Honyaki Santoku knife, Shirogami 3 Carbon steel, mirror polish finish - Ikeda

This santoku is made by the legendary Yoshikazu Ikeda. He is the current chairman of the Sakai dentokogeshi (traditional skilled crafts)association. 

SHAPE: Mizu Honyaki Santoku. Named after the three best things to do with this knife - slicing, dicing and mincing. It is the classic veg prep knife with both good breadth and width. This is a honyaki - or true-forged - blade. These blades use a mono steel construction which is then differentially hardened. This basically means the edge is harder than the spine. The wave line, or hamon, seen on the blade face is an indication that the blade has been hardened in this way. These are the hardest knives to make and failure rate is high.

STEEL: Shirogami 3. This is the steel with the lowest carbon content out of the white series. It is most commonly used in honyaki blades to stop the hardness getting too high and them becoming even harder to sharpen. 

FINISH: Mirror polish

HANDLE: Octagonal ebony handle with black buffalo horn ferrule and end cap with a white or silver spacer spacer.

LENGTH: 165mm or 180mm in length.

MAKER: Yoshikazu Ikeda - Sakai City, Japan