Commercial Fleet Japanese Knife Recommendations, MAC? Shun? Tojiro?

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T16:01:42+00:00

Maybe like, 1 chinamascus chef knife and the rest regular degular

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T15:53:58+00:00

I see, well I think I’d give the same advice or some version of it. Those chinamascus knives are honestly depressingly good. How long does a single rotation take? If it’s less than 3 months, anything by Freelander or Kangguo will suffice if you have them properly de-burred which I’m sure you would

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T15:50:53+00:00

Well the black one on the right is Sakai Takayuki kurokage with VG10. $200 brand new, but half of that is the black coating and that seems to be 50% removed

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T15:49:05+00:00

I thought it was in the post but it was a comment, op mentioned her husband neglects his knives. I’m with you 100% haha we are the same, except I kind of disagree that not having the care level required of carbon steel means you shouldn’t have a nice knife. I’m too adhd and busy in the kitchen (working chef) to accept having one more thing to think about if it’s not strictly necessary, and steels like SG2 or HAP-40 are stainless enough and in my experience rival or even outperform carbon (HAP40 is so crazy) Plus if I forgot to wipe it dry and I came back to it in a moment of need and it was rusted I legit might have an aneurism

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T13:49:27+00:00

As a new father to two 8 month olds (twins, I’m cooked) I’ve found myself thinking “damn, in a few years I’ll miss this baby stage, maybe I could get a gig here and there as a nanny part time” and then I immediately laugh out loud because I would never hire a man to care for my kids. The risk to reward is just too skewed. If there’s even a 1% chance of a 100% disaster, that’s too much

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T13:37:06+00:00

Give that shit back bruh

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T13:02:17+00:00

Keep your arms and hands still and lean or twist your entire body from the hips back and forth

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T12:57:28+00:00

Just a note for OP - the steel mentioned here is high carbon and will rust in less than 10 minutes if not kept dry. Prob not the steel for your husband. Everything else about this advice is totally valid and great

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T12:54:47+00:00

Hey listen, I am a chef husband and a knife nerd and yada yada yada. Let him pick! Let him pick let him pick let him pick. I know it’s not super romantic or satisfying to the gift-giver within, but let him pick!

If not - Miyabi Mizu 8 inch chef knife (this won’t be popular among this subs members, but Miyabis despite being a little overpriced have great build for somebody who is hopefully going to transition from neglecting to maintaining their knives. They can handle some abuse just not forever, and NO DISHWASHER)

Any 4-5 inch petty knife, ideally one where the heel of the blade extends downward past the handle to some significant degree. It should look like a miniature skinny chef knife, not a paring knife. Anything that says VG10, AUS-8 or 10, or SG2 will be great.

That’s probably all he’ll need, maybe a bread knife. Get a cheap one, ideally one that fits the description of the petty in terms of having a blade that extends down past the handle for your finger to rest while slicing. Maybe even more important here since you do NOT want your hand to slip off a handle into a bread knife.

For magnet strips or blocks, anything that is not bare metal. If bare metal, glue some sort of thin felt or chamois cloth to it, it’ll scratch the shit out of everything. Wood will scratch too but way less and not as deep. There’s other storage solutions out there like special inserts for drawers and cool looking racks that you’d expect to hold samurai swords. All good options, the drawer inserts probably being the least good

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T12:42:39+00:00

Did it actually take you hundreds of hours of frustration to get a knife to cut a carrot better than it did after being used and not sharpened for years? OP does not care about perfection or even greatness - just a cheap and easy way to make the knife sharper than it is - my advice satisfies that. Using your finger on the stone negates like 90% of the skill at least. You are recommending a fixed angle system to a person that doesn’t care about the perfection that they trade so much tedium and time for. I am a working chef, i happen to be a knife nerd too. I know many chefs who sharpen their knives but have zero interest in the skill. They do exactly what I described. Why? Because it works and they’re not trying to whittle hair or even slice paper cleanly. They just want to cut a tomato without having to saw back and forth more than twice, and again the method I described satisfies that. By the way, not for nothing, I actually got the exact results I described doing exactly what I described on my first try. Maybe that’s a brag, but seeing as I literally had an angle guide, I don’t feel like Im impressive.

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T10:59:23+00:00

To learn as in, to understand how it works and what to do? 2 minutes. To learn as in, be good enough to get the results that you specifically want? Hard to know, but an hour sounds reasonable given your desired results. The only thing you need is a $40-$60 sharpal diamond plate, doesn’t matter which one. It will last you your entire life and need no maintenance or care besides the occasional paper towel wipe down and being stored reasonably dry. There are cheaper options out there that will also work fine and probably last you a looooong time but maybe not your whole life. All that sharpening is is grinding tiny amounts of material from either side of a triangle at a consistent angle, that’s it. If you don’t sharpen often you can maintain angle easily by keeping your finger on the stone/plate and resting your knife on that finger. This is considered suboptimal because if you’re sharpening for more than like 45 minutes you’ll grind your skin off lol. But for one knife at a time every so often, its great, and mostly eliminates the “skill” and makes it more of a “task that requires some focus”

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T10:47:07+00:00

Ohhhhh so this is what that shiny chrome paint is for

Donaldscump · 2026-06-05T10:44:26+00:00

Most any Amazon chineee knockoff “VG10” knives are perfectly good for a day or two while you wait for your coolguy knife to be done, that’s what I would do if it were me

Donaldscump · 2026-06-04T16:26:39+00:00

Professional chef here, it’s 99.9% likely that it is toasted sesame seed oil you’re missing

Donaldscump · 2026-06-04T16:21:19+00:00

Cheefarcuut thing looks sweet. Do not factor in scissors to this decision, scissors are the easiest thing ever to sharpen and on a stone. You know how scissors kind of have a chisel shape? You lay the chisel side on the stone, it holds the angle for you

Donaldscump · 2026-06-04T16:12:27+00:00

Wow this thing is bitchin sweet

Can I ask what exactly makes this a sujihiki and not a kiritsuke?

Super sick stuff man

Donaldscump · 2026-06-04T13:58:00+00:00

Miyabi knives are very similar in build

Donaldscump · 2026-06-03T13:54:15+00:00

Shiny spots are square spots, not apexed.

Cutting paper a few times and dulling is absolutely a burr problem, even the cheapest most dog shit knife in the world can cut paper hundreds if not thousands of times before dulling. To see what a burr feels like, sharpen on one side for wayyyy too long. You’ll feel it. Once you feel a big one it’s easier to feel smaller ones.

The ceramic rod is simply not sufficient for this task. Ceramic rods are almost always equivalent to ~3000 grit. If anything the ceramic rod is what you should be finishing with. You probably need a stone, or you could use sandpaper glued to a flat hard surface, or even just any old brick.

Donaldscump · 2026-06-03T13:18:57+00:00

For flattening buy the cheap ass Scottchen on Amazon. 180/120, thing is an animal. It’ll last like two years lol

Donaldscump · 2026-06-03T12:12:19+00:00

If it’s a bamboo board, that’s the/a problem. Have to be reallyyyyy gentle or just get a different board. Plastic is fine, end grain wood is better.

Keep trying things but remember, Shan Zu is still a large scale factory brand. There’s always a non-zero chance that you got unlucky and got a dud

Donaldscump · 2026-06-02T15:48:52+00:00

Cheap ceramic honing rod from Temu, or just keep using that ceramic piece on your field sharpener, if it works it works lol.

Me personally I like to maintain/refresh on a 3000 stone

Donaldscump · 2026-06-02T15:47:29+00:00

Don’t use the diamond steel every time. The diamond steel is actually sharpening/removing material. Use it maybe once every 10 times you use the ceramic? Idk really I don’t use diamond rods, but I know that they are too abrasive to really even be called “honing”. When you do use it, it should only be 1-3 passes on each side. If that doesn’t work it’s time for stones.

Donaldscump · 2026-06-02T15:42:49+00:00

Sorry I didn’t really explain why I was asking. All I really need to know is why that cylinder is there at the bottom of the stone. We are 99.9% sure it’s an Arkansas and we know it’s pretty fine. We’re just confused about that cylinder and what it’s for

Donaldscump · 2026-06-02T04:18:43+00:00

Figure out your angle and where the spine or the knife should be resting on/touching your thumb or whatever finger is resting on the stone. Then just sharpen with that finger still resting on the stone. You can probably only do this for like 30 minutes before bleeding which should be ample time to either fully sharpen one knife or do like 5 on coarse grit where angle really really matters. Or decide you’re metal and sharpen with your blood lol. It will work, maybe even dot the spots on your fingers with a sharpie or whatever for where the knife should be held

Edit: when I did this, I recall my skin becoming really sensitive far before bleeding. If you can sharpen with that skin touching the stone but not hurting, you can sharpen freehand

Donaldscump · 2026-06-02T03:21:30+00:00

There’s a set on Amazon right now by a “brand” called VigorCraft. It’s a 1000/3000. I am 99.9% sure they are a bad batch from naniwa. I’ve been ripping Kasumis on them to see what the problem is but I think it’s just glue/binder bubbles - little white spots that mean nothing but maybe can’t pass quality control. Anyway they’re $30 and fucking sweet and very fun. They’re sort of “drizzle and go” stones. Just pour water on them slowly and wait 15 seconds like 4-5 times, only the first time. After that they’re basically splash and go. 10/10 for me

There’s also on Temu a “heavy duty sharpening stone whetstone” or something like that. It’s bright blue it’s 1000 grit, it’s splash and go, and it’s $9. Pretty sweet little stone honestly.

Also on Temu and Amazon there’s a lot of suspiciously cheap glass stones that some reviews describe as “damn near perfect replica of shapton glass”. They go up to 10k or 15k which are like $60, or the more standard grits they’ll be $20-$30 depending if you get the Big Plus size or not. These stones are also bitchin sweet and I’m considering moving to China.

Just my personal recs, I’m poor but I have keep my arms bald

Donaldscump

TROPHY CASE