Sakai Kikumori Tomoshibi Yanagiba 240mm

About the Shape –Yanagibas are long, thin, single-bevel knives ground and sharpened on one side. Translating to “willow’s leaf,” they’re graceful and elegant like their name suggests. Yanagibas are commonly used for slicing sashimi, but can also be used for carving other meats like roast beef and prime rib.

About Sakai Kikumori – Sakai Kikumori is a wholesaler in Sakai, sort of like Sakai Takayuki and Konosuke. They work with several blacksmiths and sharpeners including Shiraki Hamono, Yoshikazu Tanaka and Morihiro.

This line of knives are forged and sharpened in Tosa region in Kochi prefecture by a team of relatively young but very talented blacksmith and sharpener. In fact, the blacksmith had worked at Knifewear before and decided to become a blacksmith when he returned to Japan.

Shirogami (white) carbon is pretty darn great. It’s super easy to sharpen, takes a brilliantly sharp edge, cuts like silk and is very rugged for its hardness. The hard white carbon steel is forge-welded to a piece of softer carbon steel.