One of the more storied sword-smiths and knife makers on our site, Moritaka Hamono has developed the Supreme series by drawing on over 700 years of experience hand forging swords, kitchen and hunting knives. Moritaka works exclusively with Aogami, or blue steel, and the top of the line series offered here uses
Aogami Super (AS) at the core. Experts with this particular steel, Moritaka treats it to an HRC of 64-65 which is insanely hard and allows for an acute, highly refined edge. Despite the high hardness of these blades, we do not find them to be brittle in the least and they are exceptionally easy to sharpen. Cladding the AS is softer iron presented with a rustic kurouchi (sometimes written as “kuro-uchi” or simply “KU”) finish which enhances non-stick and anticorrosive properties on these reactive blades. Fit and finish is excellent and grinds/bevels on these knives are symmetrical.
In the case of this 240mm
yanagiba, the Western geometry would classify this knife as a
sujihiki, the Japanese version of a slicer. We mention this with other knives in the series, but we are always struck at the extreme value presented by these knives. Made with deep tradition, high performance and hand-forged, blades like this with AS steel at this price point are pretty darn hard to come by. We are thrilled to be the only US distributor of these exceptional knives. Please note as of May 15th, 2015 these knives now have a ho wood octagonal handle with buffalo horn ferrule. The video on the page is not current. The photos are current.
Blade Length 240 mm
Blade Height 34 mm
Blade Thickness at Spine 3.74
Weight 4.4 ounces