# First Impressions of The Gesshin Hide Mizu-Honyaki Blue 1 270 mm Gyuto



## bamin (Feb 4, 2013)

So I've had this for a couple weeks no, but I've been so busy that I didn't have time to really play with it. 

Let me begin by saying that I am just a home cook so its not getting put through its paces in edge retention, but its Blue 1 and very hard so I don't foresee sharpening more often than every few months.

The fit and finish on the knife is superb, everything you'd expect at his price point. Then handle is made of ichii wood and is very large, almost as big as that found on the Suisin IH gyutos.

The grind is flawless, very convex more so than any other knife I've ever held. There is some distal taper but its not very extreme, so quite a bit of metal at the tip, so no flex in the blade. Above the heel the spine is about 4mm and 20mm from the tip it is 2mm. 

The edge out of the box was very sharp already, but it wasn't terribly thin behind the edge. I found it to wedge when going through an onion (haven't really cut other things yet) going through it from the root end to the other end in preparation to dice. I was unable to cut through the onion horizontally (the way salty does it) it would get stuck in the first few inches. As, a comparison the Yoshikane White 2 Wa-gyuto is similarly thick at the spine but it is noticeably thinner behind the edge. 

So on to the stones it went. I started thinning at 220 and went through 8K (btw the Gesshin 8K is an awesome stone feels great) after which i put a new edge on it that I took up to a Yaginsohima Asagi that left a nice toothy edge. I lost a bit of blood in the process and have to fix the mirror finish now but I managed to thin the knife a little bit, but even that little bit took like 2 hours. Sharpening the edge itself was no problem though, it was pretty easy to get a burr, though tiny. 

Back to the onion, now there is virtually no wedging and I can slice horizontally through the onion in one slice with ease. It went through potatoes and pineapple with equal ease and no wedging. 

So the knife is awesome and I think it was absolutely worth the cost. The only caveat is that it needs a little thinning, and only a tiny bit after 2 hours I had only removed a very small amount of metal, its the first time I've started bleeding from sharpening in probably 4 years. It could be that i basically reduced the degree of convexing in the grind. Before, as nearly as I could feel by touch, it was ground kind of like a sword - just a guess though. Anyways, I think its an awesome knife, it glides through everything now. 

Sorry for my less than stellar attempt at writing a review, its my first one actually.

If there are any questions do feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer.


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## chinacats (Feb 4, 2013)

Nice review, but it needs pictures (lot's of them)! :knife:


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## Johnny.B.Good (Feb 4, 2013)

chinacats said:


> Nice review, but it needs pictures (lot's of them)! :knife:



+1

Thanks for posting.


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## ThEoRy (Feb 4, 2013)

Hmmm, yeah doesn't even look like you have the knife.....


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## bamin (Feb 5, 2013)

Haha, I'll get some up tomorrow.


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## bamin (Feb 5, 2013)

Here are pictures, I added a Masamoto Honyaki and Yoshikane W2 Wa-gyuto for comparison. Any suggestions for improvement are appreciated.

In all pics, except for the first, from left to right: Masamoto Honayki 240mm, Gesshin Hide 270mm, Yoshikane W2 240mm.


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## Chuckles (Feb 6, 2013)

Nice combo of steels, profiles, and geometries. Great to see them side by side. Enlightening. Thanks for the review.


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## Mike9 (Feb 22, 2013)

Good review - I have a Takagi Honyaki in blue #1 and yeah they are a ***** to thin, but the reward is worth the effort. Are you thinking of etching/polishing the blade to bring the hamon out?


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## bamin (Feb 25, 2013)

The hamon is visible but only if light hits it at the right angle. According to Jon this is a characteristic of Blue 1 since it is a more deeply hardening steel. Did you find that polishing/etching improved visibility of the hamon?


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## Mike9 (Feb 26, 2013)

Mine is very rustic looking above the shinogi line in fact it's not a line at all so I doubt the hamon would show like on a polished blade.


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## Chef Doom (Mar 27, 2013)

SO YOU ARE THE ONE WHO STOLE MY BABY!!!!!

I am a big fan of the Hide line. I get very impressed anytime I use the kasumi finished gyuto.


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