JK Splash

Shigefusa has arrived!

Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, April 13, 2010


Although I had admired Shigefusa knives for a while, and browsed longingly at images of Shigefusa knives in other peoples kits, it was a not a knife I had planned to 'try' and aquire in the immediate future. For those not familiar with Mr.Iizuka Tokifusa's work, here is a quote taken from www.japan-tool.com:
Shigefusa (Iizuka Tokifusa and his two sons) is the one of the most famous houchou (Japanese style chef's knife) blacksmith in Japan. Shigefusa has trained under the famous tamahagane razor maker Iwasaki Shigeyoshi for 10 years, and before he became independent he received several months of training by another very famous swordsmith Nagashima Munenori by the recommendation of Iwasaki-san.
By the age of 38 he had already been celebrated as the best houcyou maker in Japan. The beautiful poished look of Shigefusa knives are acheived by applying the special Japanese sword poishing technique creating the hazy polished look. Now with his two full grown sons beside him, Shigefusa has achieved an unrivaled state as a houchou maker.
Now to acquire a Shigefusa knife, you basically have 2 options. First is to order one through a retailer or middle man who places the order with Mr. Iizuka Tokifusa(Shigefusa) himself, then you wait for the knife to be made. Being hand made and hand finished using natural Japanese whetstones, the current wait for a Shigefusa knife to be produced is about 1.5yrs. Or the other option, you find someone who already owns a Shigefusa knife and is willing to sell it to you.

So as it happens, the other day I stumbled across this knife listed on eBay from a seller in Japan and at a very reasonable starting bid. It is a 270mm Yanagiba 'Kitaeji' version which has damascus or 'ink' patterned steel and was described as 'new'. I thought about it for a couple of days and decided I probably wouldn't get one for that price again so set a sniper bid and waited to see what happened and I won it! Well since then I have been waiting impatiently for it to arrive and today it finally did! I'm not disappointed, it is an awesome blade.

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