INQUIRE: SAMUEL.B.DALLAIRE@GMAIL.COM
KITCHEN
JAPANESE STYLE KITCHEN KNIVES
CHEF KNIFE
The most popular of my chef knives is definitely the Japanese Gyuto, which serves multiple purposes in the kitchen and can be used both by the home foodie to professional chefs.
More about this in the handle section, but each knife is balanced on the pinch grip area to ensure minimal strain on the user's wrist.
A distal taper, which means a thicker spine near the handle and thinner near the tip, is ground on the blade to optimize the knife's balance as well as maximize slicing ability on the tip of the knife and increase toughness when chopping with the slat part of the blade.
The spine is kept sharp for better scrapping abilities. Reminder to NEVER scrape with the cutting edge!
Most often, high quality stainless steels are preferred for kitchen applications, but for more budget friendly options, 80CrV2 high-carbon steel can be used with an acid bath patina to optimize corrosion resistance (as pictured above).
WA HANDLE
The traditional handle on Japanese style knives is called a Wa handle, which is consisting of an octagonal shape.
Generally, we use a hardwood for the bolster/guard as it is naturally stable and will resist most scratches from chopping and effects from acidic food.
The whole handle (bolster, inlay and handle) is assembled and shaped separately from the knife, while routinely being attached and detached from the knife to ensure its trueness and straightness.
A taper is designed on the handle, with a lighter finish at the front and a heavier shape at the back of the handle to ensure optimal balance point of the whole knife right at the pinch point of the knife. The balance point is constantly checked during the handle shaping process to make sure the final product will be perfectly balanced.
Once finished, the handles are polished to a glossy finish and coated with Tung Oil and bees wax to seal them and ensure their compatibility with food.
KITCHEN SETS &
OTHER STYLES
Although the most common style we provide is the Gyuto, we can also make different styles of kitchen knives upon request or kitchen sets.
As pictured above, a large billet of Copper SichiMai (7 layers of Wrought iron, Damascus, Copper and 80CrV2) was optimized by making 3 knives out of a single billet. This combo of chef knife, small cleaver and pairing knife is perfect for almost every task in your kitchen.