Measured
170mm edge length
47.5mm height at heel
136g weight

Expected under 130g but mine is thicker than average so I’ll have to see how it cuts! I’m conflicted because I do like more weight than not (despite most of my knives being light) but shindos are known for their super thin geometry besides the spine and it would’ve been cool to get a more classic shindo but I hope this still impresses me when cutting! Please give your thoughts around this!

I sent seisuke portland a super polite email saying that I don’t expect this option, but whether they happen to allow people to pick from their stock (I asked because there were at least 5 more shindo bunkas in stock when I completed my order and every time I’ve purchased my 5 other knives in person during Japan trips and 1 knife online before this one, they’ve shown me their entire stock and asked me to pick without me asking so I figured I’d ask for my first time!) but they said no which is of course fair

I wish I had time to track down a shindo bunka during my latest Japan trip last month so that I could’ve found one for cheaper. But this knife is listed at $153 on seisuke and I couldn’t wait any longer after already having waited half a year for a decent priced one hahaha (ordering the same knife from Japanese knife studio who has super cool handles would be around $190 all included to ship to me here in the states)

Anyway before rambling any further, I wanted to visually compare this Shindo Bunka with my Kikuchiyo Ren Santoku for fun because of how similar they are in dimensions and price! I’d throw my kagekiyo convex grind santoku which is my daily knife in this mix too but I haven’t picked it up from its sharpening at JKI 

Kyohei Shindo Bunka Blue #2
170mm length
47.5mm height at heel
136g weight
Paid around $160 all in from Seisuke

Hitohira Kikuchiyo Ren Santoku White #2
170mm length
47.5mm height at heel
134g weight
Paid around $130 at Hitohira a year and half ago but prices have gone up and I had a good conversion rate

The kikuchiyo ren was my first hand forged hand sharpened Japanese knife and I personally like it even more as a first knife over the shindo at first visual impressions and the prices I personally got them at (for some people depending on where they can buy the shindo, the comparison could probably be a $100 shindo vs a $170 kikuchiyo ren which changes things a lot)

Can’t wait to try the knife out!

NKD Kyohei Shindo Bunka 170mm