The Kiritsuke is a great replacement for a gyuto/chef’s knife and has become very popular in the past few years as the drop tip tappers down to a very thin scalpel and is an aggressive work horse. They generally come in a few sizes ranging from 210mm to 240mm. Traditionally a kiritsuke is a single-beveled and combined with the rustic geometry, makes the kiritsuke look like an epic kitchen sword. This is used for slicing up large cuts of meat and fish it will give you a clean cut finish.

The Petty knife is light and thin with a bit of flex to it and is used for peeling, chopping and trimming. Not used in a hammer grip way meaning you don’t chop up and down like a chefs knife due to not having enough clearance for the knuckles. Mostly used for cutting away from the chopping board but is essential for any knife roll and home kitchen. The general size of a petty ranges from 95mm to 150mm but can go up to 180mm but this is considered to be in a slicing categories.

SG2 (R2) is a high speed powder stainless steel made by Takefu special steel Co Ltd. For some knife makers, this is an ideal steel for knife making as it has a great hardiness of greater than 63HR. This steel has great edge retention, high wear resistance and is stainless. The grains are so fine and uniform that the hammer forging is not necessary. The migaki finish to the knife is the most common finish to japanese knives and is achieved by buffing or polishing the blade until it is shiny, but not mirrored. This finish has different levels, from matt to shiny. The word tsuchime means “hammered” and that’s how this finish is achieved. After the blade has been forged, it will go through a second hammering process with something like a ball-peen hammer to give the distinctive round dimples.