The Santoku is the most popular knife in the Japanese home and considered to be an all rounder in the kitchen. The meaning of Santoku is the “three virtues” in Japanese and is a reference to its multi purpose and versatility. It can be used to prepare fish, chicken and most fruits and vegetables but is too small for large food items like watermelons and bigger cuts of meat. The Santoku is great as an alternative if you have a larger chef’s knife as most Santokus come in at around 165mm to 180mm its easy to handle and has a snubbed nose to it.

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.