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Handled a brand new Hiromoto AS 190 Santoku today, and wondered about the geometry that has changed compared to what I was familiar with. It obviously got a spa treatment. The good old Hiromotos weren't so much thick behind the edge, but the thickening was quite abrupt. Now I found the left face slightly convexed instead of deadly flat, and a much larger part of the clad ground away. So, thinning the back face, which was the first thing to do, is already done.Did any others notice the same?

I have a smaller AS Santoku for my mom and got a 190mm one here to rehandle. Both are decently thin behind the edge. I wonder if the Santokus are ground thinner than the larger gyuto's or if they modified the grind.

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Post subject: Re: Hiromoto revisited: new geometry

Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 9:51 pm

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Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 8:34 pmPosts: 1699

All the ones I've handled have been what I call "normal" thickness.. not necessarily the thickest thing out there, but yeah, I like them much better after some thinning.

taz575 wrote:I have a smaller AS Santoku for my mom and got a 190mm one here to rehandle. Both are decently thin behind the edge. I wonder if the Santokus are ground thinner than the larger gyuto's or if they modified the grind.

Both. All are ground thinner than before, and the santoku is thinner than the 270 gyuto.

Get it while you can. Word on the street is that Hiromoto's owner is retiring and shutting the shop. He's in his 80s.

We're thinking of doing a Kohetsu AS western handled knife to replace them. They should have much better heat treatment so we're pretty sure they'll be an improvement over the Hiromotos. Hopefully we'll have them available before stock runs out of the Hiromotos.

We'll also be able to do sujis and honesukis and nakiris to the line which were not available with the Hiromotos.

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