Sakai Hinokuni Nakiri 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 Nakiri, “leaf cutter”, is a double bevel, thin bladded knife designed for vegetable cutting. The flat grind of the blade makes for good chopping board contact so no more “accordion” vegetables. This is not a cleaver.

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.