Bringing the Rockstead Higo-J in the wood is easy. The handle is smooth enough to find another pocket than the right front denim’s and the clip keep it attached.
The straight handle permits different grips and the grooves in the duraluminium help to secure them even with wet hands.

Now the edge is narrow, thin and mirror smooth and the back of the blade confortable enough to push cut with the left hand thumb.
The result are incredibly powerful deep cuts in wood.
Compared to my ATS34 Sebenza (narrow edge and mirror polished and my faithful CPM M4 Gayle Bradley the Higo-J cuts with much more ease.
It’s amazing and it’s logical.
The edge is so narrow, almost like a scandinavian grind. So the fibers of wood are no match for this wonderful tool.

But a narrow edge also means a much fragile edge. My version is the ZDP-189 version: a very hard steel wich is not a tool steel able to withstand torsion and very hard use. The Higo-J is a lamborghini not a tractor. The handle is enough confortable for long works. It’s not a UK Bushcrafter but for an open handle it’s better than my Sebbie ergos.
After two days of various works on differents woods, food and strings: everything a knife that size is confronted when you are in the wood. (Also I have whittle a lot as the sensation of ease of cutting is really addictive… I have only noticed a tiny micro nick in the blade.

Again, you don’t want to notice any nick on a Lamborghini.
So back home, I decided to gently caress the edge with the with ceramic of my Sharpmaker and succesfully removed 60% of the nick.
Then I have been stropping the blade for two hours to remove the marks.
Now it looks like new but it has lost its factory edge.
I will need more time to gently reprofile it and strop back to mirror.
Ah, the learning curve…
If you use your knife, you will be obliged to touch up the very thin edge and to reprofile it with a tiny wider angle…

OK. So after using the Spyderco Sharpmaker at 30° to rease the nick and eventually realign the edge and fifteen more minutes of stropping
on my Snail Belt and then on my razor leather. The crispy and hair popping sharpness is back to normal. (which means outstandingly amazing!)

The road so far:
“Rockstead Higo-J part I – A Folding Masamune in Paris”
“Rockstead Higo-J ZDP-189: Fears and Cures”
“Rockstead Higo-J: Part III – Masamune in Winter”