Bye bye Shigefusa

Shig reactivity is highly overrated. If it just sits on your wall and looks pretty, then yeah- it's gonna be a ********** to work with. But if you actually put the time in to build a patina, it settles in quite nicely.

 

:like

I forget if I mentioned it, but sounds right - Maxim has written they use the same steel for the cladding as 'all' other makers (don't know about 'all' but 'many' sounds plausible). I suppose he's sent a question their way about this before, and I heard the same too elsewhere.

 

Hey man good to hear that. I was thinking about how did it went with that one

 

I have to wonder if this differs with the different finishes. My KU is not bad, but the kitaeji is the most reactive knife I own. It wants to rust rather than patina. I have a Yosihide made of the same steel (out of the Shig shop by the younger(?) son) that also is not bad at all.

 

That's interesting Lucretia. I'd say my Shig kitaeji yo-gyuto is less reactive than my Maumasi. Not that my Maumasi is overly reactive (I know you have one as well so it's easy to compare to), it's just based on what I'd heard I was expecting really bad reactivity with my Shig and mine isn't worse than my other knives. It developed a nice purple/blue patina quickly, and that's about it. My Tsukasa Hinoura is much more reactive than my Shig.

- Steve

 

And my Maumasi is not very reactive at all. It's getting a nice blue patina after cutting up some roast beef, but otherwise not much reaction--even on onions. With my Shig, by the time you've cut up one onion it's turning orange.

 

That's so strange. It's amazing that the same knife can have such polarizing reactivity! Mine is my onion go-to and acidic food doesn't seem to phase mine any more than other carbon knives. I wonder why the dramatic differences?

- Steve

 

My Shig kitaeji nakiri reacts similar to what Lucretia is describing. It's mainly a veggie knife, yet despite cutting countless onions it still blackens and imparts an odor to acidic items, and easily gets light surface rust on the blade. Since I have a lot of other choices I rarely use the knife due to the issue. Maybe if I started voer and went with the cabbage patina it would help, but I hate cabbage so...

 

Have you tried colcannon? Enough butter and potatoes and you won't even notice the cabbage.

 

I misspoke in my prior post, as I've only had experience with the Kasumi line. Apologies. I will once again blame the beer(which I also give credit to when I do things right).

 

check with Maksim, i suspect he is sitting on a pile of old shigs....waiting for the right time to sell