Description

Takeshi Saji Black Damascus SG2 nakiri 170mm derives from the traditional Usuba blade. This blade is designed for cutting vegetables. The Usuba is a single bevel blade; when its use became popular around the world, the nakiri was born. This type of blade has a double bevel so its use is ambidextrous.

History and curiosity

Takeshi Saji is one of the pillars of Japanese cutlery, with his 83 years including 56 years of experience in forging, he is a pioneer in the creation of extraordinary Damascus steel patterns.

He has announced his retirement, so his creations will be increasingly difficult to find.

Saji-san with other pillars like Katsushige Anryu, Hiroshi Kato among others, in the year 2000 created the village of the knife of Takefu (Takefu Knife Village). Its aim was to bring together the blacksmiths of the area so that they could work together and share their knowledge, and also to inspire new generations to continue this tradition.

Today many world famous blacksmiths work side by side in the village of Takefu, such as Yu Kurosaki, Yoshimi Kato, Takumi Ikeda and even Takeshi Saji among others.

This blade is part of the Black Damascus series which takes its name from Dark Damascus. This effect is due to the mixture of mild steel and nickel steel. During the revealing of the Damascus pattern, the nickel steel remains shiny while the mild steel blackens. The core of the blade is made of SG2 steel, a powder steel with incredible mechanical properties and a hardness of 63-64 HRC (Hardness Rockwell “C”).

The handle

We chose a more colorful handle to go with this blade. Made of dyed and stabilized boxelder burl, with silver nickel and malachite stone spacers. The ferrule is in elm burl and the end cup in amboyna burl.

Technical sheet

Here is more detailed information for the Takeshi Saji Black Damascus SG2 nakiri 170mm:

Blacksmith: Takeshi Saji

series: Black Damascus

steel: SG2 (stainless steel)

type: nakiri 170mm

length: 17.3cm

blade thickness at heel: 2.4 mm

blade thickness at the tip: 1.4 mm

height: 5.3 cm

weight: 193 g