IntroductionKitchen knivesKNIVES ACCORDING TO BRANDSYOSHIDA HAMONOKyusakichi Aogami

Kyusakichi Aogami

Yoshida Hamono from Saga Prefecture on the island of Shikoku has uncompromisingly defined his place in the pantheon of professional knife makers. In its favor is the ability to work with ultra-hard materials as well as the variability of production procedures. The Yoshida Hamono workshop produces knives stamped and hand-forged using the koshiki tanren method. Now we will present you the technological intersection of these two procedures.

Hand-forged knives take many times longer to produce compared to stamped ones and contain an enormous amount of hard work by experienced craftsmen, who are becoming fewer and fewer. All of this results in a significant overhang of demand over supply, which increases the price of products that are not cheap at all. In Yoshida Hamono, however, they found a way to offer customers knives made of traditional materials and a high proportion of blacksmith work. And all this in relatively short delivery times and at a favorable price.

The basic shape of the blade is punched into a mold with the help of a powerful press. The steel in the San Mai composition contains a core from the traditional Aogami 2. In this way, a relatively "painless" basic material is obtained, which is subsequently forged into the desired profile. This process can be observed on the spine of the blade /mune/. This is followed by manual polishing of the blade part and, of course, sharpening. Although we cannot speak about hand-forged knives in terms of objectivity and seriousness, their appearance and production process are very close to them. The blades are in the Kurouchi version with a polished Shinogi part. The blade is of course convex, so Hamaguri. The left side of the blade bears the name Aogami, the right side the name Kyusakichi. The ferrule is made of stabilized pakkawood. The rosewood handle has a D profile.