Jin 230mm High Speed Steel Yanagiba with Saya

This high speed steel knife was made by the maker of Jin Knives.  He is in his late 80's and has recently retired.  We met with him a couple of years ago, when we were visiting Japan.  After a very nice meething with him, we were lucky enough to be allowed to carry his knives.  His knives are from stock that he made previously before he retired.  As he is no longer producing knives, the inventory is EXTREMELY LIMITED.  Each knife is one of a kind.

He has been working as a knife maker since his early 20's (before WWII) and has developed a unique philosophy about his knives.  He choose to use hige speed steel because he liked its qualities... extremely durable, takes a great edge, easy to sharpen, and has great edge holding.  The cost of his materials was extremely high, but he careed only about producing the best knives he could.  He completed each knife entirely in-house, including the making of the knife, the handle, the saya, etc.  He even built most of the machinery in his workshop.

We like his knives because they are so unique.  No other knife maker in Japan that we know of has such a long history of working with High Speed Steel.  We also think the design of his knives are very interesting... especially the metal ferrule.  I've been using a couple of knives from him and i really enjoy the steel... sharpening, edge holding, etc.  I also like how each knive's shape is unique.

You will notice that inbetween the softer stainless steel and harder High Speed Steel cutting edge, there is a tiny bit of copper.