knives

If you poke around the kitchen in an old Japanese house you will probably find the knives that no one uses but are too good to throw out.  They may already be red with rust.  They are made with good carbon steel.  They will take an edge better than any stainless steel thing made.  And they are genus in their construction and their design.  One wide bladed square ender for vegetables, one shorter, with a point, thick thick steel for popping the heads off of fish, and cleaning them out, and a long slender pointed blade for thin slicing sushi.  These knives evolved with Japanese cooking, and like so many old things Japanese are simply perfect, but also ferociously labor intensive.

You can not just pick these knives up and use them.  It takes practice and study  They also take care, to keep them from rusting, and to keep them razor sharp.  This is probably the reason that they are still in the old kitchens, and the reason they are rusting away as no one in the family uses them.  People use western styled stainless blades that work OK, not nearly as well, or as sharp, but OK.  I even see sushi chiefs using western styled knives these days.

I have found a few great blades in old junk shops for almost nothing, and am trying to fix them up for use.  The one below rotted the steel out of the handle.  The blade is great, but it is a bit of a challenge to figure a way to get a handle on it.