Sakimaru • 330 mm kiritsuke • Gin san #3 • Japanese ebony handle with a bolster of horn • including custom-made saya • for right-handed use

Features of the Zangetsu Mikasuki series

This mikazuki is easily to recognise by its characteristic moon design. The razorsharp blade and the buffalo ferrule, will enhance comfort, grip and control. The blade is nicely thinned behind the edge and the razor sharp edge will garantee sliky smooth cutting. The rounded shape will make it versatile for meat and fish.

GINSAN /Gingami No.3 ("Silver Paper No.3”) / Gin#3 ("Silver#3") / Ginsan-kō ("Silver 3 Steel")

Gingami No. 3, known as ginsan steel silver steel (manufactured by Hitachi Metals Ltd.) is a semi stainless steel. It has a very fine structure, which can be maintained easily and can be sharpened to extreme sharpness. Hitachi steel factory disigned silver to position it next to the well known VG10 steel, same characteristics, but a little less chrome and more refinement. The ginsan silver steel becomes more and more popular with home cooks and professionals.

Elwin de Veld about the knives of Sakai Takayuki

We usually start our trips to Japan in Osaka, from where we take a Shinkansen ( a bullet train) to Seki, in Gifu prefecture. We start in Sakai, in south of Osaka, where we always recieve a warm friendly welcome from Aoki san and Ogawa san from Sakai Takayuki. In recent years the customers in our shop have been asking for special Japanese traditionally forged knives: Yanagiba, Sakimura, Kengata: all the names of models which are used in Japanese kitchens for preparing various sorts of fish. Sakai Takayuki is my key which opens the door to the world of traditional Japanese knives and to top it all, their product range is targeted for the western market. For making of the traditional Japanese knives Sakai Takayuki employs the best of the best: Itsuo Doi and Kenji Togashi, among others. The blacksmith Yamatsuke san, with his stable hand on the Kaiten Toshi (Japanese water stone), is a guarantor of an exceptionally sharp finish. Sakai Takayuki buys lots of their steel from the Aichi steel (their headquarters are situated close to Nagoya) and works among other with carbon steel shirogami white and aogami blue. A nice detail: the colours in the names of the steel have nothing to do with the colour of the steel itself- it's just the colour of the packing in which the raw steel is being stored in the factory. The western models are manually finished at the company's quarters in Osaka (sharpening), but largely manufactured in Seki, in Gifu prefecture. The finish and the quality is sublime- just what we can expect from Takayuki.