[Indigo Bocho] Kurouchi Stainless Tsuchime Santoku

Rust-resistant stainless × kuro-uchi × tsuchime — a serious knife for everyday use.

The standard knife of the Japanese home kitchen. It will take on anything.

Product features

Traditional kuro-uchi, worked over with a tsuchime hammer finish struck by hand — a combination you will not find anywhere else.

Kuro-uchi is an Edo-period method: the face of the blade is deliberately left unpolished so that the black oxide film stays on it. Until now that meant carbon steel, which takes the film readily and cuts beautifully but rusts just as readily. Here we have managed kuro-uchi in rust-resistant stainless instead — the edge of a Japanese knife, with upkeep a home kitchen can actually live with.

About the Santoku

The santoku is the everyday knife in most Japanese homes.

Its name means "three virtues" — meat, fish and vegetables — and because it handles all three, it is often simply called an all-purpose knife.

Its blade is deeper than a petty or a gyuto for a reason: when you cut something large, like a cabbage, the blade stays engaged and carries the cut all the way through.

If this is your first Japanese knife, or you are replacing the one you reach for every day, start here.

Engraving

Engraving can be added from the options on this page.

For the full specification, see the Name Engraving page.

On this series, hand-cut characters are hard to read against the finish, so engraving is done by laser.

If you would still prefer hand-cut characters, please write "hand engraving" in the order notes at checkout.

Specifications

• Type: Santoku
• Steel: SUS stainless steel with Tsuchime hammered finish
• Blade length: 18cm
• Blade grind: Double bevel (right- or left-handed)
• Handle wood: Hiba (Japanese cypress)
• Handle finish: Indigo dyed with waterproof coating
• Made in: Japan (Osaka + Tokushima)

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.