Forged by Shiro Kamo - President of Takefu Knife Village, Dentoukougeishi (Certified Traditional Craftsman) Made in Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, Japan Specifications: Blade Profile: 180 mm, Small Flat Spot (20%), Gentle Curvature (80%) Steel: Aogami Super Core (62-63 HRC), Iron Cladding (Fully Reactive and will rust very easily without proper care) Handle: Octagonal Teak Wood with Black Horn Ferrule Grind: Medium, Hollow Ground Kireha Balance: At the Bottom Kanji The Seilan line presents one of the best quality for money hand forged knives available in the market. It's not a perfect knife by any means, but it is a solid performer, and the steel is heat treated very well. I personally own a Shinko Seilan Nakiri that I've turned into a project knife of sorts, and it's been fun experimenting with it by thinning and polishing it. Shiro Kamo is the current president of the Takefu Knife Village - an association of blacksmiths and sharpeners who share knife making facilities and work together to produce Masakage knives. He has been given the Dentoukougeishi award by the government of Echizen as recognition of his skill as a blacksmith who continues to keep the local knife making tradition alive. The finish on this knife is known as Kurouchi - this is the natural finish of a blade that has just come out of the forge as a result of iron oxidising on the surface. As such, the black layer is referred to as forge scale and may also be known as Black Iron Oxide. It is harmless and protects the steel under it from rusting, but it will fade and come off over time as the knife continues to be used. Aogami Super, or AS for short, is a low alloy carbon steel. It is a fine-grained steel that sharpens quite easily and is typically hardened to 62-63 HRC, rarely to 65+ HRC. Blue steel variants (#1, #2, and Super) are prized in professional kitchens for their edge retention, and AS has marginally better edge retention and corrosion resistance compared to its Blue #1 or #2 counterparts with the trade off of AS being slightly more brittle and barely harder to sharpen. Important Note: Please don't use the information on steel as the sole basis of your decision - the smith's heat treatment quality and consistency is much more important than the name of the steel. Likewise, the geometry of the knife (its shape and thinness) plays a much bigger role in how a knife feels to cut with. As with any knife purchase, professional sharpening is included in the price. I will provide final sharpening on the knife and tailor the knife's edge according to your preferences if you send me a message. If no special requests are made, the default edge I will put on this knife is a 1000/4000 grit hybrid capable of passing very extreme cutting tests. #RefinedEdgePH #ShiroKamo #AogamiSuper #AS #Kurouchi #Nakiri