I never chop with the big knifes Ed uses in the Kitchen. I find them too big and too scary to handle them with confidence. So this week I got this beautiful Japanese knife as a gift. I immediately baptised it my ‘ladies’ knife, because it fits perfectly in my little hands and I can chop and slice and still feel in control.
I can call a knife beautiful to look at, but real men will probably be more interested in the technical ‘specs’. Here they are:
It’s a compact size gyuto from Hattori, total length 270mm, blade thickness 2mm, lenght 150mm, total weight 97g. Made of VG10 core cutting edge forged with 63 layered Nickel Damascus stainless steel blade. VG10 is the newly developed High Carbon (0.95 to1.05%) Molybdenum (0.90 to1.20%) and Vanadium (0.10 to 0.30%) stainless steel plus 1.30 to 1.50% Cobalt added to increase strength. Rockwell hardness 60 to 61 HRC. The Damascus blade is hand engraved with the Ichiro Hattori name in Kanji and permanently welded with stainless steel bolster. Full tang black Pakkawood handle with three stainless steel rivets.

My first experience this week was happily chopping away at some red peppers /paprika. I thought it felt scary sharp, but Ed pointed out that there still exists ‘a whole other level of sharp’. Well, I don’t want to know, if it feels like cutting through butter, it’s good enough for me! This ladies knife is all I need to get by in the kitchen. Of course I immediately cleaned it after use and put it back in it’s fancy gift box for protection.

‘A little Damascus never hurt anyone’

Ed bought the knife through www.japanesechefsknife.com and it arrived from Japan to the Netherlands within 6 days. The service from the owner Koki is perfect, and they ship worldwide for a flat rate of 7 dollars. He uses the Edge Pro Sharpening System to sharpen his (and other peoples) knifes.

PS: If you are in no crisis whatsoever and you can wait a ‘few’ months, check out the Hattori KD Series!