Great knives for tweaking?

I know it's popular to rework Forgecrafts and other older knives, but I'm curious about other, especially Japanese, knives that have a ton of potential and need a bit of nudging to make them really really shine.

Right now, I'm still enjoying my Zakuri funayuki and Tosagata, which have pretty good steel and excellent basic geometry that can be worked into really excellent cutters without totally reshaping them. I'm looking at some other makers like Murata, but I'd really love to hear if anyone knows of good knives that become awesome knives with a little work. I especially like thinner knives, but thicker knives wouldn't necessarily be bad.

Or I might just get another Zakuri funayuki (maybe 150mm this time). If there are alternatives out there though, it'd be great to hear about them.

 

Kato comes to mind.

 

in my experiences, Watanabe & Carter.

 

Aritsugu a type

 

I assume you mean the workhorse? I haven't had mine that long, so I've done nothing more than touch up the initial edge. Curious what you have done.

 

Thinning. Particularly the front third of the blade. The first lateral cut I tried on an onion threw the onion out of my hand. I assume they are not all like that though. After some aggressive thinning the knife was a true beast. Here is before and after.

 

I don't know why the pis posted in that order. Obviously the before is on the bottom. That knife also really needed a micro bevel to help keep it from chipping. Sorry for crappy phone pics.

 

More along the line of the Forgecrafts, which of the old American, German or French knives have good enough steel to make a project out of? I like the shape of the forgecrafts, but it seems that their popularity for this is becoming widespread.

 

I've got a Yamawaku nakiri on order because I thought the nashiji kurouchi was cool looking. Hopefully it'll have potential.

 

The Yamawaku nakiri is awsome for the money. the only half bad job on it is the handle

 

I usually worry about anything that's promoted "for the money", but the smaller/thinner Zakuri knives cut just wonderfully after a little work. My hope is that the geometry of the Yamawaku gets me somewhere not too far from that standard. I've considered more expensive nakiri but am getting tired of spending 200-300usd on vaguely recommended knives that don't seem to suit me.

 

Chuckles or others:

Has anyone pulled the handle off of a Kato? Looks like the tang would be quite beefy.

 

well im very happy with mine and when a knife cost 50 bucks i say for the money lol the handle on mine cost x4 that .

here is a choil shot for you. and mine was very smoothly rounded on the spine and choil to.

 

I've tweaked my Tojiro ITK 240. Thinned out the bevel some, not a lot. Polished it up and put a slightly nicer yet still inexpensive handle on it. I don't like to use it at work, too reactive even polished. For $80 or whatever I paid for it and for it being my first J-knife it is doing its part. It gets so sharp it is scary...

 

I've had better luck finding Sabatiers going unnoticed on the auction site for projects but someone of them go high. There are a lot of Dexter Russells and many other older knife names that try to get passed off as Henckels or Wustofs... They would be fine for project knives but it would be cheaper to find the real Dexters and stuff.

 

Carbonext. I had mine rehandled and tuned up by Tilman and it's awesome, especially considering how cheap it is

 

Guys I think that JCK Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan from JCK is superb for tweaking. I had nakiri and petty and I am starting to regret that I sold them. I rehandled them and made new sayas. Bieniek had thin my petty on last JNS gathering. He removed shinogi line and etched it. Guys I am telling you that this knife was superb after tweaking. It was great for small jobs, peeling, cutting for exactly everything. It was like a razor in White#1. They were cheap, F&F was poor but after some work these knives were very good. I think that JCK don't sell them anymore.

OOTB:






After tweaking:

 

tanaka KU(blue#2) or ginsanko series have a really good workhorse grind once thinned a bit. however your preference for thin knives, i would look at the damascus sekiso line as those come with a geometry without any tweaking needed, very good pricing as well.

*note, apparently the ginsanko line from cktg are ground by shigeki (who does the sekiso line) and are rather thin. i must warn though the fit & finish are horrible and definitely needs some love. sekiso line are finished much better, but not exactly super smooth either.

 

IMHO every knife with good enough steel is worth working with it.

That does not include sabatiers and forgecrafts and the like. I would never accept the job, not even for a tripled money.

And the blade must be thick enough to allow some grinding on the left side.

 

Yep, they are beefy and Long