Japanese STANDARD, should I buy it?

[ghostknife]

I haven't used/bought a straights yet so I quite know what I'm talking about. Just so we're clear on that.

Just want to know if this one is any good or not?
I was going around the second hand shops today and I saw what looked like a straight in reasonable shape in that it wasn't a rusty mess like I've seen before. I was able to examine it and the blade/edge looked to be ok, wasn't chipped and wasn't rusty. I didn't have a camera to get pics so I can only try to explain what it had written on the shank, as below, includes the cross symbol and the lines:

Side 1. |+| STANDARD |
Side 2. |+| JAPAN |

The scale was ivory colour, seemed a bit flimsy but maybe they are like that, i don't know. The edge was slightly sharper than a spoon.
For $15 is it worth getting, is this one decent steel/quality, thats where you come in . Opening up a giant can of worms for myself here I know as I dont have any other equipment to sharpen/fix/hone etc., in time though.

Thanks

 

[Luc]

Difficult to say without pictures...

Japanese steel is usually pretty good. Keep in mind that you will have the worse case scenario, it's rubbish, $15 isn't so bad.

You could try to restore it yourself or start it. You can also send it to a honemeister that does restorations. Oz would be your man in Sydney.