The Tsubaki Blue #2 Kori
Gyuto is made by Miyazaki san who works from his one-person forge on a small island off the southern coast of Japan close to Nagasaki. Right across the street from his workshop is this beautiful marsh where his father grows these long reeds that he harvests and uses for making traditional thatched roofs on buildings.
Mr. Miyazaki was kind enough to write an explanation of the manufacturing process, which we have translated and included in this product description:
"Please let me explain how I produced the first lot of CKTG Original Gyuto. I manually insert Hitachi Aogami #2 steel into quality mild soft iron. I carefully made it annealed into ash of rice straw, which adds carbon powder.
After forging (the steels together), considering the kiritsuke original character, I hardened it (using) pine charcoal at about 800 degrees centigrade. Then (it is) immediately (quenched) in water at about 28 degrees centigrade, to (make) it much tougher. I ground the blade to be what is called a clamshell finish, to have the cutting feeling lighter and (to make) re-sharpening even easier."
Hamaguri is Japanese for clam or clamshell, and it describes a blade ground with convex radiused bevels. Also called an Appleseed or Moran grind, it is produced by grinding the blade on a slack grinding belt.
Brand: Tsubaki
Blacksmith: Miyazaki San
Construction: San Mai, Hammer Forged
Edge Steel: Blue #2
Cladding: Iron
Finish: Nashiji (Cori)
Weight: 8.3 oz (236 g)
Edge Length: 243 mm
Total Length: 400 mm
Spine Thickness at Heel: 3.4 mm
Blade Height at Heel: 54.3 mm
Handle: Burnt Urushi Octagonal