L.S.D Hankotsu (Boning Knife) 145mm (5.7″)

Yoshida Hamono’s L.S.D Hankotsu (boning knife) is a Japanese butchery knife, primarily used to break and debone livestock, as well as for trimming and other butcher’s work. With the recent popularity of butchery workshops and classes, this knife will end up not only in professional butcher’s hands, but also in hands of curious home cooks that like to learn more about the process of preparing meat that eventually ends up on our plates.

While this is a highly specialized knife for butchery, it can also be used for when on holidays, camping or even in your home kitchen. Due to its shape it can be used as a small, versatile kitchen knife, but it won’t perform well on the cutting board (no knuckle clearance). It can be used for many tasks while on the go, especially when you don’t want to use your more expensive and delicate knives and potentially damage them.

Back to hankotsu’s primary use – the handle and shape of the blade allow for different grips and cutting techniques. The last third of the knife, by the handle, is unsharpened in order to scrape against bone without sacrificing the edge on the sharpened portion. The handle is made of walnut wood and we recommend oiling it with edible wood oils before the first use to protect the handle, plus the nice patterns of walnut wood will shine in all the glory. It won’t hurt if you will oil the handle every once in a while (monthly to bi-monthly, depends on how often you use it).

The blade is made of excellent S8A/SKD12 steel that is semi-resistant to rust, so a little extra care will be needed (wiping it dry after every use, and oiling the blade now and then). The steel was hardened to 58 HRC. This knife was made to be a workhorse and will perform best in combination with the diamond honing rod so that we can adjust the sharpness regularly.

L.S.D Hankotsu is a double bevel knife, but it is more suitable for right-handed users since the grind is convex on the right side of the blade, and has a flat grind on the left side. The edge is also sharpened in a 90/10 ratio in favor of right-handed users. It can, however, be used by left-handed users as well, but it should be resharpened to move the edge to the other side of the blade (10/90 ratio).