Tsunehisa Gyuto Aogami Super Kuro-uchi 210mm (8.3″) [Walnut]

Tsunehisa Gyuto Aogami Super Kuro-uchi 210mm (8.3″) [Walnut] is a great multi-purpose knife with a black Kuro-uchi protective patina and hammer dents. The Gyuto blade shape is essentially a Japanese version of the Chef’s knife, which will make this knife suitable for preparing large quantities of vegetables and meat.

BLADE SHAPE:
Gyuto is the most versatile and useful blade shape in the modern kitchen. It has a wide profile with an extra height clearance 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. 

STEEL:
The core of this knife is Hitachi’s Super Blue Steel (Aogami Super), which is the very top quality of traditional Japanese steels. The Kuro-uchi (black) patina on the upper part of the knife gives it a unique and rustic appearance. This knife was heat-treated to around 63 HRC. It is a very hard steel,  meaning that it will retain a super-fine sharpness for a long time. In addition, due to the high carbon content (1.4-1.5%), the knife is very easy to sharpen. Among the high carbon steels, Aogami Super is also the least sensitive to rust. It also contains 0.4% vanadium as an admixture for micronized metal grains, which gives the steel more toughness. Aogami Super is rated as the most advanced carbon steel. The outer layers are of softer, stainless steel, giving the knife extra rust protection.

BLADE FINISH:
Kuro-uchi finish, the unprocessed (black) part on the top side of the blade has already developed a dark patina, which protects the blade and gives it a unique and rustic appearance. The blade was treated with hammer blows, resulting in a textured tsuchime look, which gives it a beautiful finish and also prevents food from sticking to the blade.

HANDLE:
The handle (traditional Japanese Wa) is oval and smooth, with no discernible transition between the walnut and maple wood. It’s suitable for both left- and right-handed users.

BLACKSMITH:
Tsunehisa knives are a brand that combines a variety of high quality knives from different knife centers in Japan such as Tosa, Seki and Sakai. Their philosophy is that each region has its own steel and different manufacturing processes. For example, Tosa is known for its Ginsanko and Aus-8 steels, Seki is famous for producing excellent blades from the V-Gold steel group, and Sakai for its single-edged Honyaki knives.