Tosa 165mm Santoku Kurouchi Stainless Clad Aogami 1 Octagonal Red Sandalwood & Pakka

Hand forged stainless clad aogami 1 with red sandalwood and octagonal pakka ferrule handle

Reasonably priced Tosa knives like these are characterized by good forging on good steel with minimal finish grinding keeping them affordable, in the rural market the handles are typically the least expensive plastic ferruled magnolia wood options, but we thought they deserved an upgrade on the handle. The convex bevel will have good food release and a little extra toughness being a hair thicker than a flat ground kireba but will need thinning after a dozen or so sharpenings to keep them moving through food smoothly. 

Please note, because of the affordable rustic nature of these knives finish, irregularities and minor imperfections are to be expected; slightly irregular grinds, a tiny wavyness in the edge or stray scratches on face of blade and roughness on heel or spine. All of these can be worked out in the future and are often par for the course on rustic knives like this. 

Hand forged knives from the Tosa area of Shikoku Island, Japan's least populated island with a long history of smithing. Shikoku's thick forests, agriculture and fisheries have led to a local style of smithing that is characterized by rustic free forged knives and tools. Many Tosa knives are ryoba style; forged and ground symmetrically and are suitable for both right and left hand users.

This is a stainless clad reactive carbon steel. It should be mentioned that extra care is required, as only the cladding of the blade is stainless and should be dried immediately after use. The core will develop a dark patina with usage, but any orange rust should be removed with a light abrasive.

These are hand forged and vary slightly a random selection has the following dimensions which are representative:

170m cutting edge, 45mm high at heel, 185mm tip to handle 312mm overall 150 grams