A masterpiece! A hand-forged honyaki by Satoshi Nakagawa from Sakai. The steel used is Shirogami #3, with a mirror-polished hira and a beautiful hamon. The octagonal handle is handcrafted from purple heart wood with a black ebony spacer.

Steel: Shirogami #3 | Honyaki
Weight: 204 grams
Blade length: 230 mm from tip to heel
Blade height: 50 mm
Thickness at blade root: 3.5 mm
Thickness mid spine: 2.6 mm

The forging process known as honyaki is very demanding and takes a long time to complete. In a honyaki blade, the knife is forged from a single piece of steel—Shirogami #3 carbon steel. The steel is quenched in oil to achieve the best possible strength and toughness. To prevent the steel from becoming too hard and brittle, parts of the blade are coated in clay. This ensures that the blade isn't hardened uniformly throughout, resulting in a differential hardening effect that creates the hamon, or wavy pattern, along the top of the blade. The top part of the blade, the hira, has been mirror-polished, while the grind, or kireha, features a hairline finish.

A true luxury item for connoisseurs!

Note: The handle is not glued. This means you can remove the handle if you wish to polish the blade without the handle getting in the way. It also allows you to adjust the gap between the handle and the blade. Some prefer the handle to be flush against the blade, while others prefer a gap of a few millimeters. If you would like the handle to be fixed before delivery, that is, of course, not a problem.

Carbon steel is not stainless. Always ensure to dry the blade after use to prevent rust formation.