Hatsukokuro Nakagawa 175mm Chinese Cleaver Ginsanko Stabilized Maple Burl

Nakagawa-san’s knives are characterized by excellent heat control during forging and a very thorough heat treatment creating knives that have superb edge formation and edge life with good toughness. His carbon steels are usually easy to sharpen across most steel types. Nakagawa-san reputation as one of a few blacksmiths in Sakai to forge Ginsanko and VG10 stainless steels that results in excellent edge life and toughness is well earned, his ginsanko is one of the best we have used and sharpened, really superb edge life, toughness and edge formation.

These knives feature super fine grinding by Morihiro, known for his single and wide double bevel grinding work. Morihiro was instrumental in bringing Sakai’s tradition of single bevel grinding to double bevel wa-hocho. He was the sole sharpener of the Konosuke Fujiyama line (until 2018) and also works on the Sakai Kikumori Choyo series as well as other projects from Sakai.

These have a solid feel with little overall flex but the edge is super thin and ‘nail-going’; it can be temporarily bent with pressure against a fingernail, an old style test for proper thinness on a fine ground blade. While not the thinnest in our stock at the spine behind the edge they are quite possibly the thinnest. They will cut very very smoothly but can be easy to damage if any twisting, lateral pressure or scraping is applied. These are best suited for those already using thin edged Japanese knives and maybe not the best first Japanese knife for someone used to forgiving tougher knives. 

Do not leave wet. Hand wash & dry, no dishwasher. Hardwood-end grain or softwood long grain cutting boards are preferred; avoid bamboo and plastic cutting boards. 

Brand: Hatsukokoro
Smith: Satoshi Nakagawa
Sharpener: Morihiro
Producing Area: Sakai, Osaka, Japan
Profile: Chinese Cleaver
Size: 175mm
Steel Type: Stainless
Steel: Ginsanko
Handle: Stabilized Maple Burl
Total Length:  277mm
Edge Length: 173mm
Handle to Tip Length: 181mm
Blade Height: 78mm
Thickness: 3.4mm
Handle Length: 94mm
Weight: 396grams
Hand Orientation: Ambidextrous