Tsukasa Hinoura "Unryu-Mon Series"

About

Echigo blacksmith, Tsukasa Hinoura is the third-generation of his family to become a blacksmith. In addition to inheriting his family's trade name "Ajigataya" , he decided that he would also produce his own original line of knives under the brand name "Tsukasa" . He told us that he is committed to finding his own unique way to best express his skill and passion for knife making. "Honed Beauty” was our first impression of Master Hinoura’s knives. They were perfect knives with beautiful seamless lines and form, no sharp corners, no distortion, no gaps etc. It was clear that, from start to finish, Master Hinoura devotes tremendous time making each knife and that he pays great attention to every single detail. We learned that, unlike the majority of Japanese forge-smiths, Master Hinoura never uses modern machinery and he even forge welds modern hi-tech steels using the old traditional Wa-Kaji hand forging technique because he believes that it produces the most beautiful seamless welds between the layers of Hagane (Carbon steel) and Jitetsu (Wrought iron) that are used in the construction of his stunning Kitae-Ji (鍛地) (“Damascus”) knives . Similarly, Master Hinoura still uses the traditional Japanese Hizukuri hot hammer forging technique (A labor-intensive process, that uses repeated use of light hammer blows to shape the blade and improve the micro-structure of the steel, leading to improved toughness and sharpness) and the traditional method of water tempering because he believes that they produce the best results. Master Hinoura also hand hones each knife with several different grits of whetstone before polishing the final cutting edge with a natural Japanese water-stone. This time-consuming process takes at least two hours per blade to complete, but he believes it is necessary because it produces the sharpest edge possible on his carbon steel blades and it also brings out the character of the iron used in his Damascus cladding. We agree. The polished layers of steel