Kuwabara White #2 Bunka 170mm

Bunka style knives are gaining in popularity in many professional and home kitchens. Their compact dimensions, added blade height, and fine tanto style tip make for a very versatile utensil. They are shaped flatter than the usual gyutos or santokus, so push cutters will be very impressed by the abilities of this blade shape. Many prefer this profile to the santoku for the bunka’s ability to handle more detailed tip work and the reduced drag towards the end of the blade.

We were originally attracted to Kuwabara-san’s knives because of the single authorship of his blades as well as the fact that Mr. Kuwabara hand sharpens each knife with natural stones before shipping them out to his customers. This is highly unusual in the industry and makes for a very unique opportunity to use a tool made by one individual from start to finish.

He uses Shirogami #2 steel for the inner core of this san-mai construction. It is a popular steel with knife users, who regard its ability to take a very refined edge as one of its foremost attributes. The inner core is covered with a soft iron cladding which protects the White #2 steel but does not negate the need for careful cleaning and drying between uses. It has a great looking kurouchi, or blacksmith, finish which adds to the look of this characterful knife.

Weight: 4.8 ounces

Blade Length: 173 mm

Total Length: 309 mm

Spine Thickness: 3.3 mm

Blade Height: 49.0 mm