Tsunehisa Gyuto AS Migaki 210mm is a multi-purpose Japanese kitchen knife, suitable for preparing meat, fish and vegetables. Don’t let its simple looks fool you, though, as its core is forged out of Aogami Super steel – the most advanced carbon steel on the market, coveted for its very fine sharpness and edge retention.

BLADE SHAPE:

Gyuto is the most versatile and useful blade shape in the modern kitchen. It has a wide profile for easy food transfer and tends to be fairly flat towards the heel, enabling easy and fast chopping on the cutting board. A pointed tip allows piercing and precise, delicate work. A slight curve between the tip and the midsection makes the belly great for rocking the blade back and forth when cutting. It can be used for cutting meat, fish and vegetables.

STEEL:

Aogami Super is the crème de la crème when it comes to high-carbon Japanese steels. If you’re looking for the finest sharpness, this is the steel you should be looking at. It is also very easy to sharpen, and the blades can be forged very thin. It has great wear resistance due to high amounts of tungsten and chromium, the latter also adding to its corrosion resistance. This doesn’t mean that Aogami Super blades will resist corrosion as well as stainless steels, as they will develop a patina, while leaving them exposed to water or other food acids could even result in rusting (so don’t forget to wipe them dry after use!). If you’re willing to just put this extra attention to the knife’s maintenance, though, you will be rewarded with a fine sharpness like no other. Aogami Super is made up of carbon (C) 1.50%, tungsten (W) 2.50%, vanadium (V) 0.50%, chromium (Cr) 0.50%, manganese (Mn) 0.30%, silicon (Si) 0.20%.

LAMINATION:

High-carbon steel is hard, but brittle for this same reason. This makes the blades more prone to breakage and chipping. To prevent that, blacksmiths “sandwich" the blade’s core, made from Aogami Super steel, between two layers of softer steels. This improves the blade’s flexibility and toughness. The trace of this lamination process is the curvy line right above the cutting edge, which is the border between the blade’s core (hagane) and the outer, protective layer (jigane).

GEOMETRY:

It has a double bevel (symmetrical) blade.

BLADE FINISH:

The blade was treated to a high polish, also called a migaki finish.

HANDLE:

Traditional oval Japanese (Wa) style handle made out of rosewood with a black pakka ferrule.

ABOUT THE BLACKSMITH:

Tsunehisa is a brand that combines a variety of high quality knives from different knife centers in Japan such as Tosa, Seki and Sakai. Their philosophy is that each region has its own steel and different manufacturing processes. For example, Tosa is known for its Ginsanko and Aus-8 steels, Seki is famous for producing excellent blades from the V-Gold steel group, and Sakai for its single-edged Honyaki knives.