Satoshi Nakagawa VG10 Yanagiba 270mm 鏡面拋光

Satoshi Nakagawa's VG10 single bevel is a line that offers a series of traditional single bevel knives fused with modern stainless steel. They are treated with highest standard with the skill that Nakagawa earned from the legendary bladesmith Kenichi Shiraki in over 20+ years of forging, and you can expect high level of finishing, sharpness and edge retention but have no need to worry about these pieces of arts to rust or discolourate.

VG10 is a steel that many of us are familiar with, but it is rarely used on single bevel knife as it will be hard to sharpen. Only Sukenari, who is known for trying out new steel produced a small amount of VG10 single bevel knives, but this will change with Nakagawa stepping into this area.

Although the stainless steel will be hard to sharpen, many user would just put a secondary bevel on the edge, making it as easy as if not easier to sharpen then typical double bevel knife, and the loss in sharpness is marginal, in exchange, the experience will be much better as there is no neet to keep drying you Yanagiba while cutting, so you can fully enjoy the cutting experience that these marsterpieces can offer.

The fit and finish of these blades is at a pretty high level, chamfered spine and choil combines with mirror polish in these location made the handling of these blade very pleasant. A matching mirror polish on the Hira adds another glare to the beautiful yet simplistic finish, makes it a joy to not only use but to see these knives. Considering the skill level of Nakagawa and the labour required to forge these types of single bevel knives, I believe the pricing is justified. These knives will be something that can both be a very easy to use higher end tool or an entry level collector's item that sits between a good Kasumi Yanagiba and a Honyaki.