a Shigefusa 240mm kasumi gyuto.


*What is the grind like?*

In terms of distal taper, well, there's boat loads of it. The spine thickness above the heel is a little under 5mm and by the middle of the blade, it has been reduced to around 2mm. At around one centimeter from the tip, it is about 1mm. I would have given exact measurements if my calipers had not ran out of battery. 

I think the tip has been ground as thinly as it is possible for a Kurouchi clad knife. Any thinner and it would have made the tip so fragile that it would just snap off.

The choil shot says a workhorse grind as you can see although it is difficult to 'see' a knife's grind just from the choil. For that, we will have to wait for the cutting tests. I am sure there is all kinds of wonderful things going on in the grind along the blade - we'll see.







*What is the fit and finish like?*

In short very good. The choil has been nicely rounded and as mentioned previously the handle contouring and pins are great. 

On this particular knife, I can see a tiny gap between the red 'spacer' and the steel of the tang on one side of the handle. I suspect this is because of the very hard wood reacting to temperature and humidity swings in transport. 

The gap is tiny, however it does need to be sealed to prevent water getting in and corroding the handle. I think it will take me around one and a half minutes to re-seal it with some bee's wax, so no biggie.

The only place for improvement that I can think of in terms of fit and finish would be for Jiro-san to ease the spine a little bit. As it is, the spine's edges would likely bother me in prolonged use when gripping the gyuto in the 'Japanese style' ( i.e. with finger on the edge of the spine and grip of handle further back). 


*What is the knife's balance like?*

This is a point that has always been hugely important for me. I find it extremely difficult to use knives that have a handle bias and was afraid that a full tang with a thickness of 5mm or so plus the Iron Sword Wood and pins etc to cause the knife to be very handle heavy. 

This was absolutely not the case. I think this has been very carefully thought out by Jiro-san and he has made the blade such that it's perfectly neutrally balanced. 


*Conclusions so far?*

This was a blade that I had been looking forward to for a really long time. It looked great in the photos and I was actually excited about a new knife for the first time after a very long time.

I'm happy to report that it has not disappointed me. Of course I have not had a chance to cut with it yet but at least from a visual and tactile perspective it has ticked all the boxes for me.

Jiro-san numbers and dates each blade. The knife geek in me absolutely loves this. This particular knife is No.10 which I am well chuffed with!

The best way I can describe it is to say that it feels like the maker has given it a soul, which I guess is the highest praise one can give a knife.


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## Matus (Jul 25, 2019)

This knife did catch my attention recently. So I am really looking forward to hear more about it from you. Thanks for a nice write-up. 

You say the blade ‘balanced’. So where is the center of mass?


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## Corradobrit1 (Jul 25, 2019)

Nice write up. Looking forward to Part 2.
What are the actual specs? True 240 edge length? Height at the heel? Weight?


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## khashy (Jul 25, 2019)

Matus said:


> This knife did catch my attention recently. So I am really looking forward to hear more about it from you. Thanks for a nice write-up.
> 
> You say the blade ‘balanced’. So where is the center of mass?




I should have clarified this. I meant it's balanced at the point of my pinch grip. i.e just in front of the heel.


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## khashy (Jul 25, 2019)

Corradobrit1 said:


> Nice write up. Looking forward to Part 2.
> What are the actual specs? True 240 edge length? Height at the heel? Weight?



These are well documented by the retailers but I'll measure this specific knife and report back.


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## Corradobrit1 (Jul 25, 2019)

khashy said:


> These are well documented by the retailers but I'll measure this specific knife and report back.


Just trying to figure out where this new maker fits in the JKnife spectrum. Consistent blade to blade like Konosuke or all over the place like TF. CKC has the Jiro 240 weighing in at almost 300g making it quite a heavyweight for a 240.


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## Smashmasta (Jul 25, 2019)

Great write up, Khashy!

To my knowledge, Jiro is indeed finishing these by hand on stones.

These are some of the most unique and beautiful knives I've come across in a while. Yes I love clean and polished wide double bevel gyuto, or a glimmering damascus yanagi from time to time, but this aesthetic and feel are something entirely different. There are other makers out there that make exceptional rustic looking knives, but these have such a presence when you hold them, and Jiro-san is such a humble and focused person, that as you put so well, Khashy, you can tell he's poured his soul into it. The rate at which he produces, and the numbered knives and notes included simply add to the whole shebang.

The additional cool thing about Jiro is that he's eager to hear feedback (which you should relay through the retailer you got it from since his English is limited and a bunch of notes coming from all directions will likely confuse him). This means that his style is likely to change over time, either in profile and or fit and finish eg, the easing of the spine Khashy mentioned. Not a lot of smiths do this.

If anyone has any questions about the knives, I'm happy to answer to the best of my ability. Cheers.


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## Matus (Jul 25, 2019)

I would not be surprised if these knives (in spite if the current price tag - $700 is quite a bit for a young maker) would soon join Kato and Shig on collector’s shelves. I think that they have a chance to hit the right nerve. 

I love the look even if 300g is a bit on the high side for a 240 blade. I personally would wish for a tapered tang though.


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## Wdestate (Jul 25, 2019)

Awesome stuff as usual khash


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## Corradobrit1 (Jul 25, 2019)

Handle F&F seems less than perfect from what I can see. Looking at the photos there appears to be a significant gap, especially towards the heel, on the right side scale which obviously would allow water etc to accumulate in and cause problems over time. What are your thoughts about that since photos don't necessarily convey the truth.


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## Barclid (Jul 25, 2019)

Corradobrit1 said:


> Handle F&F seems less than perfect from what I can see. Looking at the photos there appears to be a significant gap, especially towards the heel, on the right side scale which obviously would allow water etc to accumulate in and cause problems over time. What are your thoughts about that since photos don't necessarily convey the truth.



Definitely doesn't look ideal but you could sand, oil and wax the handle and likely experience no real issue over the long term.


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## Barmoley (Jul 25, 2019)

Matus said:


> I would not be surprised if these knives (in spite if the current price tag - $700 is quite a bit for a young maker) would soon join Kato and Shig on collector’s shelves. I think that they have a chance to hit the right nerve.
> 
> I love the look even if 300g is a bit on the high side for a 240 blade. I personally would wish for a tapered tang though.



I am with Matus, I liked the look very much when I saw it first and the handle looked like it would be comfortable, but I too would want a tapered tang. I like blade forward balance though, so that is part of it, but also it seems silly to have such a thick tang for no reason except making the production easier, cheaper. The weight saving could be significant with tapered tang.

Looking forward to part 2 and 3 of the review.


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## khashy (Jul 25, 2019)

Corradobrit1 said:


> Just trying to figure out where this new maker fits in the JKnife spectrum. Consistent blade to blade like Konosuke or all over the place like TF. CKC has the Jiro 240 weighing in at almost 300g making it quite a heavyweight for a 240.



My sclaes make it to be 296 grams
Height at heel bang on 54mm
Cutting edge length, just over 240mm


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## khashy (Jul 25, 2019)

Smashmasta said:


> Great write up, Khashy!
> 
> To my knowledge, Jiro is indeed finishing these by hand on stones.
> 
> ...




Thanks and completely agree about how to relay comments back to Jiro-san.


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## khashy (Jul 25, 2019)

Matus said:


> I would not be surprised if these knives (in spite if the current price tag - $700 is quite a bit for a young maker) would soon join Kato and Shig on collector’s shelves. I think that they have a chance to hit the right nerve.
> 
> I love the look even if 300g is a bit on the high side for a 240 blade. I personally would wish for a tapered tang though.



Agreed with your assessment regarding the appeal of these blades - I had honestly not been excited about any blade for a very long time until I saw these.

I also understand your preference for a tapered tang, it would result in some weight saving although it might not be as much as you might think - the handle wood is dense and heavy.

Personally I like the tang as it is. Actually I think I’d like it either way, tapered or not. Perhaps it’s because I don’t use the knife for hours on end in the home environment, so a near enough 300 gram knife is perfectly fine for me. Actually with the ‘Japanes style’ grip that I have been trying to use, the knife does most of the work rather than my arm, so the heft is kinda welcome if the blade cuts well. Just my personal perspective anyway.


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## khashy (Jul 25, 2019)

Corradobrit1 said:


> Handle F&F seems less than perfect from what I can see. Looking at the photos there appears to be a significant gap, especially towards the heel, on the right side scale which obviously would allow water etc to accumulate in and cause problems over time. What are your thoughts about that since photos don't necessarily convey the truth.



I have already mentioned this in the original post. Yes a gap exists between the scales and the tang, however it’s far from significant. What you see in the photo is mostly the epoxy used. The gap does need to be dealt with as you say and the solution is very simple with wax.


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## HRC_64 (Jul 25, 2019)

~300g weight vs 240mm length...generally means alot of weight in the handle, no?


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## Matus (Jul 25, 2019)

HRC_64 said:


> ~300g weight vs 240mm length...generally means alot of weight in the handle, no?



I would agree with Khashy here - it will make a difference, but probably not more than 10-20g. What plays here the main role os that this blade is 5mm taller while being of workhorse grind with thick spine. Imagine Kato WH to be 5mm taller at the heel. It would probably go past 300g

One thing I am positively surprised by is, that - contrary to very most full tang YO knives out there - the handle ends about a centimeter before the heel, thus allowing enough space for the middle finger when using pinch grip. Or at least so it looks from the pictures.

The most important point to be yet revealed is HT and grind. But I am sure that Khashy is the right man for the job.


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## HRC_64 (Jul 25, 2019)

Don't get me wrong, I actually really like the look and feel of the knive, the aesthetics, and profile etc. 54mm tall is also sweet  And its a good point, that the aller heel height will bring some weight more forward to compensate in terms of usability/balance, etc. Still, the tang is massive ...I take it to be 5mm at the emoto (?) and proably 5.5-6mm by the butt (?). And since the overall weight will come into play if you use it in a pro setting, or extended prep sessions, its an important component to looking at the overal design of the knife etc.


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## Barmoley (Jul 25, 2019)

You guys are right about the difference in weight between full tang and tapered tang in the sense that we are talking about small amounts of material, but wood, even iron wood is nowhere close to density of steel, iron wood is around 1300 kg/m³ and steel is around 7800 kg/m³, so depending on the severity of taper you could affect the balance moving it forward a cm or two. In any case, I agree that it doesn't matter all in all and is not all that important.


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## YG420 (Jul 25, 2019)

Man I want one of these so bad! Great write up Khash!


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## GorillaGrunt (Jul 25, 2019)

These definitely caught my eye, I’ll love hearing how it performs. I seem to remember that Kenichi Shiraki’s apprentice who (as I understand it) is making honyaki for Shiraki Hamono is surnamed Nakagawa. Is this a different Nakagawa?

(As always, Jon, Osaka joe, etc. if anything I think above is incorrect please correct me here.)


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## lemeneid (Jul 26, 2019)

GorillaGrunt said:


> These definitely caught my eye, I’ll love hearing how it performs. I seem to remember that Kenichi Shiraki’s apprentice who (as I understand it) is making honyaki for Shiraki Hamono is surnamed Nakagawa. Is this a different Nakagawa?
> 
> (As always, Jon, Osaka joe, etc. if anything I think above is incorrect please correct me here.)


Probably a different guy. Nakagawa is a pretty common surname and this one is from Nagano. Shiraki's apprentice is in Sakai I assume. Additionally Sakai knives tend to come in on the shorter end with regards to specs. This one seems to be bang on.


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## Gregmega (Jul 26, 2019)

Heavy metal bro. If that knife was a band it would be Slayer.


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## khashy (Jul 26, 2019)

GorillaGrunt said:


> These definitely caught my eye, I’ll love hearing how it performs. I seem to remember that Kenichi Shiraki’s apprentice who (as I understand it) is making honyaki for Shiraki Hamono is surnamed Nakagawa. Is this a different Nakagawa?
> 
> (As always, Jon, Osaka joe, etc. if anything I think above is incorrect please correct me here.)



Yes, different Nakagawa. Jiro-san is in Nagano and the Shiraki Hamono Nakagawa (whose first name escapes me right now) is in Sakai.


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## friz (Aug 13, 2019)

Hey @khashy, how would you say big hands would cop with this handle? Thanks.


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## khashy (Aug 13, 2019)

friz said:


> Hey @khashy, how would you say big hands would cop with this handle? Thanks.



I don’t really know to be honest. I don’t have anyone with big hands around to test it out. 

I think unless you have significantly above average size hands it might be on the small size for you, otherwise it’ll be fine.


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## Gregmega (Aug 18, 2019)

Got my first in the mail the other day, and I second the Carbon experience. What a good guy to deal with, Craig is a champ. Service and shipping on point. 

I got the 150 to kick the door in to see if there’s fire where that smoke is. Waiting with bated breath for the gyuto now. More to come as I wrap my hands around it.


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## flying hippo (Aug 25, 2019)

A bit off topic but the calligraphy on the handwritten note that came with the knife looks fantastic. If Mr. Nakagawa wrote that as well it's very impressive.


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## khashy (Aug 26, 2019)

flying hippo said:


> A bit off topic but the calligraphy on the handwritten note that came with the knife looks fantastic. If Mr. Nakagawa wrote that as well it's very impressive.



He writes the notes himself. Here:

 https://www.instagram.com/p/B1XTqdSH3Nw/?igshid=gd7kpubeow8g


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## flying hippo (Aug 26, 2019)

khashy said:


> He writes the notes himself. Here:
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/B1XTqdSH3Nw/?igshid=gd7kpubeow8g



He's displaying some serious talent there.

Edit: There's a lot of disipline and practice involved in being able to write that well. I'm impressed!


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## Corradobrit1 (Aug 26, 2019)

I'd be putting that in a frame and on the wall. Beautiful calligraphy


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## atb (Aug 26, 2019)

seriously such a beautiful blade. would love one of these someday...


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## labor of love (Aug 26, 2019)

@khashy have you already discussed how it sharpens?


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## khashy (Aug 27, 2019)

labor of love said:


> @khashy have you already discussed how it sharpens?



No, I’ve not sharpened it yet.


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## HRC_64 (Aug 27, 2019)

khashy said:


> No, I’ve not sharpened it yet.



There should be a rule that any knife review featuring white steel happens only after it has been sharpened


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