Sakai Hinokuni Gyuto 240mm Shirogami 1

Yukihiro Sakai apprenticed under Daisuke Nishida, of Nishida Knives, where he learnt to forge weld his steel in-house and carries on this tradition his new workshop, Sakai Hinokuni, Kumamoto City, Kyushu Prefecture. His knives are a little heavier, workhorse style knives but extremely sharp.

The Japanese version of a western Chef’s Knife, based off of French chefs knives in the 1880’s it was designed for cutting meat, Gyuto translates to “meat sword”, but it is a versatile all round kitchen knife that can be used for rock or push cutting styles. Due to the harder steel used for the cutting edge, Japanese Gyuto’s generally have thinner blades than a western knife of the same size. 

Shirogami or White Paper steel, is a very pure steel with a high carbon content that was designed to be like traditional Tamahagane, used in sword making. Very popular with Japanese blacksmiths, it takes a fine edge and is very easy to sharpen. Shirogami comes in 3 grades with various levels of carbon, Shirogami #1, #2 & #3.

Measurements and photographs are taken from a random knife and may differ from the knife you receive.