Tojiro Atelier Santoku VG-10 Kuro-uchi Damascus 170mm (6.7″)

TOJIRO ATELIER Santoku VG-10 Kuro-uchi Damascus 170mm is a versatile Japanese kitchen knife. Santoku means “knife of three virtues” in Japanese, meaning that it can be used to prepare vegetables, fish and meat.

VG-10 is an extremely well-balanced steel in terms of its qualities. It provides great corrosion resistance, as well as easy sharpening and solid edge retention, due to a high hardness of around 60-61 HRC it’s able to achieve.

BLADE SHAPE:
The 170 mm long santoku  is a versatile kitchen knife that excels at all types of chopping and cutting on the cutting board. The wide blade is great for prepraring vegetables and allows easy transfer of ingredients from the board to the pot. Thanks to its long and thin cutting edge, this knife has no problem with longer cuts and finer techniques such as chopping garlic, dicing or julienne. 

STEEL:
VG-10 (V for Vanadium, G for “gold” as in “gold standard”) is made by Takefu Special Steel Company, a relatively small steel company that around 60 years ago managed to find just the right balance of different elements to create the most popular Japanese knife making steel today. VG-10 steel is stainless steel with relatively high Carbon (C) content (1%), 15% Chromium (Cr), 1% Molybdenum (Mo), 0.3% Vanadium (V) and 1.5% Cobalt (Co). The combination of Cr, Mo, and V forms a lot of hard carbides, making the steel abrasion resistant which translates to long-lasting, smooth sharpness.

LAMINATION:
The core layer consisting of VG-10 steel was sandwiched between 62 layers of softer steel. This technique is called san-mai damascus and is used to protect the hard (but delicate) core from outside factors and physical impacts, which could lead to breakage.

GEOMETRY:
It has a double bevel (symmetrical) blade with a flat V-edge grind. Viewed from the back of the blade, the knife is heavier and stronger at the handle and thinner and more precise at the tip. This blade shape makes the knife easier to use because the blade is very responsive, easily maneuverable and nicely balanced. This type of blade design is also called distal taper – you can read more about it in the article on blade geometry.  

BLADE FINISH:
Kuro-uchi is a layer of black, untreated patina on the blade that not only gives the knife a really cool look, but also prevents food from sticking to the blade. The lower part of the blade is decorated with a damascus finish.

HANDLE:
This knife was fitted with a large, octagonal, traditional Japanese cedar wood handle with an ebony ferrule. Suitable for a demanding chef for personal or professional use.

BLACKSMITH:
TOJIRO Atelier is the smithy inside the smithy so to say, a small department of artisans that is dedicated to creating elaborate knives for those that really appreciate the craftsmanship behind them.