Masakage Koishi 120mm Petty

Masakage Koishi
120mm Petty


So after some thought, and checking out my blade, Its time to put it to use. Making some scalloped potatoes tonight and the green onions and garlic I'm using, as well as potato peeling will get some time in on this knife.

This is the top line from Masakage, hand made from AS steel, with a rough finish, this blade is not on the cheaper side of the scale, but has a great fit and finish as far as the handle goes, and well since its meant to show off the handy work of Kato san, it blade itself is fit for what it is. Being a smaller petty the hammer marks wont show up nearly as much as on a larger gyuto but are still present (Although i wish more so).

We took to the green onions first and,..

The out of the box edge made short easy work of them, I worked the whole of the blade from smaller chops through the heel to the centre, push and pull cuts, as well as just the tip. All came out great, its light weight and smaller side make it super easy to use with clean fully separated cuts.


(Sorry about the blurry pic, hands covered with garlic make picture taking tough)
I took the garlic to a mince, way beyond what is in the pic (Ended up only using half), I tried this with my Nakiri before, and although it works, the smaller pointed tip makes slicing out smaller garlic cloves much quicker, and the flat part off the heel to about 3/4 up the blade make working it down super quick and easy.

Petty knives are not the best knife to show off what a series of a particular blade are like, but I did have a chance to chop up an onion before I started working on dinner, splitting the onion in two took a bit more effort with the blade weight, but slicing through the rest of the onion wasnt much of a trouble with clean thoughtful slices, taking my time with it.

Buying a petty in a line such as koishi is probably a bit over kill, but I liked the looks of the series, and didnt need a gyuto or larger blade. being AS I can put a wicked sharp edge on this, and doing what it will do in my kitchen im sure will last a long long time. after putting it through some paces tonight im happy I got the blade, but there certainly are blades just as nice (And possibly more appealing to your tastes) that you can have for less in a petty. for the money though you are getting a great steel, a well finished (But bit bland) knife with a unique look, thats handmade and unlike any other blade. Its almost a custom blade other then it was made for "someone", which after I bought it became me
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Thanks for the thoughtful writeup, James.

How does the 120mm size seem to you? What types of things do you think you will be using it for?

 

Cool pics! Make me hungry.

 

Its perfect fpr the smaller things I want it for, on top of what I used it for... peeling, cutting up smaller items like garlic, I also think it would be good for zesting oranges, mincing herbs, anything that needs a light touch and steady control really but at this size not much more. I went back and fowrth between a 150 and this for a long time, the 150 would open up a few more options, but not into anything my other knives can do, and for this stuff which is what I actually wanted it for the 120 would give more tip control as my hand would be closer, I actually thought about a 75 but thought that may be to limiting, the 120 seemed a good balance point for in the hand and on the board

 

Thanks! I've been thinking about getting a 150mm petty. Now I may have to start thinking about a 120 also.

Tell you what.... When you get your 150 petty (you know will), how about you tell me how it compares to your 120?

 

Lol well I have a 300MM petty coming,... they for some reason call it a Suji though I can tell you what I think about that one, then you can divide by 2. But im done with knife buying as I have a complete set (or will when Daves knife gets here), ill work with these guys if I do buy anything else it will be handle or saya type purchases I think. I can say If i didnt have my nakiri and wanted something to do both jobs, the 120mm I wouldnt have even considered and would have thought about a 150-180mm petty to cover more ground, but since I do have the Nakiri I really didnt need that size so I was able to narrow my focus down a bit to more specific tasks as I dont need this blade to chop anything big

 

I cut food slowly and in low volume and really quite like small knives for the direct control they allow. I think 120mm is a good size for controlling the point, though my favorite smaller knife right now is a 135mm. I was hoping my 150mm (@7x the price) would crush it, but that's not been the case so far.

I thought long and hard about a Masakage...maybe I've been making mistakes by avoiding it.

 

I think looking back, I could have saved some money for this blade and done just as well with the Yuki, Shimo, or Mizu lines, but I really liked the Koishi and well that was worth it for me in the end. for what I do with it though performance wise I would have probably been just as happy with the VG10 lines they have as well. going through a lot of sites looking at similar blades and measuring price to blade (with my limited experience mind you) Masakage keeps coming up for me as a great bang for the buck, had the Konosuke HD2 not been on sale when I was looking into the Suji I may have ended up with a third Masakage for that reason lol, would have had to buy the tshirt at that point

 

I have been looking at the Koishi Suji so I would be interested on your opinion once you get it.

 

I really like the first picture. masterfully presented.

 

holy crap, $200 paring knife. i have a dojo (despite really liking it) and still think i should have just gone with tojiro itk one for $30. but hey, as long as you're happy with it. nice knife btw!

 

I think that about my Kato petty too. I like it, but I could have saved a lot of money on a knife in this size range.