The most unexpected knife and my luckiest finding, I went to Hitohira while having my eyes set on a large menkiri, I love noodles and that would be the kind of knife you bring at work just to flex on your colleagues on how much cooler your tools are, it's a 30 min metro ride from Asakusa but I did a detour to Divercity to see the Unicorn Gundam and visit my third Godzilla Store (yes I like Godzilla).

I was warmly greeted by the vendor who I believe to be named Yuki if I'm not mistaken ? Fluent in english so communication was perfect, he asked me what I was searching for and before even mentioning the menkiri (which they had in stock anyway) I asked him if they had any Tetsujin and maybe a Metal Flow, he hesitated a moment and told me that they maybe received some this morning and then went back with two AO2 240mm, a ktip and a regular gyuto.

I was so surprised, we talked a bit and he said that he's seen people coming and being disapointed to see they had AO2 MF and not the Ginsan one :0, I was like "damn you've got some MF available and they're picky about it" which I'd understand if you were already in possesion of a AO2 MF but it seems that it wasn't the case here, it didn't matters much to me, I don't like Ginsan very much and like I said having the possibility to buy a MF was already crazy. The shopping was very pleasant, the store has a big selection for all kinds of budgets and boast a huge variety of blades.

Now the knife:

Steel: AO2

Length: 230mm

Weight: 184gr

Handle: Tahei wood and buffalo horn ferrule

Smith: Toru Tamura

Sharpener: Naohito Myojin

I know this sub is gonna kill me for this but I prefer Tetsujin over Kagekiyo, but it's more of a esthetic preference as this blade behaves very much like my B1 Kagekiyo which means the good (light and extreme performance) and the bad (IT4S STICKY AS HELL), the Metal Flow (I've realized halfway the abrevation MF might be misunderstood for obvious reasons) is probably my prettiest knife, the damascus is subtle yet rich, the etching is beautiful giving us something quite dark but elegant at the same time but this comes at the price of horrible sticking. Beyond that it's good for everything, interestingly while having only 2 grams of difference in weight the Tetsujin feels lighter and way more handy than the Kagekiyo, the handle is very light so much so that you feel like you're handling a stick more than a knife.



While the fnf are almost perfect it did have a bit of a overgrind near the tip and one or 2 scratches but it's alright, it's meant to be used anyway and not be a drawer queen.

I paid 65000 yen, when the vendor told me the price I was doing some quick math and wasn't believing it, for context it's roughly 350 euros, a 240mm Metal Flow is around 600 euros in Europe, the weak Yen is reponsible for such a price but I couldn't not compare it to my other purchase, being 100 euro under my Kagekiyo and 150 over my Enjiki, crazy deal.

  
Here's end this series, I might go back to Japan in 2 years for vacation, lots of other places to check (Konosuke, Emani, TnH, Moritaka and a lot more !) and more persons to meet, I also hope my work will enable me to work there too (I'm on the road to work in Michelin stared kitchens, one can hope).



Japan Haul 5/5: Tetsujin Metal Flow AO2 240mm (Feat Gundam and Godzilla)