Thick and thin in all the right places. The hand-forged distal taper and hollow flats allow this blade to have a robust spine at the handle yet be extremely thin at the start of the bevels, well-balanced (just above the heel), and thin at the tip. As is the case with all my knives, the bevels are ready to go straight to the stones for thinning and polishing. No low spots, no coarse scratches lurking to plague you with hours of frustrating work.

The core steel, Takefu Shiro2, is one of my favorite steels to work with. Distinct from Hitachi white/shirogami steel, Shiro2 has better toughness at extremely high hardness, thanks to its nickel addition. My customers find that it also holds an edge longer, while still being easy to sharpen to scary levels of sharpness.

Blade materials: Suminagashi-clad Takefu Shiro2

Handle materials: Ziricote

Blade length*: 215mm

Tip to heel length: 205mm

Blade height at heel: 54mm

Spine thickness at handle: 5mm

Spine thickness at heel: 4mm

Spine thickness mid-blade: 2mm

Spine thickness 1cm from tip: 0.8mm

Overall length: 350mm

Weight: 171g