Yoshihiro Gold Santoku (Santoku) VG-10 175mm Japanese kitchen knife

The Santoku Yoshihiro knife belongs to the class of Santoku kitchen knives, has a blade size of 175 mm, typical for this variety. Blade height 45 mm, thickness - 2 mm. The word "Santoku" (Santoku) is translated as "three good things", more precisely "three benefactors", literally denoting three options for using this type of knife - cut, chop and crumble. Santoku is one of the most common and used types of Japanese kitchen knives, in fact, in its purpose - an analogue of our chef's knife. This is a cooker with a specific blade configuration. The line of the cutting edge of Santoku is almost straight, with a slight rise to the tip. This allows you to cut products with great comfort, and also greatly simplifies the sharpening process. The wide shank of Sontoku eliminates the contact of the hand with the surface of the table, and also allows you to use the knife as an improvised spatula for applying chopped products. Santoku is very close in blade construction to Usuba or Nakiri, but unlike them, it still has a point. Santoku has a double-sided sharpening and a blade thin in thickness, which allows it to literally fall into the cut product. This knife adapts very well to all the main tasks of European cuisine and if you want to have only one Japanese knife, then the most functional choice would be the Santoku.

This version of the Santoku Yoshihiro knife uses a European-style handle. Traditionally, the Japanese do not pay much attention to the optimization of the shape of the handle and its processing. But in this case, the mahogany wooden handle is technologically quite laborious, for mortise mounting with steel rivets, on two rivets. Handle length 105mm. The shape of the handle is well optimized for any grip, it fits very well in the palm of your hand. The braces level the mechanical loads at the junction of the blade and the handle, both vertical and lateral, eliminating the loosening of the blade in wooden facings.

The Santoku Yoshihiro blade has a traditional three-ply structure with a VG-10 inner ply and mild steel facings. VG-10 is one of the few steels specifically designed for knife applications. A distinctive feature of VG-10 is the use of cobalt in the alloy. This expensive and rare alloying agent makes the steel harder and more ductile. The Santoku Yoshihiro blade is hardened to 61HRC. Such hardness for kitchen applications is extreme. It is the toughness of VG-10 steel that makes it possible to maintain the geometry of the cutting edge even at such high rates of hardness of hardening. It is no secret that the quality of the same steel grade can vary greatly depending on the manufacturer. The quality control of steel for Yoshihiro blades is extremely strict, so the consumer qualities of VG-10 steel in Yoshihiro blades, as a rule, are significantly better than those of most other manufacturers.

A little about Yoshihiro. The Yoshihiro brand is at the forefront of modern kitchen knife making, combining the age-old art of traditional Japanese sword-making techniques with cutting-edge metallurgy.
Yoshihiro's philosophy is that every moment is a unique opportunity. One knife - you can save a lifetime. Yoshihiro specialists strive to ensure that this single knife would be Yoshihiro's knife. Yoshihiro excels in one of the most difficult skills to master, knife making, as she inherited the Japanese tradition of beauty and perfection better than anyone.

Yoshihiro is a company that specializes in making premium handcrafted Japanese kitchen knives. For over 100 years, the Yoshihiro brand of knives has been Japan's leading supplier of high quality kitchen cutlery. However, it wasn't until 2008 that Yoshihiro began selling its knives to the global market, offering over 600 premium Japanese knives. Despite the use of the most advanced technologies on Yoshihiro's production lines, the production of kitchen knives remains, at its core, handmade, with an individual approach of the master to each blade. The origins of the technique used to create Yoshihiro knives can be traced back to medieval Japanese sword smiths of the 14th century, who perfected fire, iron and water techniques. Over the course of 700 years, sword smiths gradually transferred their technology to knives, and the spirit of Japanese sword making permeated the creation of kitchen knives.
Yoshihiro kitchen knives are the culmination of seven centuries of tradition, intertwined with modern innovation inspired by Japanese ingenuity.