Masamoto HS

Honyaki (本焼) is the format with no safety net: the blade is one piece of tool steel, no cladding, and in Japan honyaki knives are made by highly skilled masters because they are far harder to forge than clad knives. The HS is Masamoto's honyaki in white steel (Hitachi White 2), hardened to 61-62 HRC, on a D-shape wa handle of ho wood with buffalo horn, the 270 and 330 mm sold with a saya.

This is the serious-investment tier of the catalogue, and it rewards an experienced hand: single bevel, carbon, and solid hard steel that wants drying after every use and honest work on the stones. The line includes yanagiba in 270, 300 and 330 mm. For a professional who wants to live on a pure carbon edge, with no soft cladding between the stone and the core, this is what the format asks and what it gives back.