# Wondering which knife is better the Masamoto Vg 240mm or the Kikuichi TKC of the same lengtch



## kl2onos (Sep 17, 2014)

I've had my Masamoto Vg 240mm now for about 4 months and am wondering if the Kikuichi TKC is better or no. No matter what the outcome i still love my Masamoto it is a really awesome knife just a few strokes on my honing rod and it just slides through anything, onions carrots etc. I've found glowing reviews for both but it seems that kikuichi has substantially more. They have a very similar profile and i'm 99% sure that a Sous chef that i worked with briefly had the Kikuichi and when I lined them up it was pretty much the same. So it comes down to the steel I think. Can anyone help me out?


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

Masamoto VG is stainless with HRC of 58-59.  Kikuichi is semi stainless with a hardness of 61-62.

It comes down to how strict you are willing to be about cleaning and maintenance.  I don't have experience with either knife, but generally speaking, higher HRC steels will hold the edge longer, be harder to sharpen, and somewhat more brittle.  There are tradeoffs on either side.

Finally, steel honing rods might be okay for Masamoto, but for the Kikuichi, ceramic rod or stones only.

It sounds like you're getting into the j-knife addiction. I would say don't do what I did and try too many gyutos.  If you want to try other makers, there are always petty knives, honesuki, sujihiki, etc to get


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## kl2onos (Sep 17, 2014)

Thanks for the reply I do know about using ceramic honing rods on knives like these and i use the Mac black ceramic for my knives.  I can agree I have to hold myself back from getting all these knives that i want and really this thread was just to answer a burning question that I have had but i was still extremely tempted to get the kikuichi to try it out. Really the only knife that i actually plan on getting is a nakiri because I do a lot of prep work with vegetables and I don't need the extra weight that comes with a gyuto. Right now im looking at either the Tojiro Dp or the Global version. Leaning towards the Tojiro because of it's cost and flatter profile.


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## millionsknives (Apr 25, 2014)

I'm not sure a nakiri style is necessarily lighter.  Shorter length but also taller.

How do you feel about wa handles?  In the western market, someone decided that "balance" was a priority.  A lot of my non knife nerd friends will check the balance point of a knife as if it is some indicator of quality or performance.  The makers end up adding weight to the western handles to achieve this balance and you get a heavier knife.


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