Santoku knife, Aogami 2, Stainless Steel clad, Coloured damascus finish - Tsukasa Hinoura

The renowned Sanjo knife maker, Master Tsukasa Hinoura stared blacksmithing in 1975. In Japan, he is exceptionally famous, demand is high and his kitchen knives are incredibly hard to get hold of. Luckily during my last trip to Japan I got to meet Tsukasa-san and his son Mutsumi-san. From this trip we managed to bring back quite a few knives but, most importantly, order lots for the future. Here they are...

SHAPE: 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.

STEEL: Aogami (blue paper) 2 steel. This is very similar to white paper steel but with tungsten and chromium added to it which helps with edge retention and slows down rusting. This steel differs from Blue 1 in its carbon content, Blue 2 being slightly less. Due to the non stainless nature of this steel care must be taken to dry the knives properly after use. It is worth noting that this knife has been clad in stainless steel meaning only the exposed core edge will discolour making maintenance a lot easier.

FINISH: Damascus or suminagashi. This type of finish is made by creating a Kitaeji; which is produced by repeatedly folding/stacking then compressing two different steels until they create a laminated pattern. This can then be manipulated in various ways to produce the maker’s desired pattern effect. This material is then clad around the core metal of the blade as an elaborate protective layer for the core steel, thus giving the knife a beautiful and striking appearance. In the case of this knife, the Damascus cladding has both copper and brass in it giving it the beautiful colour.

HANDLE: Octagonal Ebony handle with Buffalo horn ferrule.

LENGTH: 165mm in length 

MAKER: Tsukasa Hinoura  - Sanjo, Japan

BEST FOR: Those wanting a santoku made by a God.

SAUNDERS SAYS: "bar the usual stuff, my most expensive possession by a country mile is one of his knives. Anything you get from him is utterly jaw dropping and this ‘affordable’ range is no expectation. Buy them while you can.”