Miyazaki Kajiya x Hatsukokoro Ginsan Damascus

Miyazaki Kajiya is a knife brand built around Haruki Miyazaki, a younger bladesmith based in Nagasaki Prefecture, on the Goto Islands, where he crafts each knife alone in his small forge. His process is traditional: hand laminating the blades, pine charcoal for heat treatment, and water quenching.

This pair is engraved with the Hatsukokoro brand, built on a Ginsan core under a very dense damascus cladding with stainless cladding, hardened to 60 to 62 HRC. The gyuto gives you 237 mm of edge at 238 g, and the Hakata takes the Kyushu speciality shape, a tall profile with a slightly curved spine that works almost like a hybrid between a bunka and a small cleaver.

Both come on exotic snakewood handles with blonde horn. Every knife is hand laminated by one smith in a small forge, and a collab pair with this much hand work sits at the premium end of the range. As with any stainless damascus knife, wash and dry the blade after use.