Len's News, Notes, and Stuff

Coming Back to an Old Favorite: Fujitake 300mm Gyuto

I haven’t used my Fuji­take 300mm gyuto much as of late. I’ve had other kitchen toys to keep my hands busy, par­tic­u­larly as I’ve been on a bit of a car­bon steel ride and got my hands on a num­ber of nice spec­i­mens. How­ever, I decided to pick up my Fuji­take tonight, and wow, it was a fun and exhil­a­rat­ing expe­ri­ence! I had for­got­ten how nicely the blade han­dles, and now that I’ve got­ten used to longer blades in the kitchen, it’s become an absolute joy to use!

I first bought this fine Japan­ese kitchen knife a lit­tle more than a year ago. So, by that mea­sure, it’s not an old knife at all. It is, how­ever, my very first Japan­ese cook­ing knife and from that per­spec­tive, the Fuji­take is the old vet­eran amongst my J-blades! In case you haven’t used longer knives in the kitchen, 300mm is about 12 inches of good, sharp steel. The beauty of this knife, and other qual­ity Japan­ese knives, is that even at this length, the knife is light, nim­ble, and agile. The Fuji­take tonight lit­er­ally flew through my din­ner prep, and it was lit­er­ally more fun for me than test-driving a new car.

The Fuji­take is light, tip­ping the scales at just over 200g, and is a thin blade at just over 2mm at the spine right ahead of the bol­ster. It’s well-balanced, and although I don’t know what steel it is, gets plenty sharp for home use.

When I vis­ited Sanko Cook­ing Sup­plies in San Francisco’s Japan­town, I really didn’t know a whole lot about Japan­ese knives. About all I knew was that I wanted a good Japan­ese gyuto in high-quality stain­less steel. Based on my novice research, I was con­vinced that I wanted VG-10 steel. Noth­ing else would do, really. Com­ing from my trusty old (and in this case, about 12 years old) Henck­els 8″ chef knife, I knew I wanted some­thing longer. I tried out sev­eral knives at the counter, and finally had to decide between a 270mm gyuto (of long since for­got­ten make) and the Fuji­take 300mm. Hon­estly, the Fuji­take felt lighter in the hand, felt more nim­ble, felt more com­fort­able. It was $70 more than the 270mm knife, but spend­ing the extra $70 for some­thing just a lit­tle longer and notice­ably more com­fort­able was both accept­able and rea­son­able.  The store­own­ers weren’t really able to tell me what the steel was in the Fuji­take, and the brochure didn’t help a whole lot. The own­ers said some­thing “VG”, so I fig­ure the steel must be either VG-1 or VG-10. Okay.

Walk­ing out of the store with $500 less to my name, I was then the proud owner of my very first Japan­ese gyuto. When I got home almost a month later, I started to use the knife. It was a bit too much of an adjust­ment to me at the time, though. I won­dered if I’d made a mis­take get­ting some­thing so long. Sure, the length would come in handy for mon­ster prep ses­sions where I’d be dic­ing up tons of veg­gies, chop­ping up tons of herbs, and cut­ting my way through a moun­tain of food for a feast, but how often would I do that and need the 300mm of cut­ting steel? I then pro­ceeded to pick up some other knives in 240mm and 270mm length.

Those other knives are fine knives in their own right. Still, the Fuji­take only saw occa­sional use, and I won­dered at times about whether I’d cho­sen a good knife and whether it’s really worth the $500 I paid for it. In one respect, I over­paid, because now with my greater knowl­edge of knives, I could pick some­thing else that has more ooooh and ahhh fac­tor for the money, or some­thing hand­made or some­thing with kick­ass steel.

Yet, after using the knife again tonight fol­low­ing a several-month hia­tus, I am still happy with my pur­chase. This knife kicks ass. It bal­ances extremely well, cuts like a dream, and now with more expe­ri­ence behind me, doesn’t feel long at all. My guess now is that the steel is VG-1. Sure, I’m far more likely to pick car­bon steel blades over stain­less steel now, but the bot­tom line with a knife made of any steel is how well it cuts and how well it feels in the hand. The Fuji­take cuts excel­lently and feels won­der­ful. It’s not exotic steel, it’s not hand­made, and it’s not even a fancy name that knife afi­ciona­dos would admire, but it is a stel­lar per­former for me.

I’m glad I was intro­duced to this knife early in my J-knife expe­ri­ence, because hon­estly at this point, I prob­a­bly wouldn’t have given it a chance. I would have bypassed it for one of the big names in J-knife cir­cles. I would have missed out on this “lit­tle” gem.

I’m glad I picked up the Fuji­take tonight. I’m glad I came back to an old favorite. I no longer feel guilty or remorse at hav­ing spent the money on this knife. I no longer feel like I made a mis­take buy­ing at full retail. I feel priv­i­leged to have the knife and to use the knife. I feel that the ser­vice Sanko gave me in per­son and hav­ing the knives on-hand for me to test with my own hands at the store is worth the pre­mium that I paid.

Fuji­take is hard to find in North Amer­ica. You might never come across it in-person or online. Maybe you don’t want any­thing in VG-1 steel. Maybe you think 300mm is too much to han­dle. If you hap­pen to be in San Fran­cisco, drop by Sanko and give the knife a try. If you like how it feels in the store, I assure you that you will absolutely love it when you get to use it in your own kitchen.