Tosa knives with thick spine

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garyL
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Tosa knives with thick spine

Post by garyL »

I noticed that Tosa knives tend to have thick spins, usually about 3mm to 3.5mm, and are clad with softer steel. Does this mean that they are tough enough to cut through chicken bones?
trancher
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Re: Tosa knives with thick spine

Post by trancher »

Hi, GaryL and welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately, the thickness of the spine and the cladding are not factors that would help save a knife from chipping on poultry bones when trying to cut through them.

Why? I am glad you asked. The spine thickness at the top of the knife makes for a beefier knife, yes, but at the cutting edge that thickness has been ground down to a fraction of that, making the edge much thinner, less stiff, giving it a delicate nature. As far as the cladding, again, down at the cutting edge the cladding has been ground away and the core steel is what is exposed. For chicken bones, you will need a totally different knife.
taz575
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Re: Tosa knives with thick spine

Post by taz575 »

Good question!

Like was said, the thicker spine still houses a very thin, hard steel in the middle of the billet which extends down to the edge. I would not try a Deba or Western Deba for those tasks, either. The steel is harder than Western cleavers designed for going through bones. A western type cleaver would be your best bet for chicken bones or something designed for that task. Or a CCK Bone Chopper cleaver: https://www.chefknivestogo.com/cckbonechopper.html

The Tosa style is a more rustic blade, usually a White #2 steel core with mild steel cladding in a Kurouchi finish. They are less expensive due to lower material costs and less finishing costs and make great practice knives to learn how to sharpen on as well as practice rounding spine/choil areas out. The kasumi finish on the blade road lets you play with sharpening/flattening the entire blade road as well and seeing how different stones work. I have a few Tosa blades in my collection that I use to try different stone finishes with.
garyL
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Re: Tosa knives with thick spine

Post by garyL »

Great info and insight. Thank you to all for your reply.
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