Excellent gyuto for the price.

[The Tourist]

One of the doctors in our town's clinic is Japanese, and his family has kitchen knives that are several generations old. When these knives no longer slice as desired, their family sends them back to Japan for repair, restoration and polishing. The turn-around time is always months on end. When I spoke with him last week the knives were still tied up in transit.

To solve the problem I went looking for a gyuto chefs' knife that might serve his family until the original knives would return. This is the knife that will be loaned to him.

I had my distributor send me a Tojiro Damascus Slicing Knife Gyuto Hocho. The knife itself is not very expensive--around 100 dollars--however to prepare the edge for a professional's expectations takes a few hours.

After a thorough polishing, the edge easily floated through newsprint, leaving a clean crisp sliced edge. It probably won't hold the edge retention of an Hattori, but a food hobbyist will get months of service out of this style, and longer if the edge sees a good steel.

If you need/want to replace your kitchen knives with decent replacements, this is a good brand. A tinker in your area can easily see to your needs.

(BTW, this picture is from my files, but it is the same knife. The file picture was a knife intended for a professional chef.)

[The Tourist]

I dropped off the Tojiro gyuto to the doc's office last night. He stated that he would use it while his personal knives were still in Japan and give me a report.

I feel that it's kind of like "graduation day." Oh, I've prepared knives for chefs in Japanese restaurants. I even prepared a knife for a native Japanese chef in a Japanese restaurant.

However, I've never gone head-to-head with a generations' old set of kitchen knives, utilized by a native Japanese doctor familiar with their use and feel.

It's kind of like having the Penske Racing Team evaluate Black Betty to see if my maintenance skills are acceptable.

Well, my Dad always said that you don't improve your game of chess unless you start playing with guys much better than you. Here goes...