Yanagiba knife, Aogami 2 steel, polished finish - Nishida

Nishida-san is one of Japan’s up and coming blacksmiths. He has been blacksmithing for 12 years and started making hunting knives. Unusually for Japan, he undertakes all of the knife making processes himself including forge welding the steel together to make a layered blade.

SHAPE: Yanagiba. This knife is used to slice protein in one continuous movement to minimize damage to the ingredient. This shape features the traditional single bevelled edge so is only suitable for right handed users. This edge design allows the blade to take a razor sharp edge helping with the slicing of fish thinly. Traditional Japanese knives, such as this, must be exclusively sharpened on whetstones. These examples are single bevelled so are only suitable for right handed users.

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.

FINISH: Migaki or polished finish

HANDLE: Octagonal Rosewood handle with a Pakkawood ferrule.

LENGTH: 180 or 210mm in length.

MAKER: Daisuke Nishida - Minamiseki, Japan

BEST FOR: Those wanting medium to heavy weight knives that are very traditionally forged

SAUNDERS SAYS: "These knives are really beautiful and, at only 35 years old, I think Nishida-san is someone to watch in the future."

These knives are hand-forged so there may be slight variations in measurements and finishes.