My brother-in-law and his wife very generously bought me a Masamoto gyuto on a recent trip to Tokyo. Can anyone help identifying the steel? HRC? I think it might be virgin carbon, but am not sure.
I recently bought a santoku from Tsukiji Masamoto also labelled with V. The apprentice running the store told me it was V1 steel. Also did some poking around online and it seems as if Tsukiji Masamoto changed their stamps. S = stainless (my petty is marked S and it is VG-5), A = sk3, V = V1 steel.