Ferry's 200mm W2 Honyaki 'Extra Heavy' Gyuto

This knife is the culmination of a project that has been brewing for a good while now. My customer had very particular ideas about what he wanted in some areas, and was pretty open in others. One thing he wanted was a handle that stood out, and a tall, 'heavy' blade. Now, those of you that have handled my knives know that 'heavy' isn't really in it. They are precision, lightweight, nimble cutters with an aggressive attitude built on speed. This project however has given some options to all of that. This knife weighs 176g, which in comparison to my standard 200mm gyuto weight of around 125-130g...is a pretty substantial difference. Balance is only a bit forward of the heel (due to the wrought iron spacers in the handle), but the overall feel is positively meaty. The spine is over 4mm at the ferrule, and tapers gently to just in front of where your pinch grip would end. From there, it's all my 'typical' laser, which is designed to combine great food release with extreme ease of cutting. I think we hit the nail on the head.

All in all, this has been a really enjoyable project!

201mm x 54mm x 4mm thick over the heel.

Steel - AISI W2 from Aldo at New Jersey Steel Baron
Handle - Stabilized (Petes Kustom Koa) spalted 'deep compression' Hawaiian koa, with nickel silver and 165yr old wrought iron spacers.

Many of these pictures are very similar to each other, but most show a slightly different facet of the similar view that I felt was important to get a real feel for the knife. This one is one of my favorites yet.



As always, thanks for looking!!

 

That works

 

That handle stands out for sure. Big ole spacers!

 

Nice...and nice work on the pictures too.

 

Not sure if I'm reading it wrong but this blade which is supposed to be heavier is lighter than your standard knives? Still loving it though. This blade got me thinking of what I might want for my second one.

 

I thought it used to say 276g vs 196g.

 

Thanks Robert!! I was trying to capture the personality of the knife with the pictures. The blade has a sort of 'brooding' feel to it with the weight, the heavily spalted koa, and the wrought iron. I think the pictures reflect that for the most part . There's a few dark shadows I had a lot of trouble with...but overall I think the pictures came out clearly lit, without ruining the mood. That was a LOT harder than I thought it would be, lol!

It's a typo...it was 4:30 am and I was exhausted lol, it's supposed to be 176 vs 125-130g. To be exact:

"This knife weighs 176g, which in comaparison to my standard 200mm gyuto weight of around 125-130g...is a pretty substantial difference."

@Toothpick...would it be possible to edit it to avoid confusion??

 

Yes, this is definitely a knife I want to read a review on! Gorgeous work!

 

Thanks!! I had mentioned some heavier stuff in the works . I'm finishing a 250mm with a similar heavy grind for @marc4pt0 here soon!

 

Fixed!

I thought the weights seemed funky but you've got massive arms and access to sharp knives. I just kept my mouth shut.

 

Lol! Thanks Jason!

 

My ears were itchin, and with great reason I see!

 

Hi everyone, I am the proud owner of this knife and cannot wait to use it, I want my cake and eat it too.

I would like to share my positive experience in building this knife together with Cris. This felt more like a collaboration because he let me in every step of the way.

This guy is a knife artist, he has this thing to get a feel of the blade from the hamon pattern, then to the handle materials and execution, and lastly to the leather saya. A good example is the 205mm gyuto (for Shanti), with the 'live edge', that was done together with my knife and the other ko-gyuto. He managed to capture the character of the new owner and the handle design could be made to look feminine. He was always thinking about making the knife better, even when everything had been decided. My knife had gone through 3 main handle materials change until we found this one, each change better than the last. Getting the new material to arrive was bad for business, which meant taking longer to send my knife out of the door and received payment but he exceeded all expectations.

Do not be tricked that Cris only prioritized the looks of the package, his knives are form follows function. He relentlessly tested each of his knives, as you could watch from his cutting videos.

I am no expert in different type of knife grinds and stuff but I have had quite a few knives, both off the shelf and customs. There are a few areas that I know I like but the truth is in the pudding. I will know it after the first few cuts, working as a pro chef in a commercial kitchen. My wishes to Cris were for the knife to have heft, no flex, laser tip and thin edge. I let him worked on his 'magic grinds' for food separation and minimal wedging. The 2 wrought iron spacers placed close together was intentional, to balance the heft of the knife in use.

I will give an update, soon after I get the knife.

 

Thank you so much for the kind words Ferry!!

Honestly, I try to stay in daily...sometimes even hourly contact with my customers when working on their knives. Ferry and I had a running conversation via facebook messenger for months lol! We still do honestly. Some of my customers start out friends...and most end up that way whether they were to begin with or not. I've had very few customers that just 'want a knife'.

Life is good .

Anyhow, Ferry asked me to snap a few more pictures of the tip (ala Robert's pictures with a coin for scale), and one of the handle from the top to show the contours...so I thought I'd share them here as well. I also threw in one of the choil for the sake of it .

This is my first successful use of @WarrenB's Tamron 90mm macro lens...which I used for two of the four pictures . Lovely lens to work with, once you understand the limitations of a macro lens lol.

Anyhow, on to the pictures!!



For those of you who don't know, the coin is a US $.01 piece. The rim is 1.3mm in thickness, and the coin is 19mm in diameter.

 

So, as some of you may know, Ferry's original handle as pictured above had some...issues. The glue that I'd been using was three years old, and the heat from the double wrought iron spacer just cooked it into virtually nothing. Added to that, mounting the handle melted beeswax into all the gaps in the glue surfaces that were created from the burned out glue. When making an adjustment to the blade's position in the mount, the glue gave and the ferrule and one of the spacers popped off. I cleaned the surfaces as best as I could, and reglued. A quick grind session to regrind the lines of the handle, and I went to remount the blade. Well, it separated again. FOUR separate times it wouldn't hold. I'm assuming I was unable to remove all the wax, and it just continued to act as a release agent. It's probably for the best, as I'm sure the other joints are marginal...and I am EXTREMELY thankful that it happened in MY possession, rather than making it all the way to Australia and coming apart in Ferry's possession.

That said, I truly feel that the replacement handle was the one always meant to be on the blade. You'll have to let me know if you agree.

The wood is deep compression Hawaiian koa from Pete Rushton at Pete's Kustom Koa. Spacers are 165yr old wrought iron, nickel silver, and fine layered copper/nickel mokume.



The coin in the last two images is a US $.05 piece. Thickness is 1.87mm at the rim.

The knife is FINALLY heading off to Ferry tomorrow. Can't wait to hear his thoughts on it!

Thanks for looking!

 

Wow, that's an incredible knife with an incredible tip. And a very interesting distal taper. And... love the handle!

 

High five! That's a home run.

 

That is a beautiful knife all around

 

Thank you guys, truly!

 

Your work is the reason why I just joined this forum. Love the style of your knives.