# Comparative Review: Sukenari HAP-40 Migaki/Hairline (vs. AS/SG2)



## ModRQC (Dec 31, 2021)

*Foreword...*





_This should be the last of me reviewing Sukenari – unless YXR7 comes available again, in which case I might throw a fit and my bank account will be like “Jeeeez man just get it we’ll make do”.

I’d usually link to former Sukenari reviews, but the goal of this one review is to make the comparison already. Which shouldn’t stop me linking them anyhow to keep thorough, but I’m getting lazy.

Let’s get on with it!_





*MAKER*​*Sukenari*​*TYPE & LENGTH*​*K-Tip Gyuto 210mm*​*STEEL & BLADE*​*HAP40 Stainless Clad*​*FINISH*​*Hairline*​*WEIGHT / BALANCE*​*158g / +15*​*HANDLE MATERIAL*​*Teak/Buffalo Horn*​​​TOTAL LENGTH​353​BLADE LENGTH​218​EDGE LENGTH​*204*​​​HEIGHT AT HEEL​*48*​HEIGHT AT MID BLADE​41​HEIGHT 35mm TO TIP​31​​​*SPINE*​*THICKNESS*HEEL​*2.5*​MID BLADE​2​35mm TO TIP​1.6​10mm TO TIP​*1*​​​*EDGE THICKNESS*​@ 10/5/1mm_Average_​_1.1 / 0.6 / 0.2_​


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## ModRQC (Dec 31, 2021)

First, assessing what’s irrelevant to the comparison concerning the HAP K-tip under review, and there’s only the one obvious thing: the teak handle it comes fitted with from Cook’s Edge is a fine piece with fine looks. Their walnut on the SG2 was quite a fit too, rarely seen with that material. Obviously KnS ebony on mine AS Guyto is what it always is I guess: good enough not to complain.









That teak one is the kind you look closely at once, nod in approval, and never really look at again because it fits the blade well, feels natural in use, and doesn’t deteriorate under normal conditions. NOT one BIT. No I’m not using Joker’s intonations and words in Dark… ahem. Talk to my lawyers.









Balance is alright for the length, pretty spot on to a natural pinch for me, with a slight yet unmistakable nudge forward which is just enough to sit it right with tip work while mostly feeling neutral.

And that’s it. We now need to look at that blade, and that’s where the comparison becomes effective.


Fit & Finish

As always we get a perfectly cut and ground to shape blade. There’s not much variance with these guys in these matters. However, a quite varying degree of focus into the finer details seems to be of order, at least with a few of them. Picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s 3000 for you:





_Sukenari Super Gold 2 – rounded spine and chamfered smooth choil_





_Sukenari Aogami Super – nothing much_





_Sukenari HAP-40 – some obvious basic chamfering_


This brings me to another point that is the varying frequency at which we encounter the “Hairline” description of the finish against “Migaki”, depending on vendors or lines or whatever. I sure get the confusion. I had made a show of celebrating the Hairline finish on my former SG2 unit:






What I got with either the AS or HAP I rather call Migaki.









It’s nothing terrible. Pretty straight and rather finely done, but none deserving of any Hairline qualification in my book. Difference to me being both the thoroughly well behaved and consistent scratch pattern and the level of polish achieved – call it “almost” satin finish if you want – with the SG2. The other two are quite irregular, looking rougher and duller. Still, being diligently ground to shape and overall finished, there’s no roughness to speak of with them, even the AS unit. Therefore all I can really say is that smoothness varies quite a lot and “Hairline” might be debatable.


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## ModRQC (Dec 31, 2021)

Profile & Taper

We’re then back to things Sukenari are quite rigorous with, next point included. For this point, just a look at the 240mm K-tip (top) and 210mm K-tip (bottom) is quite telling: in longer/shorter fashion, we have the same slight heel upsweep, minimal flat spot, progressive belly and lowish tip. I think the Gyuto is also in line with others I’ve seen of different lengths: no heel upsweep, longer flat spot (yet nothing like a long flat spot), higher tip with a rounder belly.












For taper it seems obvious that the shorter the length, the more the illusion of taper there is, but in the end, they’re three of the same, never much more or less than 2.4-2.6mm at heel and around 1mm at tip where the most “important tapering” happens somewhere from mid-blade to tip area – if not the grind at the tip itself.

I don’t KNOW that I can _feel_ so much of a capital difference with blades that have taper, except obviously cutting at the heel then at the tip is like two totally different knives sometimes, but in general use I always thought the absence of taper was why Sukenari knives have some sort of blandness to them. They perform well, are no fuss knives, interesting steel array and aggressive HT, but I think we’d all wish that a maker with more “oomph” in the grind and taper would readily offer an array of steels like that.

That’s why it’s an interesting market though: can’t always get what we want, but then we try something else and get what we need – and then some. No, I’m not paraphrasing any Rolling… ahem. Talk to my lawyers.

I usually don’t discuss profiles much anymore because they’re a matter of personal preference. I sure can’t say that I don’t like the Guyto’s since it works so well for all-around use. If you don’t sharpen and like your hard Sukenaris YMMV… But I must admit these work their best for me in a K-tip fashion, and like with most laser-like geometries I prefer a shorter length – or rather find it more useful to meet my modest prep needs. 240mm was a weapon of mass push cutting, and this 210 is a masterful one meal deal for a home push cutter.


Grind & Geometry

I realized I was lacking comparable angle shots of the blade’s face between the SG2 and AS units, and didn’t care taking any with the HAP unit. I’ll just vouch that this set from the AS unit represents all three to a T:






So there’s a slight convexity on the cutting side of these. A good chance they have that too or I guess food release would be insufferable like on straight V grinds. It’s already not their greatest aspect for sure. Their left side being usually totally flat, I guess we can make without pictures.





_SG2_





_AS_





_HAP_


Geometry is also something more of the same: it seems the Gyuto might be ground a bit thinner overall (yeah BTE surely; I’m saying _overall_) with a more obvious try at something like symmetry, but really it’s pretty much potato-potato in use and I wouldn’t think it obvious enough that I’d be sure it’s intended. What’s real obvious here is rather thickness behind the edge, where it seems Sukenari are quite inconsistent.

Until factoring in two things, first being Sukenari’s habit of leaving both heel and tip area somewhat thick/er. In fact, concerning the choil thus the heel, I’ve seen the AS not being thicker, but having a more obtuse sharpening angle at the heel until the bevel “normalized” shortly forward (and yeah got quite wider at the thicker tip); the SG2 had like 1-2mm at the heel where the edge bevel “fell down” (you know when the edge bevel cuts a “45* line” straight to the tip of the heel instead of “joining the choil” right over it); this HAP40 one is just thicker, and comes as such with a bit of a messy looking edge bevel there – similar to what it looks like at the tip. The latter I can vouch is a sure Sukenari thing… so far.

So there’s that, but that doesn’t explain what we see entirely. Second thing is: I think Sukenari are highly aware of edge stability with their factory grinding/sharpening – which for the latter part has never readily struck me as excellent, if efficient enough and correctly deburred most of the time, and which I’m pretty sure is obtained on a belt. So 64-65RC Aogami Super? It’s by far the thinnest of the lot and a steel that can take it with a conservative DPS. 63-64RC SG2 – okay it can take to something quite thin too. Possibly the goal with once mine was a more obtuse angle at heel like with the AS, but some guy botched it a bit yielding a “falling” bevel at the very heel. 67-68RC HAP-40? I guess they take some extra precaution there – the heel is left thicker with some additional wiggle room too, and that probably leaves place for a lot of variance between choil shots because controlling how thicker you leave a heel as you grind these things on a belt is surely a bit on-the-spot guess/motor skills/experience.

If I’m wrong, then they’re just inconsistent, but I suspect there’s something rather controlled with these grinds and sharpening “quirks” as I got them. If you don’t get me or trust me about the different… aaah “heel methodologies” I remarked, a few of the pictures above will illuminate some of it.

Enough… Only thing we’re now missing concerning the HAP-40 unit itself is my usual sideways choil shot, devised to better demonstrate the right side geometry relative to thinness and show any quirk of heels that explain discrepancies between what the full choil looks like and specs I measure 10mm forward it. Here it’s pretty clear that the knife gets thicker I believe:






As an add-on, since we’re talking thicker heels and tips, and chance has it this one is a K-tip where the grind at tip tends to show more clearly:






Which would tend to show that, if surely thinner than at heel, the grind is kept real conservative even there…


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## ModRQC (Dec 31, 2021)

*Afterword*

_…which is why I’ve already thinned it down a bit. And while difficult, more “problems” lied ahead of that. But I’m keeping all this for another thread, since there’s some beef into it and this review has gotten long enough already. I’ll just leave you with an actual choil shot for now:_






_Nothing crazy until I get more accustomed with HAP-40. Long ago I would call that “cleaning” – which is what I did to a few first knives where I couldn’t really fathom what I wanted/needed in thinning vs. what was “right”. Here sharpened asymmetrically obviously. 

But there’s much more details to go into, so much so that without them this choil shot means very little. I’ll make sure to post an update here when I’ll post the other thread, so that some of you that got mildly interested in such developments but wouldn’t bother keeping an eye out for it don’t need to.

That’s if anyone ever reads into it that far in the first place…  _


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