all right so last week i showed you guys my entire private collection of knives and what knives
um are going to be up for auction very soon and i know a lot of you guys have been asking
for the patreon auctions they will be coming online very soon i'm photographing everything
now getting everything ready and so by the time you guys see this video the first auction should
probably be happening next week since that video a lot of you guys have been asking me
what are my top picks what knives will be going into my kitchen and i haven't done the top five
in quite a long time i think it's been at least maybe two to maybe even three years since i made
a top five pick by the time i make the official top five knives of 2020 it will be five knives
but i'll explain to you why i've got more than one knife from a maker here so let me just go
through my little list here of knives i've got um so a lot of folks have been asking about the new
kurasaki blue turquoise handle the r2 kuritsuke so that knife is going into my home and so i'm not
going to sell it because i love this knife even though it's not a chef knife it's a knife that
i know my wife will love it's got the perfect shaped handle it's got the r2 sg2 core steel
it's stainless steel i'm a huge fan of chris case but this size 180 millimeters is a perfect size
for my wife my wife likes utilities and paring knives but i think she'll love this knife here
so that's why this is going into my personal collection so this is 135 millimeter um petty by
kato i'm a huge fan of kato's knives with the tsuchime and the domestic cladding with the
handles made by sadao nishihara so this knife is going into my personal collection just as personal
use it's not included in the top five it's just here because i was sorting knives out so i just
left it right here to remind myself to bring it home so that's why these two knobs are here um so
on to the knives that will be featured in the top five video i've got two here by you kurosaki the
first is the 210 full in with the vg10 core steel and the second is the 240 millimeter shizuku model
with the sg2 core steel now i've been using the shizuku in my home earlier this year for about
a good two months or so and i really enjoyed it and then a lot of folks were asking why i
don't feature or review vg10 knives it's mainly because i've gone into the artisan route and a
lot of artisans still make vg10 knives but they have kind of shifted their focus to making knives
with r2 or sg2 zdp hat40 and agami super as well blue number two it's also another steel that a lot
of artisans like to use um so yukorasaki makes a beautiful vg10 core steel using the fu in and
so about the 210 millimeter version that's why that's here so between these two knives i will
make a distinction between them and make the appropriate pick for the top five knives the
next knife is the unreu the unreal blue number two with the tsuchime finish an absolutely gorgeous
knife anything you can buy from arm review go get it he is probably going to retire very very soon
i wouldn't be surprised if 2020 is his last year of making knives this is a beautiful knife i've
always been a huge fan of his work the tsuchime finish is just i think kind of uh um i wouldn't
call it the epitome of unreal knives but it's definitely one of the most you know well-defined
knives that he's made i love this knife it's been in my home not very long for a little over a week
but now it's going to be used you know next to all these other knives here so i'll get a really
good impression of it the grind fit and finish and the overall geometry of this knife here by
onrio is just spectacular it's a knife that i think anyone who is getting into japanese knives
will definitely adore the next step we have here is a murataka so this is the 240 version of the
origami super um you can also buy the 210 and 240 version with the blue number two so whether
you buy the blue super or the blue number two it's going to have the same koryoshi finish i'm
pretty sure of all the coordination finishes that i've seen it's the only one that has that brushed
metal look i've never seen a koryoshi finish like this one here also a really amazing thing with
moritaka is that they are quite affordable if you bought a origami super or blue super uh 210
millimeter kyoto it will cost you at 200 starting price and the 240 is about 220 so very affordable
um given that these are made by a team of four they've got 700 years of katana and sword making
history the more talkers are just an incredible value when it comes to price to performance ratio
you know if this was like an italian brand it would sell for i would say they would find a
way to sell this for like two or three thousand dollars and this is an arm review box but it's
got the kato knife in it so i've got three katos here and there's a reason why both these knives
were made with the saddami shihara handles i would say the last quarter of 2019 i used the r2 version
three layer suchima finish substantially the most in my home that that knife probably got at least
four months of use in my home and then i also had the 69 layers that was in my home for i would say
about only a couple of weeks and i liked it and i kept it in here because i haven't used the
69 layers enough to really give it a definitive comparison in terms of performance between that
model and the tsuchime model the top knife here is the newest addition to the kato lineup it's got
agami super core steel 6465 rockwell and it's got the nishiji finish it's a really rustic finish
i wouldn't say it's my favorite finish but i definitely like that finish a lot it just has
a really cool look to it it gives a knife a more subtle look but a very rustic look um and also in
terms of price it's like 200 less than these other two knives here so i feel like the origami super
version of the kato is gonna be a better knife to buy for people who are just looking for a knife
to be used every day versus a knife that has a more of a collector's touch
to it the other knife i have got here is the saji this is the sagi r2 damascus with the
black oxide finish so i did a sharpening double with the tsuchihiki model that was
in my home in my kitchen for about three months and before the tsuchihiki i had the mirror polish
damascus gyoto in my home and that was a fantastic knife with these other knife makers here you
may have like a 20 to 30 percent reduction in thickness from the area where you measure above
the heel on the spine um to like an inch above right so if you measure an inch above the heel
area the overall spine thickness has been reduced twenty thirty percent
on saji's knives you will still have a reduced thickness of twenty thirty percent but that
reduction happens over the course or over the length of the entire length of the spine
so you have a much more gentle reduction of thickness and so what that translates to is
i feel like it gives the blade a bit more stability in my opinion when using his knives
and to be really honest it's also an excuse for me to keep this knife in my drawer and just to
have it as a permanent fixture in my kitchen the last knife we have here is a knife that you guys
are all familiar with or at least you guys are familiar with if you guys have been on my channel
for the last at least two years or so um i've mentioned this knife a lot it's the akazawa um
ciao and it's just a fantastic knife it's got the origami super core steel he treated from 64 or 65
the knife that retired the rope cut test so i don't like to feature the same knife twice or
you know in a top five video i have a knife here that i'm ordering that i want to compare kind of
do a side-by-side comparison with the akazawa once it arrives i won't tell you what it is yet because
i don't know if it actually will arrive on time but um on paper it's our gummy super 65 rockwell
210 millimeters it's virtually identical in terms of the specs on paper as the akazawa but it costs
i want to say like 280 or 290 or so so substantially less so i'm really curious
to see what the knife is going to perform like when it arrives so that's why i'm not
taking this knife out of the collection because i believe that once i have the other knife here
i'm going to use those two knives side by side and the best knife from that comparison will go into
this top five for the end of the year and before the official top five video is released i will
do my best to do individual reviews of each knife so that you guys will know what i'm talking about
when the top five knives actually is released if you guys have very strong feelings about some
artists inmate knives out there that you want me to see let me know in the comments if i can get
those knives soon enough i can probably add it to the top 5 videos before the year is over anyway
guys hope you guys enjoy the video thank you for being here and i'll catch you in the next one