Santoku knife, aogami super, ss-clad, 165mm, tsuchime kurouchi finish - Kato

The Knives are made by Yoshimi Kato the now owner of Kanehiro Hamono who’s father trained him and Yu Kurosaki.

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) super 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. The super part indicates the highest amount of carbon steel - at up to 1.5% - out of the blue series steels. This has then been hardened to 63-64 Rockwell making it very hard and capable of retaining an edge for a very long time. The blue steel core has then been wrapped in stainless steel making maintenance easy.

FINISH: Tsuchime. This is a hand hammered finish that is not only beautiful but also functional. The small depressions stop food sticking to the knife. This finish comes in many different forms from the traditional round hammer marks to more modern patterns.

Kurouchi. This is a traditional, rustic finish achieved by leaving the furnace scale from the forging process on the blade rather than polishing it off. It has the advantage of reducing the reactivity of the surface of the knife and gives the blade a stylish, matt black finish.

HANDLE: Western Pakka wood handle.

LENGTH: 165mm in length.

MAKER: Yoshimi Kato - Takefu, Echizen, Japan

BEST FOR: Veg prep

SAUNDERS SAYS: “These are lovely skinny knives so will really excel at large scale veg prep." 

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