Tsunehisa Gyuto Nashiji Ginsanko Wa 240mm (9.5″)

Tsunehisa Gyuto Nashiji Ginsanko Wa 240mm (9.5″) blade length is a multi-purpose Japanese kitchen knife, suitable for use at home, as well as in a professional kitchen. Gyuto, or Chef’s knife, is a versatile kitchen knife that will shine with all kinds of chopping, slicing and rocking motions on the kitchen board.

At the bottom of the blade we can see a very pronounced, curvy line that goes along the entire length of the blade. This is the line between the core and the two softer, outer layers of steel that serve as additional protection of the core steel. Such sandwich of the harder core steel and softer outer steels is called san-mai clad, most of today’s Japanese knives are made this way.

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 heart of this gyuto is made of Hitachi’s Silver III steel, also named Ginsan steel or Ginsanko, which was hardened to around 63 HRC. Due to its high content of Chromium (Cr), Ginsan steel will resist corrosion very well.

LAMINATION:
A high hardness of around 63 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.

BLADE FINISH:
Beautiful and unique hammer dents were left unpolished on the top part of the blade.

HANDLE:
Blacksmiths decided to fit a traditional Japanese (Wa) wooden handle on this beautiful knife. It is made of magnolia wood with a black ferrule and is oval-shaped, so it will fit in the hands of 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.