The most essential knife for the kitchen which no chef can be without. The gyutos meaning is “Cow sword” in Japan as gyu means “Beef” and to means “Sword” this is also known as a Chef’s knife or French knife. It is the one and first knife all chef’s/cooks needs in their kitchen. When buying your first gyuto you have to consider how and what will be built around your first knife as it will do the majority of the work in your kitchen.

Honyaki is another answer to the deformation of a knife that can occur over time. Instead of forge-welding different hardness of steels, it is forged by a single piece of steel. Instead of hardening it the same way throughout the entire area of the blade, (which would make it so fragile that it would break in half if dropped on a hard surface) they use a technique called differential heat quenching to give it different hardnesses throughout the blade.

The blacksmith prepares the blade before quenching by coating it in clay. A thin layer of clay is applied to the bottom of the blade along the edge. A very thick layer of clay is applied to the spine. By doing this, the spine will not get as hot and not cool down as fast when quenched in water so it does not harden at the same rate as the edge side. This extreme differential heat treatment can only be done in those steel that has low quenchability.

Weight: 138g

Handle Material: Walnut handle, ebony ferrule

Handle Length: 145mm (5.7")

Blade Length: 210mm (8.2")

Blade Depth: 51mm

Thickness at spine: 2.5mm

Thickness at tip: 0.4mm

Cutting Edge: Double 50/50

Blade Material: 26c3 steel

Hardness (Rockwell scale): 64 - 65