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Carter On Ebay

Hi everyone. It's my first post and even though I hang around this site alot I am yet to speak up. I must admit even for someone who works in a kitchen all day and then looks at my knives all night it's still alittle intimidating but here I go. Recently on ebay (where i buy some of my vintage sabatiers) I stumbled upon a Murray Carter knife. The guy said he got a neck knife and this came with it. So I bought it for $100. The blade is 5 1/2 inches and the knife is 10 1/4 overall. Any iformation would be appreciated. I think i got a deal but I dont use many traditional japanese and definitely not hand made knives. Thanks in advance.http://www.ebay.com/itm/251073763939...84.m1439.l2649

That is a Carter SFGZ funayuki in blue super, which are generally very good performing knives. Hopefully, this one works nicely. It is pretty clear to me that the knife has been altered prior to taking the pictures. The scratch pattern on the surface of the blades and the overall look of the finish is atypical of Carters.

It looks like it sold for $150. If it did, that's not much of a deal. If you got it for $100, then good on you. Cheap for a Carter.

You asked for any info, and here you go:
It's a 4 sun Stainless Fukugozai Funayuki in Hitachi White #2 steel.

Carters, in this range, are known to have...ahem...less than perfect Fit and Finish. This one does have some abnormal scratch patterns on the face of the knife though, and even though there are spotty reports of shallow stamping on these, the maker's mark and other insignia are pretty incoherent. It appears that this guy probably took it to a belt sander to clean up the scuffiness and hammer marks. It's not Blue Super steel, because those get an "S" stamp from Carter down by the ferrule, and this appears to have the leavings of a "W" by the maker's mark, which he does for his White Steel. It's also his favorite steel, and cheaper than AS, so I doubt he would be giving away anything else for free.

You might want to have it sharpened, if you are not a seasoned sharpener, to bring out the best in this knife. If this guy was, in fact, some sharp-stick-collecting bozo who took a sloppy belt grinder to his free Carter, he probably also "sharpened" it for you, maybe after bumping the edge with an 80 grit AlOx belt. Just saying, it's eBay. Caveat Emptor.

I should also add that nobody else measures knives in Shaku(the whole '4 sun' thing). Also, it's not what anyone else calls a Funayuki. It's a tiny little gyuto kind of thing, so it's what we in the English Speaking world call a Petty. When they're Carters, they are "Funayuki!".