Senzo Finest

The name of this luxury representative of Suncraft is much more apt than the Senzo Retro series. Senzo means that the knife was made exclusively by Suncraft's tribal craftsmen. Finest is an adjective worthy of the latest steel from Takefu Special Steel.
The portfolio of this traditional manufacturer of laminated knife steel is truly extensive. From carbon steels, through alloy, semi-anticorrosive, anticorrosive to the modern powder high-speed Super Powder Gold 2 (SPG2). Powder metallurgy helps steels gain extreme hardness. This is achieved by hard carbides (vanadium, tungsten, cobalt...) and is important for edge retention. However, the secondary processability of such a material is much more demanding than, for example, carbon steels. Therefore, if you can comfortably sharpen a blade made of Aogami or Shirogami, shaping a blade from similarly hard powder steels such as ZDP189 will be a real challenge. The problem is the protruding hard carbides. However, engineers from Takefu came up with a solution. They made a hard metal base (matrix) and used as small carbides as possible. The result is a hardness of 65HRC with very good grindability. This extreme hardness ensures high wear resistance and long blade life. Even with such hardness, toughness reaches a very decent level. Another important feature is the anti-corrosion nature of the steel thanks to the compact matrix. It remains only to christen the newborn baby. The steelmakers decided on a simple and logical name: SPG STRIX. Yes, this is a development stage of the proven Super Powder Gold with an improved STRONG MATRIX.


Suncraft has wrapped this special steel in two layers of softer material. The upper part of the blade has been left in a dark Kurouchi version with a Tsuchime texture (hammer blows) and embossed kanji characters. At the bottom, the SPG STRIX stands out in a symmetrical "V"-shaped edge. The blade is half tang into an elegant octagonal handle made of stabilized pakkawood. The manufacturer calls its subtle stripes Zebrawood. The black ferrule is separated from it by a light cellulose ring. There is a plug at the joint of the blade and the handle.
Senzo Finest - a beautiful knife with a core made of the latest SPG STRIX steel.
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