Kitaeji, Kikuryu, Damascus, and Suminigashi

[Southpaw]

I’ve brought this up before, but I thought I’d add others into this conversation.

The original is what separates Suminigashi from Damascus, and from what I gather it’s a quadrilaterals and squares thing (all squares are quadrilaterals but not all quadrilaterals are squares).

So what makes Kikuryu and Kitaeji different. What are their defining characteristics.

This is the only thing I really found

I just answered same question in email
Kikuryu is different mixture then damascus or kitaeji, Kato uses iron and steel for cladding.
Heat treatment is same as workhorse knives. but cladding is bit harder then his other knives
Pattern is supost to be very light with many layers and not as visible as damascus.

When I look at my Kitaeji knives they definitely look different than my other Damascus clad knives…

Do any other makers make Kitaeji or Kikuryu knives? IMO some Kitaeji looks more similar to Kikuryu than Suminigashi.

Any input on this?

Thanks,
Nate