Japanese knives

[Mr_Willson]

wanted to start a picture thread mainly because I purchased a nata here in japan to bring home and right now im currently pretty much obsessed with japanese cutlery at this point.

I wanna see what some of you guys have also. post pics if you feel like sharing.

this thing is like a giant straight razor

 

[djdig]

I have a Cas Hanwei Musashi XL Katana and Cas Hanwei Tori Elite Katana. If you look up how they make the swords by hand and the technique they use for over a week to sharpen, etc... imo the Cas Hanwei series is probably the best sword on the market that is hand made still. The Tori is just as sharp if not more, but the XL Musashi is massive, I went through a whole box of bamboo mats in a few days.

Here is the blade of the Musashi

 

[Mr_Willson]

that's pretty intense.

have any suggestions on how to keep the blades sharp properly?

 

[djdig]

If it is handmade and forged/folded like the two I have you never put a sharpening stone or anything to it. They use (at hanwei) stones that have been cut for 100 - 1000 of years by natural waterfalls as the sharpening stones and it takes just at 7 days to sharpen it.

Maintenance is this:
Wipe with rice paper
Powder ball the blade evenly on both sides then wipe with rice paper
Put a drop of oil (provided with cleaning kit) every few inches down the blade and rice paper clean.

I can take a handfull of micro fiber towels .. say a 5 pack off the shelf from walmart and put my blade facing up and just run the pack down the blade and it cuts through the whole thing with no pressure.

When you can youtube cas hanwei and musashi, etc.. its amazing.

 

[Mr_Willson]

mine had been sharpened but I believe the sheath is what made it not as razor sharp as the other knives I bought here. I'll post those once I get home...if they dont all get confiscated by customs or anything.

put them in my checked luggage.

 

[LACamper]

I think I'd fedex them back home to someone...

 

[Mr_Willson]

nah, customs was cool with it. they only seem to care about agricultural things. they confiscated my ramen and curry set but that was about it. they didnt care about the knives.