Musashi Hamono - Kiritsuke Gyuto HAP40 Review - Polished Rosewood Handle

In this video, I will be reviewing the Kiritsuke Gyuto with HAP40 steel from Musashi Hamono.

Hello guys, I'm ChefPanko, and I used to work in a Japanese restaurant.

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Before we start with the review, I want to go over some disclosures, Musashi Hamono has

sent me this knife for a review.

However, Mushashi did not pay me to use this knife or to make this video. All opinions

in this video are my own without outside influence or contracts.

If you like this video, please give this video a thumbs up since that will help the channel

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Now with the disclosures away, let's start the review of the Musashi Kiritsuke Gyuto.

Mushashi Hamono ships the knives directly from Japan there is enough padding to protect

the knife so you don't have to worry about shipment damages.

Mushashi Hamono did add a letter where you can read Musashi's goal, they also included

a nice postcard. The Mushashi Kiritsuke Gyuto is packaged in a hard cardboard box. The knife

is protected by a cardboard knife cover. The knife comes with some VCI paper wrapped around

the blade. This protects the knife from forming corrosion on the blade.

The Mushashi Kiritsuke Gyuto has a blade length of 200mm. The top part of the blade has a

matte finish. The Mushashi Kanji is nicely engraved on the blade. The knife comes with

a nicely polished octagonal rosewood handle. The steel that is used is HAP40 which has

great toughness, hardness, and edge retention. However, HAP40 is not stainless and it needs

some care.

Musashi did not specify the Rockwell hardness of the HAP40 Kiritsuke Gyuto. But my review

sample has a Rockwell of around 64 to 65. If used at home, you can get away with around

11 months before needing a whetstone touch-up if you regularly hone your knife with a honing

rod. The knife is also quite durable however the knife is not stainless and you should

take care of the knife. If not used for a long period or used in a humid environment

it is recommended to protect the blade by adding a layer of mineral oil on the blade

before storing it.

As with all high Rockwell knives, it should not be used to slice through frozen food,

bones, hard bread, or force your way through other though food, and you should not twist

or pry the food open with the knife since that can cause chipping.

The blade comes with a softer outer cladding, and they have added a matte finish on the

top of the blade which prevents the food from resisting your cut by clinging onto the blade

side. However, food with high water content will still stick onto the blade but you won't

notice any resistance.

The knife comes with a nicely polished rosewood octagonal handle which is a well-balanced

design for comfort and grip. When the handle starts to feel dry, you can apply a thin layer

of mineral oil. Most traditional handles come with a colored top part. This top part is

usually a thin layer of resin to prevent water damage on the rosewood handle. The downside

of this kind of handle is its durability; a traditional handle is less impact-resistant

compared to a full-tang handle. However, a Japanese knife with a high Rockwell isn't

impact-resistant in the first place. Therefore I do not recommend the pinch or thump grip

on the handle.

The balance point is under the Kanji, depending on the gripping style, the knife balance point

will shift. It is considered front-heavy if you pinch grip the knife at the neck area.

If you pinch grip at the blade or in front of the chiseled Kanji, the knife will be middle

balanced. Keep in mind that you shift your middle finger towards the choil by doing so.

The choil is nicely rounded and polished. If you use a fingertip grip the knife will

be front-heavy.

The blade profile has a slight belly in the middle. The heel of the knife is flat which

is great for an up and down motion. But with the flat heel, you can see that the front

will curve upwards a lot. Wich also helps you with the rocking motion. The front part

is also nicely curved which helps a lot with slicing things towards yourself. Because of

the K-tip, it is very enjoyable to use the front part of the knife to trim things down.

The blade profile gives you a smooth performance but it shines a lot with tip work.

I have a large hand size and for me, the knuckle clearance is minimal. As you can see I do

have a bit of knuckle clearance in the pinch or fingertip grip. If there is no knuckle

clearance due to your hand size, you can use the knife at the edge of your cutting board

to add more knuckle clearance.

The knife has no distal spine taper and the thickness across the spine is 2.2mm. Therefore

the performance after the tip area is pretty much the same. The fit and finish are great,

the spine and the choil are nicely rounded. The blade is put completely straight into

the handle and the knife itself is completely straight. I could not see any flaws in the

fit and finish.

My review sample came with a weight of 145grams and the knife was sharpened at around 12 degrees

per side.

Musashi Hamono surpassed my expectations. The knife is exactly as in the pictures and

the quality of the product speaks for itself. The fit and finish are what I expect from

Japanese-made knives and the Musashi HAP40 Kiritsuke Gyuto is delivering a well-made

Japanese knife with a lot of attention in the details by rounding off the spine and

choil.

That's it for this video. If you have any questions or other opinions, leave them in

the comment section below.

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Thank you for watching, and I see you in the next video.