What we optimise for
Thin geometry instead of thick geometry, an edge angle that can be restored at home, a handle that indexes without being gripped, and honest labelling of which steels need drying and which forgive you.
The three cores
Aogami Super and Shirogami #2 take the keenest edge in the collection and hold it. They also mark, patina and rust if left wet. Ginsan is a stainless steel that behaves far more like carbon than the soft stainless of a supermarket block.
Grind and edge
Blades are ground thin behind the edge and sharpened at roughly fifteen degrees per side, then finished on a fine stone. That finish is deliberately not mirror-polished: a little tooth bites tomato skin better than a mirror does.
Handles
Octagonal wa-handles in ho wood, walnut and ebony, each with a burned oak ferrule. Flat faces give you orientation; the light overall weight pushes balance forward into the cut.
What we do not do
We do not list a discount that never existed, we do not publish reviews we did not receive, and we do not claim a certification we have not been given.