Twisted Kanna Damascus Gyuto by Ryan Geiger

This knife is part of a collaborative series with smith Ryan Geiger. I had the idea to re-purpose old, rusty or otherwise used-up, Japanese hand plane blades (kanna) as cladding material for kitchen knives. Ryan has executed on this idea beautifully and the result is a damascus cladding material made with a mix of steels and wrought irons.

Blade Materials

Twisted damascus cladding made with recycled kanna blades - a mix of 6 different irons and several different steels. The core steel is Hitachi Aogami 1 at 66.6 HRC.

Handle Materials

The handle is made with Japanese white oak taken from the dai of one of the kanna blades used in the cladding. Prior to being formed into a dai the oak would have been aged for a minimum of 4 years and potentially a decade or more. The result is a very stable wood with impressive grain uniformity and a wonderful warm feel in hand. The spacer is made with an off-cut of the same damascus billet used for the cladding.

Other Notes

This knife has a lovely mid-to-lightweight convex grind. With a 5mm neck and good height to length ratio there is minimal apparent flex and nice neutral to forward weighting. Towards the tip and the edge the knife thins out extremely well into something that will drop through even the densest produce. The blade is polished, deep-etched, and re-polished with finger-stones and natural stone powders. This process brings exceptional texture and depth to the twisted damascus cladding. 

This blade will also come with the blade for a 70mm paring knife made with the same construction.