Sakai Takayuki Mizu Honyaki 210mm Yanagiba

Sakai Takayuki is well known as the largest knife manufacturer in Japan, and one of the most recognizable names in cutlery today. They employ dozens of skilled craftsmen all working on honing their individual crafts, culminating in a high production rate of handmade cutlery. Among their ranks is Itsuo Doi, a craftsman renowned for low temperature forge welding of blue steel. 

Perhaps the most often seen and recognizable by non-Japanese kitchen knife users is the yanagiba. Traditionally single bevel, this is the knife you'll immediately notice when going to a sushi restaurant and are wondering what that long sabre-like knife the chef is using to prepare your sushi. With 210mm of cutting edge, this yanagiba is on the shorter side but what it lacks in size it makes up in performance. 

Some would say a Honyaki knife provides a different experience to most other cutlery.  Made of a single piece of steel folded in on itself many times to rid any impurities, clay is laid out on the shaped knife before it enters heat treatment. This clay will slow the cooling of the knife and define the hamon - the boundary between hard and soft steel - resulting in the unique appearance and generally higher hardness of Honyaki knives. This is highly skilled work, with only a handful of Japanese craftsmen forging Honyaki knives today. 

This knife is forged by Kenji Togashi. He has produced a 210mm yanagiba using the mizu-Honyaki (water quenched) method with shirogami #2 (white paper) steel. This knife features a gunome hamon - or wavy quench line - created by the clay laid out before the heat treatment process. 

Brand: Sakai Takayuki

Location: Sakai, Japan

Blacksmith: Kenji Togashi

Sharpener: Sakai Takayuki 

Shape: Yanagiba

Construction: Mizu-Honyaki 

Core Steel: Shirogami #2/White #2

Cladding:N/A

Grind: right hand single bevel

Finish: Migaki (polished) 

Blade Length: 210mm

Overall Length: 335mm

Spine: 2.6mm

Blade Height: 31mm

Weight: 179 grams

HRC: 63-64

Handle Type: D- Wa handle 

Handle Material: Ho/Magnolia wood.