For starters here are the specs:
It is 225mm long, 52mm tall, about 3.2mm at the spine, with 80crV2 carbon steel at 62hrc. The profile is basically a taller, longer version of a Kurosaki Raijin, the grind is a high full convex, and the handle is an octagonal sandwich construction with reddish wood laminate scales and white paper micarta liner and frame. It weighs in at about 7.84 oz.
When I picked it up I was a little surprised at how large the handle was, from the pictures it is always hard to judge proportions, but going and cutting things with it was very comfortable. The rounding of the spine is so nice and feels great. I mentioned this in the new knife thread but it is worth saying again, it feels bizarrely similar to the 240mm Gihei I had for a bit. The heft is there, but this knife balances better than the Gihei, and more importantly it is a higher, thinner grind that moves through food without the constant threat of wedging too much. This knife gets almost as good food release with much better cutting feel. Thin behind the edge too, great initial food penetration. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it behaves somewhat similar to the Gihei because they are around the same thickness the difference being Tim's convex grind or Gihei's typical Japanese "sabre grind" if it can be called that. This custom also has a substantially more performant tip than the Gihei, the last 6th of the blade cuts with surprising ease. It's a nice tip.
Curiously my Yoshimitsu Fugen is also the same spine thickness, but is noticeably less substantial, it has a more aggressive distal taper, and what I'm guessing might be called a diamond grind. It has a hollow ground primary bevel, then what seems to be a second hollow forged into the blade face. Both of those things make it a lighter knife for the thickness, and more slicy, but for having such un-flat blade faces, and a kurouchi finish to go with it, it is surprising to me that my Yoshimitsu can still stick to some ingredients more than I like. I've never heard this said before but it does seem like a good patina really helps reduce stickiness quite a bit, at least on that particular knife. My custom though has inherently good food release with the convex faces, and I expect with a good patina, will just get smoother feeling as time goes on.
I still have much to get to know about this knife, I've only used it a few times so far, but my thought right now is that this is a fine example of the weight class of knives I typically look at from Japanese makers such as Masakage, Anryu, Hinoura, Tanaka, and Hatsukokoro. It is reminiscent of a workhorse, but still able to be precise. Tim said someone else coined the term, but I liked the word he used to refer to it, it is a workpony. My intention is to have it take over as my primary knife in place of my Yoshimitsu. Having owned a thinner Santoku, I can imagine myself wanting a thinner, lighter Gyuto to accompany this one eventually, but I believe this is my ideal all-arounder, it should handle anything I throw at it without a hitch.
This isn't a great picture, but after cutting some apples, I'm starting to see some color. I'm looking forward to a nice patina across those wide blade faces!
Nothing to be desired as far as celery is concerned, that's for sure!
