Description

Thinner and lighter with a narrower blade than a cleaver, a nakiri is a Japanese style vegetable slicing knife. The front edge of the kanto variant is flat and thin, but not sharpened, allowing it to be used to scrape and lift the sliced vegetables off the cutting board.

I wanted to test forge and clay temper a new piece of reclaimed steel before tackling a commission blade that was to be made from the same steel. Originally a 12″ wide, double edged bandsaw blade that would have run on 10 foot diameter wheels at a mill, this steel is almost an eighth of an inch thick. This blade was hand forged from a strip of the steel as wide as a single tooth of the original bandsaw blade.

The narrow handle is made from a beautiful scrap of local Vancouver Island Crabapple and shows some amazing colours and textures in the heartwood and some birds eye patterns in the sapwood.

Blade construction is muku and the cross section is a symmetrical double bevel. It has been left with fire texture on the blade, has a very hard temper in the Japanese kitchen tradition, and will hold a keen edge. The handle has been hand sanded and coated with pure tung oil for a totally natural finish. The blade is about 4.5″ long and the overall length is 9″.

Material: Reclaimed bandsaw steel, reclaimed Crabapple wood

This piece is in a private collection on Vancouver Island.