The Gyuto 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. 

Gyutos like chef’s knives go from 150mm up to 370mm which is massive, when starting out go for something in the range of 180mm to 210mm depending on the size of your hands. Later you can go for a larger chef’s knife like a 260mm to 280mm which can be used for larger jobs like cabbages, large dicing and meat cuts like beef sirloins and fillets.

 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.

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 black colour of the kurouchi finish is burned steel, which gives it a matt black finish and is very distinctive. The kurouchi finish can change over time as the black layer will wear away. 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.

Weight: 247g

Handle Material: Acrylic Yo handle (western)

Handle Length: 133mm (5.24')

Blade Length: 243mm (9.57')

Blade Depth: 53mm

Thickness at spine: 2mm

Thickness at tip: 0.8mm

Cutting Edge: 50/50

Blade Material: SG2/R2 Powder stainless steel

Hardness (Rockwell scale): 63-64