Tojiro Senkou Knives

More About Tojiro Senkou Knives

Japan has a long tradition of knife manufacturing. Over one thousand years ago, Japanese swordsmiths developed the high art of sword making to provide strong, sharp blades for the Samurai.

Tojiro have adopted these traditional techniques in producing knives for the 21st Century which incorporate the same multi-layered blades so painstakingly produced by the master craftsmen of the past. The Damascus style layered steel effect is known in Japanese as 'kasumi-nagashi' or 'floating mist'.

The cutting edge on the Senkou knives is made of extremely hard steel (Rockwell 60° - 62°). This allows sharpening to a more acute angle and to emerge from the factory razor sharp. However, if the knives were made solely from this material, they would be inflexible and brittle, breaking easily if dropped or misused.

The solution lies in using the process of lamination to cushion the super hard inner core by adding outer layers of softer stainless steel. This results in a knife as flexible and strong as any single layer knife, but with a harder, sharper, long lasting cutting edge.

This quality range of Japanese kitchen knives are the favourite of Heston Blumenthal, chef and owner of the Fat Duck award winning restaurant. Mr Blumenthal said he would have the Tojiro Senkou range as his luxury item when he appeared on Desert Island Discs.