[Indigo Bocho] Cobalt Stainless Gyuto 21cm

• Type: Gyuto
• Steel: ZA18 cobalt stainless steel (rust-resistant)
• Blade length: 21cm
• Blade grind: Double bevel (right- or left-handed)
• Handle wood: Hiba (Japanese cypress)
• Handle finish: Indigo dyed with waterproof coating
• Weight: approx. 140g
• Made in: Japan (Osaka + Tokushima)

About the Gyuto

The gyuto arrived in Japan from the West in the Meiji era, along with the habit of cooking meat. Abroad it is known as a chef's knife.

Its blade is narrower than a santoku's — it was made for meat.

Cooks who often work with large ingredients have taken to it as a longer, roomier all-purpose knife.

Slimmer and sharper in profile than a santoku, it is the second most popular shape in the range.

About the steel

Cobalt stainless steel answers three things at once: a keener edge, a blade that resists rust, and just enough decoration.

Getting sharpness and rust resistance into the same knife has always been the hard problem — sharpness wants hardness, and the stainless that resists rust is soft.

ZA-18 cobalt stainless is the current answer. A very hard ZA-18 core is clad on both sides with softer stainless, so the knife cuts like a hard steel and behaves like a stainless one.

It also wears slowly, so the edge lasts, and its high chromium content makes it more rust-resistant than most knives you will meet. This is the kind of blade that quietly changes how you cook.

About Indigo Bocho

Indigo dyeing has been part of everyday life in Japan for centuries, valued for the antibacterial and deodorizing qualities long attributed to it. The Indigo Bocho brings that craft to a kitchen knife, so that how a knife performs and how it looks are settled together. Each one joins Sakai bladesmithing, an Osaka tradition, to the indigo dyeing rooted in the history of Tokushima. Putting artisans from different regions and different disciplines on the same object is the whole point: each craft is worth more for standing next to the other. There is a wider aim as well — one product that supports several craft regions at once, and helps keep Japan's traditional skills in working use. We hope you enjoy what the two crafts make together.