Work of Art

As I've been having more and more fun cooking, I've been getting better at handling my knives. I've started wanting more from certain knives, whether it be heft, size, sharpness, etc. Every since I was a kid, I had this obsession with weaponry - steel, swords, and knives especially. Getting into kitchen knives, has led me to Japanese carbon steel knives. The traditional knives, which I've started using, are quite stunning pieces of art.
Here's a shot of all my knives currently:


From left to right they are:
Shun Chef Knife
Shun Santoku
Suisin Saika Kiritsuke (white steel) (270mm)
Suisin Special Inox Gyuto (240mm)
Korin Shiro-ko (white steel) Honkasumi Kamagata Usuba (180mm)
Togiharu Virgin Carbon Petty (150mm)

All of the knives are considered Western style expect the two tradition Japanese knives - the Kiritsuke and Kamagata Usuba. If you are into knives, or can appreciate the work of a blacksmith, edge maker, polisher, sharpener, etc, you may understand how these blades are simply stunning. Not only are the functionally superior to anything else I've used, they are beautiful to look at. The only down side is the traditional Japanese style knives are more purpose specific than their Western counterparts. Here's a few pictures of my two traditional Japanese knives:





Both of these knives were hand crafted and finished. The Suisin Saika Kiritsuke was made by both Master Blacksmith Kerijiro Doi and his son, Itsuo Doi. I know that Suisin makes the Honkasumi Korin knives, but I'm not sure which blacksmith specifically. One last picture of me shredding some collard greens to make Caldo Verde (Portuguese green soup).