New Product Line: Wa-Handle KURO Series

Table of Contents

1. What does Kuro mean?
2. About Wa-Handle Kuro's Steel
   
3. About Wa-Handle Kuro's Finish
4. About Wa-Handle Kuro's Handle
5. Available Wa-Handle Kuro Models
6. The Original Kuro Series
7. How to Buy

The meaning of Kuro might not be what you first guess...

Kuro can be read as 黒 which means black, but we are aiming for a different interpretation.

Our kuro comes from the kanji 玄 which can also mean black, but at the same time means mysteriousness, profoundness, and deep. This adds nuance to our knife and depth behind its expression with its tsuchime hammered finish.

玄 is also found in the word 玄人 or kurōto, which means professional, and this series is designed for professional use.

We hope to see this knife in the hands of many professionals over time!

The Wa-Handle Kuro series uses Blue Steel Super as its cutting edge core steel. Blue Steel Super's addition of vanadium and higher tungsten concentrations further increase the already high wear resistance levels of Blue Steel, and allows for an average hardness level of 67HRC.

With carbon concentration all the way up to 1.45%, this is recommended for people wanting to try an incredibly hard cutting steel, professionals, or knife enthisiasts who love sharpening as it takes longer to do than other carbon steels.

For those less knowledgeable about knife sharpening, we would recommend using a professional to sharpen this series. Or redeem the free sharpening ticket included with our knives and get it sharpened through us!

The Wa-Handle Kuro series is compliemented with two seperate finishes: kurouchi, and tsuchime.

Kurouchi is a finish created by leaving black resident on the knife after forging, which increases rust resistance and provides a rustic look to any knife it is on. This finish changes over the lifespan of the knife's usage, creating unique bumps and imperfections in the knife's appearance.

Tsuchime is a finish created by hammering the knife's hira or flat, and often complements other finishes. This finish crates unique, one-of-a-kind patterns as well as slightly improving food release due to the hammered sections creating small pockets of air, similar to a Granton Edge in Western-style knives.

The Wa-Handle Kuro series uses a walnut wood handle in an octagonal configuration, supported by a buffalo horn bolster. This is the same kind of handle both in shape and material as our popular Chromax series.

Walnut is popular in medium-to-high end knives due to its high durability, as well as instilling a feeling of both weight and luxury through its beautiful grain pattern designs.

This material does slowly darken over time, but protective oils like our blade oil can be used to prevent this. As the Kuro series is meant to be slightly rustic in appearance, we feel this natural darkening matches the knife perfectly.

Handles are installed by our in-house experts at Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide. If you're lucky, you might even see our artisans doing the work in our back workshop!

The Wa-Handle Kuro Series has released in a total of five variations. This may increase in the future.

This series at launch is available in 150mm Wa-Petty, 210mm Wa-Gyuto, 240mm Wa-Gyuto, 210mm Kiritsuke-Gyuto, and 240mm Kiritsuke-Gyuto variations.

Stock of all models may not be available at all times, but you can register for restock notifications via the individual product pages on our website.

Many years ago we also released the original Kuro series, using the same steel and finish with a Western-style handle.

This series has always been popular with our customers, especially the sujihiki. Infact, we released that model in a variety of different handle colors due to its popularity!

The original Western-Style handled Kuro series is available here.

You can buy the Wa-Handle Kuro by either visiting their unique product pages, searching "Kuro Walnut Handle" in our search field, visiting our store in Osaka directly, or by messaging us to request one here!

All of our knives come with free name engraving done by hand or laser, including complementary translation into Japanese.

Alternatively, you can go straight to the product pages by clicking the respective knives below!

Please find our official press release announcing the release of our Wa-Handle Kuro series here.

For high-quality images of our Wa-Handle Kuro series, or for any media questions or interview requests, please contact us directly here.