Shiro Kamo

Shiro Kamo, the second generation blade smith of the Kamotou Hamono, is an expert of forging extremely high performance blades. Being a member of the TAKEFU Knife Village, his skill level is top notch in the entire Fukui prefecture.

The most know work done by master Shiro Kamo would be his SG2 Suminagashi series. As one of the few blacksmith in this industry that does hand forging of powder stainless steel, his knife is the thinnest I've ever seen. As stainless steel tend to be much harder to shape at forging temperature, it just says how impressive of a skill that Kamo san possess being about to keep his knife so thin but straight at the same time.

The matching sharpening is also very aggressive, his SG2 has a small convexity but due to the low overall thickness and broad knife profile,the edges are still very thin. The Kurouchi Blue super has a concave grind which goes through tough food with little effort with its extreme thinness. However, these thin blade are still pretty rigid, thanks to the forged taper that thickens the tang. The combination of these features just shows how much understanding that Kamo san has to blade, and he do have the skill to achieve these details with his hammer like it takes no effort.

We found that Shiro Kamo has only few designs that he forge, and that is somewhat remarkable to me. When we are constantly seeking the shiny new things that just come out, we can always count on Kamo san when we need a knife with solid performance. His dedication and focus have lead to a near perfection of what he do, and anyone who picked up his knife and tried will feel the result of years of tuning over one design. If you want a authentically forged knife from Japan, I will definitely check out master Kamo's knives.