Blacksmith Spotlight - Teruyasu Fujiwara

Do you have a Fujiwara? If so was it worth the work, and if not, do you still want one just like us?! Let us know down below!

I've got a 165mm Nakiri that Obi Wan Kenobi would be happy to chop up his veggies with. Function over form. Love it.

I think the Denka is conditionally worth the price tag. But it depends greatly on what your values and priorities are. I go to this local Mexican restaurant, and I love it. The meals I get there are always awesome, but the dishes are almost always a little bit different because they are just cooking back there, they aren't using sous vide machines and scales. The Denka line is like that, lots of effort and history goes into, and a great knowledge of steel. If your priority is having great performance in a hand made package with great edge retention and relatively easy sharpening the Denka is for you. If you want an aesthetically perfect functional piece of art that also happens to cut really well, then there are a lot of better options out there for you than the Denka line. Just my two cents.

One of the best qualities of your reviews, Gage, is the balance and honesty. It'd be easy to rave & promote products to the Heavens, but your acknowledgment of shortcomings or negative aspects of some knives give much-desired credibility to your assessments. All that helps make decisions about knives easier. For example, those fit & finish issues with Denkas would likely get on my nerves, so maybe I'll give them a miss for now. In future, when my sharpening skills etc are better, maybe I'll reconsider. If I'm shortchanging myself on performance, well, my decision! Thanks again, keep up your great work!

Love my Denka Nakiri. Luckily I'm a WA handle guy, because it seems that most of the inconsistencies are with the YO handled knives. My Nakiri has a pretty much flawless fit and finish, except a little bit of discolouration spots on the Kourouchi finish. There are a few spots where the Kurouchi finish is already almost non existent and/or a bit reddish of colour, but is is really easy for me to ignore. The performance of the knife is bonkers!

Hey, Gage and company! Greetings from Hollywood, CA! I’m a big fan of your channel and have been for a very long time. I just sprung for a Fujiwara Denka Bunka 180mm in Aogomi Super and it arrived today! Such a delightful addition to my collection. Thank you for your quality content and for being such likable, knowledgeable peeps! Wish your shop was here! 🤗 Best always!! Pam

Excellent context man keep it up!

I have the 195 mm denka nakiri. It is beautiful

There’s sharp, and then there’s Fujiwara sharp. I have 4. I have a 7.9 inch Nashiji gyuto that’s my goto for slicing 1 KG beef roasts. I have a 6.2 petty I use for trimming steaks. The white steel is so sharp I can’t fathom needing his Denka series. I recommend his steel if performance is your #1 purchase need.

Appreciate your candid comments regarding the Fujiwara knives!

My first fujiwara San knife is his nashiji nakiri at first I quite a bit disappointed in the fit and finish of the knife but I after I used it for the first time instantly become my favourite and one of the best performing knife I ever own a month later I bought his maboroshi gyuto....still savings to get at least one of his denka knife....as a chef I really enjoyed using his knife chopping a bag of onion become more enjoyable

Like the segment

Who doesn’t know this legend ❤

My Favorite blacksmith is Yu Kurosaki. He makes beautiful knives like Fujin SG2 with a blue turquoise handle. Just beautiful, great Fit and finished What's yours?

My Denka 210 is my favorite knife in the collection. I also love my Denka 150 petty and 165 nakiri. Can the finish be better? Sure. But I’ll choose performance over the finish as A it doesn’t bug me so much if it doesn’t affect the handle I’m holding and B I’m not opposed to putting in some extra work. That being said, the biggest pain is probably for the sharpeners when comes time to thin the knife looking to remove all the low spots 😂

My first ever japanese knive was the Fujiwara Nashiji Petty 150mm. As soon as I got it , I started dreaming about the denka. 2 years later, a good friend of mine visited the man himself in Tokyo and purchased for me a 195mm Denka Gyuto with the Red pakka wood western handle. Those are hard to find outside of his shop. Was the price steep - Yes, Was the fit and finish perfet - No, Was it worth it - Yes. Once I had it in my hands and started cutting a carrot, I smiled instantly. On my daily rack, I usually keep the Fujiwara 195 red handle with a Takamura 210 Gyuto red handle. They look like brothers and they cover the Stainless and Carbon needs for my daily cooking. Fujiwara is not super focused on the fit and finish but somehow his knives are special. One day when he is gone, those knives will be a real heritage piece to pass on the next generation . I stronly advise people to invest in one of his knives ( maboroshi looks like the best ration - price /performance). And as for you guys @Sharpknife shop, i Advise you to collaborate with fujiwara for the forging part and work with a sharpener to finish the pieces and use a special Sharp knife shop kanji. this is the case with the Morihei Hisamoto line and recently the Sugi cutlery /TF/ Myojin Colab that took us all by surprise.

Honestly, if you can't correct an imperfection on a Fujiwara, you probably need more time (read: not ready). I put 2-ish hours into regrinding the prime bevel to my specific liking and a strop polish, easily the best knife I've ever handled. everything said in the video is 100% and you can send me all of the fujiwara scratch and dent please.

I was pretty lucky my maroboshi santoku was fine but I feel like it’s a bit of luck what you will get. I would definitely stick to the Wa handles because the F&F on some of the Yo handles is terrible and not easily fixed.

Cutting test please :)

I have 7 Denkas the little imperfections don't matter they make his knives unique. to the untrained eye a Denka will look unappealing, ugly but omg that sharpness and edge retention is unmatched.