Sakai Kikumori Nakagawa Seiun 180mm Santoku VG10 Ebony with Saya

Hand forged by Nakagawa Hamono for Sakai Kikumori. Seiun translates to ‘nebula’, stars and clouds in Kanji, speaking to their shimmering finish. It’s not difficult to appreciate both beauty and functionality in these knives, as they represent the best version of VG10 available. While not the thinnest-spined knifes in our stock, they are impressively thin behind the edge due to an expertly convex hamaguri grind and will prove so in a smooth, effortless cutting feel.

Nakagawa-san’s knives are characterized by excellent heat control during forging and a very thorough heat treatment. This creates knives that have superb edge formation and edge retention, with good toughness. Nakagawa-san’s reputation is well earned as one of a few blacksmiths in Sakai to expertly forge Ginsanko, VG10, and STRIX stainless steels. Likewise, his carbon steels are easy to sharpen across most steel types.

Sakai Kikumori was started in 1926 and draws on Sakai’s 600 year history as the major center of traditional Japanese cutlery manufacturing. They work with a large variety of Sakai’s best smiths, sharpeners and small factories to offer a wide variety of knives ranging from traditional to modern.