Hatsukokoro By Yoshikane White 2 Nashiji

Hatsukokoro By Yoshikane White 2 Nashiji, previously known as the K&S Amekiri(雨切), just like this name of "Rain-Cutting", it was well known for extreme sharpness and smoothness when cutting through food, maybe space and time too. Now with its sister line SKD Nashiji, the og White 2 line is under the Hatsukokoro name, what doesn't change is the excellent fit and finish, great handling and the renowned sharpness out of the box.

The extreme sharpness of this line comes form two aspects: the steel and edge geometry. The core steel is Hitachi White 2, a pure carbon steel without alloy content. The stainless steel gains rust resistance through chromium, but the chromium carbide formed during the heat treating have larger particle size, meaning it's hard to get a very refined edge liek you could on a carbon steel. This choice of steel ensures the performance of the cutting edge of the knife. The forging and grinding fone by Yoshikane is a tapered blade combined with a convex grind. The tapering allows the blade to be thinner at the front, and the convex bevel can reduces the sticking and rubbing, ensures very little resistance can be felt when cutting through a large protion of food. This convex grind is done so subtly it barly increace the thickness of the bevel, as the result, there are no noticeable wedging when cutting into potatos.

There aren't much to say about the fit and finish. The Nashiji finish is shiny yet rustic-looking, choil and spine are not fully rounded but are highly polished to give your finger a gentle feeling, and the bevel, they receive a matt finish with a shiny cutting edge, so refined that there are barely any marks left from the polishing. With the stainles cladding, the carbone steel are mostly covered, making it much easier to look after these knives.

Although it seems to be a good amount of money to spend on a White 2 Steel knife at first glance, I still going to say this Yoshikane Nashiji line is overall a great bang for your bucks, especially if you are enthusiastic about the pure cutting performance of your knives.