Is this kuruchi, lacquered kuruchi, paint or ... ?

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mark76

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Lately I've viewed a couple of carbon Japanese knives with a black outer layer. You might think it is kuruchi (maybe it is), but the kuruchi I know looks like on this Takeda blade:





The black finish on the knives I watched is much more shiny and the transition from the black part to the polished blade is much sharper. It looks like this:





I've read about lacquered kuruchi (here) and about black paint (even on high end blades, here). But maybe it is just kuruchi formed differently than the kuruchi I know.

Who can tell me what this is?
 
mark76 said:
Lately I've viewed a couple of carbon Japanese knives with a black outer layer. You might think it is kuruchi (maybe it is), but the kuruchi I know looks like on this Takeda blade:





The black finish on the knives I watched is much more shiny and the transition from the black part to the polished blade is much sharper. It looks like this:





I've read about lacquered kuruchi (here) and about black paint (even on high end blades, here). But maybe it is just kuruchi formed differently than the kuruchi I know.

Who can tell me what this is?
Click to expand...

Both are Kurouchi. There isn't a single standard of Kurouchi - compare Takeda, to Zakuri, to Kochi, to Carter. None are the exact same, but all are Kurouchi.

The lacquer referred in that thread is the lacquer that Japanese makers put on the entire knife to prevent staining, oxidation, etc. prior to sale, not the Kurouchi itself. Kurouchi is not a lacquer.

And if the Kurouchi is painted, it's not a true Kurouchi. It's paint.
 
I'm certainly not the most knowledgable member here...but that looks almost identical to the KU on my SS Watanabe...maybe this knife is stainless-clad KU?
 
There are various kinds of kurouchi finishes, but that is indeed a kurouchi finish. Some of it has to do with how the knife is ground before heat treating, and some has to do with coating before HT.
 
Kurouchi translates to something like "black finish" or something similar. It's just forge scale that is not ground off the knife and in some cases lacquered over with a clear coat.
 
Thanks guys, but if the second knife is kuruchi two, how come it looks so dramatically different from the kuruchi on the Takeda?

Are you sure it isn't laquered?
 
Lacquer on that knife is a shiny clear coat. I have something similar on several knives. If you strip it off, sometimes the metal is still somewhat shiny and the kurouchi effect is closer to heat bluing.

It is not an externally applied coating like paint, if that is what you are thinking.

The first knife is not just a kurouchi finish: it has a scale texture called nashiji. Not all simple kurouchi knives (e.g. Shigefusa) have such texture.
 
I'd say that Takeda AS definitely classes as kurouchi. It's lacquered too.
 
It's all temporary and the knife will react. Do not get sentimental to those finishes. Either you are ready to wipe, wipe, wipe...or you are not.
 
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