Rolin Knives GoMai 170mm Santoku A203 Clad Apex Ultra Spalted Maple Richlite

Hand forged oil-quenched santoku featuring a wide bevel, A203 mild steel clad Apex Ultra blade that is lightly acid etched after polishing, revealing the nickel banding in the A203 steel. The handle is also handmade from a stabilized spalted maple handle with a richlite ferrule. This blade has a strong distal taper.

Apex Ultra is a fine grain, fine carbide low alloy steel made specifically for fine cutlery. Developed by an international team of metallurgist, Larrin Thomas (US), Marco Guldimann (CH), Tobias Hangler (AT). It's valued for its high hardness and toughness, it's considered to have the highest toughness of any knife steel, reaching a 66+ HRc in some instances. Usually, when chasing hardness and toughness in a blade steel, one will detrimentally effect the other, but Apex Ultra has been formulated to balance both thanks to it's purity, homogeny and fine microstructure. It takes and holds a fine edge while remaining tough by design.

All aspects of this knife were meticulously forged, treated, ground, machined, worked, shaped and fit with an incredible amount of detail and intention by Nick Rolin. Originally from the Bay Area, Nick's blade shapes and styles are inspired by his years as a fine-dining line cook that preceded his time spent in NYC as a bartender after earning a degree in Sustainable Agriculture from UCSC. After a weekend knife making class in 2016, Nick began making knives for friends and the eventual demand lead to returning to the Bay Area in 2022 to make knives full-time.

We have been able to test a few of Nick's knives and were impressed not only with the craftsmanship and aesthetics but also the edge performance, cutting feel and sharpenability of the knives. We are lucky to have Nick in our backyard and are proud to be able to introduce his work to our knife community.