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$110
Blue 2 with iron from Todaji Temple
Made by the late Yukinori Shirataka and finished by his son. Not sure who did the quench though. The son definitely did the handle install and grinding. The blade kurouchi has rust on it, so I think the dad quenched it, as it's a very old, thin, over a good amount of time kind of rust.
I'll take some better pictures later, and try to polish it better
Choil heel to tip: 150m
Height at heel: 50mm
Height at tallest: 52mm
Thickness at Heel: 3.15mm
Midway: 1.3mm
Near tip: 1.1mm
114 g
I am whelmed by the knife. Legendary blacksmith but feels quite normal. Very shallow overgrinds, and bevels flattened. Excellent food release though. And grind is on the thin side of middle weight widebevels in terms of acuteness, but the blade face is really thin. Steel feels quite average. . . About Zakuri level honestly, not to say Zakuri is bad, since I like their steel too. It also resembles shiraki white 2 in how buttery the hard steel is on stones. (Edit, I need to set a new bevel compared to stock I guess, more testing needed).The iron is extra soft and the second easiest to abrade I've had. The steel is not crazy refined. . . It does like to actually cut into food well though, so functionally it's good still. It has some black oxide at the weld on the left side near the tip. The banding is only very visible near the heel, sadly.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tōdai-ji
So the history of Yukinori Shirataka. . . he worked at Kiya then decided to be a blacksmith. He was tasked with creating the nails for Buddhist Temples in Japan, and was in the Tosa blacksmithing tradition.
More links about the blacksmith:
https://www.frkw.com/index010a.htmlhttps://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/白鷹幸伯http://www.330mate.co.jp/PDF/English/master shitrataka/Shirataka chefknives making.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=白鷹幸伯
This particular knife didn't come with their regular pamphlet, but heres a copy of it.
「大佛殿古材」について 昭和５０年に東大寺大仏殿の屋根「昭和の大修理」が行われましたが、その８０年前、日露戦争の最中の大変困難な時代に「明治の大修理」が施されました。当時官営八幡製鉄所の操業も充分に軌道にのっておらずやむなく、大英帝国アームストロング社から鉄材を輸入して、修理に単に合わせました。 「昭和の大修理」に際しまして、大仏殿の屋根の、降り棟の補強材として使用されておりましたこの鉄材を撤去す事となり、東大寺様にお願い致しまして、譲り受けました鉄材でございます。 この鉄は極軟鋼で、これに特殊工具鋼第２種を鍛接して、包丁を作成しました。 伊予國 松山 掘江 二代目 興光 白鷹幸伯
Rough translation: Regarding reusing materials in the Daibutsuden In 1975, the "Great Shouwa Servicing" was performed on the roof of the Daibutsuden at the Toudai-ji temple. 80 years earlier, the "Great Meiji Servicing" was carried out during a very difficult time in the midst of the Russo-Japanese War. Back then, the government-owned Yawata Steel Works was unable to fully operate, so they imported iron from the Armstrong Company of the British empire, and simply matched the repairs. During the great shouwa servicing, it was decided to remove all the reinforcing iron from the Daibutsuden's roof. After making a humble request to the Toudai-ji temple, this is a piece of iron that we received. This iron is very mild steel. This particular type 2 steel tool was forged to create the knife. Iyo Country (now Ehime prefecture) | Matsuyama | Horie Second Generation | Koukou | Shirataka Yukinori
Blue 2 with iron from Todaji Temple
Made by the late Yukinori Shirataka and finished by his son. Not sure who did the quench though. The son definitely did the handle install and grinding. The blade kurouchi has rust on it, so I think the dad quenched it, as it's a very old, thin, over a good amount of time kind of rust.
I'll take some better pictures later, and try to polish it better
Choil heel to tip: 150m
Height at heel: 50mm
Height at tallest: 52mm
Thickness at Heel: 3.15mm
Midway: 1.3mm
Near tip: 1.1mm
114 g
I am whelmed by the knife. Legendary blacksmith but feels quite normal. Very shallow overgrinds, and bevels flattened. Excellent food release though. And grind is on the thin side of middle weight widebevels in terms of acuteness, but the blade face is really thin. Steel feels quite average. . . About Zakuri level honestly, not to say Zakuri is bad, since I like their steel too. It also resembles shiraki white 2 in how buttery the hard steel is on stones. (Edit, I need to set a new bevel compared to stock I guess, more testing needed).The iron is extra soft and the second easiest to abrade I've had. The steel is not crazy refined. . . It does like to actually cut into food well though, so functionally it's good still. It has some black oxide at the weld on the left side near the tip. The banding is only very visible near the heel, sadly.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tōdai-ji
So the history of Yukinori Shirataka. . . he worked at Kiya then decided to be a blacksmith. He was tasked with creating the nails for Buddhist Temples in Japan, and was in the Tosa blacksmithing tradition.
More links about the blacksmith:
https://www.frkw.com/index010a.htmlhttps://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/白鷹幸伯http://www.330mate.co.jp/PDF/English/master shitrataka/Shirataka chefknives making.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=白鷹幸伯
This particular knife didn't come with their regular pamphlet, but heres a copy of it.
「大佛殿古材」について 昭和５０年に東大寺大仏殿の屋根「昭和の大修理」が行われましたが、その８０年前、日露戦争の最中の大変困難な時代に「明治の大修理」が施されました。当時官営八幡製鉄所の操業も充分に軌道にのっておらずやむなく、大英帝国アームストロング社から鉄材を輸入して、修理に単に合わせました。 「昭和の大修理」に際しまして、大仏殿の屋根の、降り棟の補強材として使用されておりましたこの鉄材を撤去す事となり、東大寺様にお願い致しまして、譲り受けました鉄材でございます。 この鉄は極軟鋼で、これに特殊工具鋼第２種を鍛接して、包丁を作成しました。 伊予國 松山 掘江 二代目 興光 白鷹幸伯
Rough translation: Regarding reusing materials in the Daibutsuden In 1975, the "Great Shouwa Servicing" was performed on the roof of the Daibutsuden at the Toudai-ji temple. 80 years earlier, the "Great Meiji Servicing" was carried out during a very difficult time in the midst of the Russo-Japanese War. Back then, the government-owned Yawata Steel Works was unable to fully operate, so they imported iron from the Armstrong Company of the British empire, and simply matched the repairs. During the great shouwa servicing, it was decided to remove all the reinforcing iron from the Daibutsuden's roof. After making a humble request to the Toudai-ji temple, this is a piece of iron that we received. This iron is very mild steel. This particular type 2 steel tool was forged to create the knife. Iyo Country (now Ehime prefecture) | Matsuyama | Horie Second Generation | Koukou | Shirataka Yukinori
Last edited:
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