Asano Kajiya 240mm Stainless Clad White #1 Wa-Gyuto

Asano Kajiya is a swordmaking company based out of Hashima City, in Gifu Prefecture. Asano Taro is a nationally recognized swordmaker, a very prestigious honor in an industry that is very highly regulated. He started apprenticing in the practice of swordmaking in 1997 under Fujiwara Kanefusa, a 25th generation swordmaker. Asano-san is a very involved member in the community, giving talks all throughout Japan and internationally and devoting a lot of his time to research to the sword and steel making industry. The company started making kitchen knives in 2017. The kitchen knives became a part of the business in order to showcase the workmanship of the steel that they have spent decades perfecting.

These are entirely sole-authorship knives. The blades are fully made in-house from the forging to the heat treatment to the stock removal and finish. This authorship allows them to have the most possible control over the knifemaking process. There is no pre-clad barstock to be found in the workshop. He is doing the forge-welding of the stainless cladding himself. Their kitchen knives have a very hard heat treatment that promotes edge retention and the very thin cross-sectional geometry does the same for sharpness.

These knives have a handsome, rustic, kurouchi finish that contrasts nicely with the brushed wide bevels. They come in a beautiful presentation box that elevates the knife nicely.

The Small Gesshin Chinese Cleaver is a stainless clad white #2 cleaver.  It is designed to be easy to sharpen, but require less care than traditional carbon steel knives due to the stainless cladding. Chinese cleavers are all-purpose knives, and this knife works well for vegetable, meat, and fruit cutting tasks. It is relatively thin, but not crazy thin.  For more information on how to use and care for carbon steel knives, please check out our knife sharpening playlist, available by clicking on our media section.

*Chinese cleavers are not designed to be used on bone or for boning tasks...they are much more like chef's knives than meat cleavers.