Nigara Gyuto SG2 Tsuchime Wa 240mm (9.4″)

Nigara Gyuto SG2 Tsuchime Wa 240mm is a multi-purpose Japanese kitchen knife, suitable for preparing meat, fish and vegetables. Its core is made of SG2 powder steel, ensuring long-lasting sharpness while requiring minimal maintenance. The steel’s excellent corrosion resistance makes it a reliable choice for kitchen use.

The convex grind geometry of the blade, combined with the unique hammer strokes, ensures that ingredients do not stick to the blade during cutting, allowing for faster and more precise work.

BLADE SHAPE:
Gyuto is the most versatile and useful blade shape in the modern kitchen. It has a wide profile for easy food transfer and tends to be fairly flat towards the heel, enabling easy and fast chopping on the cutting board. A pointed tip allows piercing and precise, delicate work. A slight curve between the tip and the midsection makes the belly great for rocking the blade back and forth when cutting. It can be used for cutting meat, fish and vegetables.

*The length of the cutting edge is 225mm (heel to point), but with this knife the length is measured from the edge of the handle to the tip of the blade, amounting to 240mm.

STEEL:
SG2 steel is a powder steel, renowned for its hardness and subsequent edge retention—due to a high carbon (C) content of 1.5%. The steel is also high in chromium (Cr)—around 15%, which adds to corrosion resistance and Molybdenum (Mo) that improves the blade’s wear resistance. SG2 steel blades will be able to achieve a fine sharpness due to the fine microstructure of the steel and will keep it—without having to worry about maintenance and corrosion.

LAMINATION:
A high hardness of around 64 HRC means that the blade won’t be very tough, so the blade’s core was laminated using the san-mai method to improve its structural integrity and subsequent ability to withstand impacts and prevent chipping. San-mai translates to “three layers” in Japanese, referring to a blade that is composed of a primary, inner layer of harder steel (hagane) and of two secondary, outer layers of softer steel (jigane) that protect the prior.

GEOMETRY:
It has a double bevel (symmetrical) blade with convex (full hamaguri) grind. Hamaguri grind allows superior sharpness that requires delicate handling and helps to prevent food from sticking to the blade. Such a shape keeps a lot of metal behind the edge and makes for a stronger edge, yet it still allows a good degree of sharpness. The downside to a convex grind is that it is very hard to reproduce by anyone other than a very experienced sharpener.

BLADE FINISH:
The blade was treated with a special textured hammer that leaves complex geometric impressions on the surface of the blade. Japanese tsuchime finish on knives is an amazing technique in which the surface of the blade is worked with a hammer to create captivating hexagonal indentations.

The hammered surface reduces friction and prevents food from sticking to the blade while cutting. The textured surface creates small air pockets that allow for smoother and more precise cutting.

In Japan, the hexagon is prized for its aesthetic appeal and structural stability in traditional arts, crafts, and architecture. It is found in various artistic forms and is also used in the design of Shinto torii doors and modern buildings. The hexagonal shape of the kasagi in torii doors represents the belief in strength and stability associated with the number six.

HANDLE:
The Japanese handle (Wa) is made of teak wood with a buffalo horn ferrule. Suitable for both left and right-handed users. With the choice of the shape and the wood, the handle embodies a simple Japanese aesthetic.

BLACKSMITH:
Nigara Hamono has a 350-year history and has been making swords since the Edo period. Head blacksmith Tsuyoshi Yoshizawa, who works alongside his father Toshi Yoshizawa, is an eighth-generation blacksmith with a passion for art and music as well as knives, and his famous Nigara Anmon design is the result of his love of Andy Warhol’s artwork. Nigara is certainly one of the most exceptional knife makers in Japan.