Inside Hatsukokoro: One Brand, Many Forges

Hi — let's talk about the two knives almost everyone considers first. If you've spent any time looking at Japanese knives, you've already met them: the Gyuto (Japan's take on the Western chef knife) and the Santoku (the friendly multi-tasker). They show up in every brand's catalog. They cover most of the same tasks. They cost similar money. So: which one first? The honest answer is "it depends on how you cook." This post is going to make that depends-on actually useful instead of cop-out vague. In one paragraph A Gyuto is a long (210–240mm), curved Japanese chef knife designed to do everything a Western chef knife does, with thinner steel and a finer edge. A Santoku is shorter (165–180mm), flatter, and squarer — it's faster on a small cutting board and more confident on vegetables, but loses range on big proteins. Pick a Gyuto if you cook in real volumes or break down meat at home. Pick a Santoku if your kitchen is small, your hands prefer something lighter, or vegetables are most of what passes under your knife. Side by side Feature Gyuto Santoku Length 210mm or 240mm 165–180mm Edge profile Curved (slight belly) Mostly flat Tip Pointed, ready to break down a fish or chicken Sheepsfoot — drops down, no real point Cutting motion Rocks happily; pushes well Pushes; doesn't rock Best at Long meat strokes, big vegetables, mise for many Quick veg, small proteins, dense kitchens Weak at Cramped boards Big roasts, breaking down a chicken, long fish fillets First Japanese knife? If you cook a lot If you cook compactly Length is destiny The single biggest thing that separates them in real life is length. A 210mm Gyuto is long — it eats cutting board real estate, it slices through a watermelon in one stroke, and on a small kitchen counter it can feel like swinging a sword. A 165mm Santoku just fits. If your cutting board is smaller than 35cm, a 240mm Gyuto will frustrate you. A 210mm Gyuto is borderline. A Santoku is at home. If you regularly cook for six or do real prep — breaking down a whole chicken, slicing a brisket, making a stir-fry from a mountain of vegetables — the Gyuto's reach is a different category of pleasure. Edge profile matters more than people say A Gyuto has a curved belly — the cutting edge dips down, then sweeps back up to the tip. This is what lets it rock. (Rocking = tip stays planted, heel goes up and down. Western chef knife motion.) A Santoku is almost flat — the edge is mostly straight along the bottom, then takes a sharp drop into the sheepsfoot tip. You can't rock it. You push. (Push cutting = lift the heel, drive forward, slice through, lift again.) This isn't a small thing. If you grew up rocking a Wüsthof and you buy a Santoku, you'll fight it for a month. The knife is not broken — it's asking you to learn a different motion. (And once you do, you'll cut faster.) If you don't want to relearn how you cut: get the Gyuto. The "small hands" myth, mostly People sometimes say "Santoku is for smaller hands." That's half-true and half-not. What's true: a 165mm Santoku is lighter and shorter than a 240mm Gyuto, so it's less tiring in a small hand over a long session. What's not true: a 210mm Gyuto isn't unwieldy for a smaller person. The handle is the same size as a Santoku's. It's the blade length that's different, not the grip. If you have small hands but love long blades: get a 210mm Gyuto. Don't talk yourself into a Santoku you don't want. Who each one is for, plainly Get a Gyuto if you: Cook proteins regularly (whole chickens, big steaks, fish fillets) Have a generous cutting board (40cm+) Like rocking through onions and herbs Want one knife that does almost everything Get a Santoku if you: Cook mostly vegetables and quick weeknight food Have a small kitchen and small board Already have a Western chef knife and want a second-knife contrast Want to learn push-cutting (Japanese style) from scratch Skip both and get a Bunka if you: Want the Santoku's flat edge and the Gyuto's tip in one knife. (We wrote about Bunkas here.) What about steel? Both shapes come in everything: stainless VG-10, carbon Aogami, powdered SG2, you name it. Don't let steel choice override shape choice. Pick the shape that fits how you cook, then pick a steel that fits how you maintain. (Aogami vs Shirogami here.) A practical pick If you're new and budget-curious: Tojiro DP Gyuto 210mm or DP Santoku 170mm. VG-10, stainless, honest geometry, won't punish a learner. If you want to step up: Hatsukokoro Hayabusa Gyuto 210mm or Sakai Takayuki Ginsan Santoku 180mm. Real Japanese geometry, real Japanese steel, real difference in feel. Browse all Gyutos → Browse all Santokus → — The Upscale Living team

If you just bought your first carbon steel Japanese knife — or you're thinking about it and reading care guides ahead of time — welcome. We get a lot of nervous questions about carbon steel. Most of them aren't necessary. Carbon knives aren't fragile or fussy; they just have opinions. Here's what they want from you, in five short habits. Build these in and your knife will outlast your stove. Habit 1 — Wash and dry, every single time This is the most important rule. After every use: Rinse the blade with warm water (mild soap is fine; whatever you'd do for any knife) Wipe both sides dry with a clean towel — including the spine and along the edge Don't let it air-dry. Don't put it on the dish rack. Never put it in the dishwasher. In an Indonesian kitchen — humid, often beside a sink, often with someone else doing the dishes — this matters more than in a dry climate. Air at 80% humidity is enough to start surface oxidation on bare carbon steel within a few hours. Here's the part most people don't know: most modern Japanese carbon knives have a stainless cladding layer over the carbon core. Only the actual cutting edge is exposed carbon — a thin strip, maybe 2–3mm wide, at the bottom of the blade. That's the strip that needs to be properly dry. Everything else is more forgiving than internet forums make it sound. Habit 2 — Make friends with the patina The first time you cut something acidic with a new carbon knife — a tomato, a lemon, an onion — the blade will start to develop a gray-blue-purple film. This looks alarming. It is the opposite of alarming. This is patina, and it's good for the knife. Patina is a controlled oxide layer that forms a thin shield between the bare steel and air, slowing actual rust. A well-patinated blade rusts much less than a brand-new one. You can let patina form naturally over a few weeks of cooking, or you can speed it up: Mustard patina — coat the blade in plain yellow mustard, leave 10 minutes, rinse and dry. Mottled gray result. Vinegar patina — soak a paper towel in white vinegar, lay it on the blade for 10 minutes, rinse and dry. More uniform look. Onion patina — slice a few onions and don't wipe the blade between cuts. Slowest method, most natural look. What you don't want is pitting rust — orange-brown spots, often around the cutting edge. That's a maintenance miss, not patina. If you see rust: Scrub gently with a wine cork or a piece of green Scotch-Brite (don't go aggressive — it's just surface) Rinse and dry thoroughly Rub a drop of mineral oil over the area Most rust caught early comes off in under a minute. Habit 3 — Oil the blade, occasionally Once a week — or any time you know the knife will sit unused for more than 3 days — wipe a single drop of food-safe oil along the blade with a paper towel. You don't need much; a drop covers a whole knife. Options: Camellia oil (tsubaki abura) — the traditional Japanese choice. Light, doesn't go rancid, smells of nothing. Mineral oil — cheap, food-safe, equally effective. Coconut oil — works in a pinch but can get sticky in cool weather. Avoid olive oil, sesame oil, and any cooking oil with flavor — they go rancid and start to smell off after a few weeks. Habit 4 — Sharpen on a stone, gently, not often Japanese knives are sharpened on whetstones. Not pull-through sharpeners. Not honing steels. The pull-through devices you may have used for European knives strip metal and ruin the precise edge geometry that took the maker hours to grind. Don't use them on a Japanese blade. A reasonable starter setup: One combination whetstone: 1000/3000 grit or 1000/6000 grit. The 1000 side is for routine touch-ups; the higher side is for finishing. The Naniwa Super Stone, KING, and SUEHIRO all make good options at this price point. A flattening stone (after a few months) to keep your whetstone surface true. Optionally, later on: a finer stone (6000–8000) for an even more refined edge. Browse our whetstone collection when you're ready. How often should you sharpen? A healthy home cook touches up their knife on a 1000 grit stone every 6–8 weeks. A line cook does it weekly. The signal isn't dullness — it's "I have to push harder than I used to." A simple test: try slicing a piece of standard printer paper. If it cuts cleanly without snagging, your edge is fine. If you don't want to learn whetstones, the next-best path is a guided sharpening system like the Hapstone RS — it holds the angle for you, and the result is excellent. Best of both worlds: you don't have to develop the muscle memory, but you still get a real sharpening. Many of our customers start with one of these. Habit 5 — Store the knife where it can't get bashed This one is simple. Don't toss a Japanese knife into a drawer with other utensils. The edge is thin (10–15° per side, vs ~20° on a German knife) and chips if it knocks against anything metal. Three storage options that work: Saya — a wooden sheath that slides over the blade. Some knives come with one from the maker; we sell saya separately if yours didn't. Browse saya / sheaths → Magnetic bar — wall-mounted, blade hangs by the spine. Good for daily-use knives. Make sure the magnet is strong; cheap ones drop knives, which is exactly what we're avoiding. Knife roll — soft case with separate slots, good for transporting or storing a small collection. Look for ones with individual slots, not just elastic loops. What to avoid: Drawer storage with other utensils (chips the edge) Edge-up storage of any kind Stacking knives on top of each other The 90-second daily routine After cooking dinner with your carbon knife: Rinse under warm water — 10 seconds Wipe dry both sides + spine + along the edge — 30 seconds Slide it into the saya or onto the magnetic bar — 5 seconds Once a week (Sunday before dinner is a habit that sticks): A single drop of mineral oil down the blade with a paper towel — 10 seconds That's it. Do this and a well-made carbon knife will last decades. Things we sell that help Whetstones — see the whetstone collection. KING, Naniwa, Shapton, SUEHIRO across all grits. Saya / Sheaths — find one for your specific knife in Knife Storage. Sharpening systems — the Hapstone RS for guided angle work; great for beginners who want pro results. Strops — leather strops keep the edge polished between sharpenings: Cowhide Leather Strop (Hapstone) Suede Strop (Hapstone) Mineral oil — small bottle, lasts a year or two. If anything ever goes wrong, ask us Bring the knife to our Jakarta or Bali shop and we'll look at it. Surface rust we'll clean off; a chipped edge we can usually grind out; a bent tip we can correct. Most "problems" with carbon knives turn out to be 5-minute fixes that look catastrophic to someone who's never seen them before. You can also email us photos before deciding to bring it in. A knife that gets cared for is a knife that gets used. That's the only point.

If you've started shopping for a Japanese knife, you've probably run into two names that sound made up: Aogami and Shirogami. They're not made up — they're two of the most respected steels in Japanese knifemaking, and the difference between them is real. Let's go through what they actually are, in plain English, and which one you should pick. Why are they called "blue" and "white"? Hitachi Metals — Japan's industrial steel company — sells its high-carbon tool steels wrapped in colored paper. The paper is just for warehouse identification. **Blue paper is Aogami (青紙). White paper is Shirogami (白紙).** That's it. The names tell you nothing about the steel; they just tell you what's in the wrapper. Both are excellent steels. Both are carbon steels (we'll explain why that matters in a second). The differences are in what each one is made of, and how that translates to how the knife behaves in your hand. The fast answer (if you just want a recommendation) Most people reading this just want to know what to buy. Here's the short version: Shirogami #2 → Your first carbon knife. Pure-feeling, easy to sharpen, takes an outstandingly fine edge. Slightly more demanding to maintain. Aogami #2 → Better balance for daily life. A bit harder, holds an edge longer, slightly more forgiving. Marginally harder to sharpen than Shirogami. Aogami Super → The enthusiast's pick. The hardest of the three, best edge retention, gives a distinctive "alive" feeling when you cut. Premium price; harder to sharpen but rewards the effort. Shirogami #1 → The purist's choice. More carbon than #2, takes the finest edge of any common Japanese steel. Demanding to maintain. If that's enough to decide, browse our Aogami collection or our Shirogami collection. If you want to actually understand why these differ, keep reading. What's in each steel? Both Aogami and Shirogami are high-carbon steels — meaning they have enough carbon (around 1.0–1.4%) to take a hard, fine edge when properly heat-treated. Neither has chromium worth mentioning, so both can rust if neglected. (Most modern Japanese knives wrap them in a stainless layer that protects everything except the cutting edge — more on that below.) The difference is what else is in the alloy. Shirogami (white paper) is essentially carbon and iron. Almost nothing else. Hitachi keeps the impurities very low and the grain structure very fine. The result: a steel that's easy to sharpen and capable of an extremely refined edge — the kind that surprises people the first time they slice a tomato. Aogami (blue paper) is white paper steel plus tungsten and chromium. Tungsten forms hard carbides that resist wear (= longer edge retention). Chromium adds a tiny bit of corrosion resistance and stability. The result: a steel that holds its edge longer, takes a little more work to sharpen, and is more forgiving when you forget to wipe it dry. The numbers — #1, #2, Super — refer to carbon content and grain refinement. #2 is the everyday standard. #1 has more carbon (slightly harder, slightly trickier to sharpen). Super sits above #1 with extra additions for extreme hardness — it's the enthusiast tier. How they perform, in real-world terms Property Shirogami Aogami Edge retention (how long it stays sharp) Good Better Ease of sharpening Easier A bit harder Peak sharpness it can reach Higher (especially #1) Very high (especially Super) Reactivity (rust risk) Higher Slightly lower Patina development Fast, dramatic Slower, more subtle Price (for similar maker) A bit cheaper A bit more These are subtle differences. A great Shirogami knife in skilled hands cuts as well as a great Aogami knife. Picking between them is more about what kind of relationship you want with the knife than about objective quality. What's a "patina" and why does everyone talk about it? When you use a carbon steel knife, the blade develops a gray-blue-purple film over time. This is patina, and it's good. It's a controlled oxide layer that forms a thin shield between the bare steel and air, slowing actual rust. Cooks who use carbon knives daily will tell you the patina is half the appeal — every blade ends up unique to its owner. Two ways to get there: Use it. Cut a few onions, slice a tomato, leave the knife 30 seconds before wiping. The patina starts within a week of regular use. Force it. Coat the blade in plain mustard or rub a sliced lemon along it. Let sit 10 minutes. Rinse and dry. Instant uneven patina. What you don't want is red rust — orange-brown spots that pit the steel. That's a maintenance failure, not patina. A wipe with mineral oil after washing prevents it, and we wrote a whole care guide on this. A practical detail people miss: stainless cladding This is important because it changes the maintenance picture: most modern Japanese carbon knives have a stainless or iron cladding layer wrapped around the carbon core. Only the actual cutting edge is exposed carbon — a strip 2–3mm wide along the bottom of the blade. Everything else is rust-resistant. This makes carbon knives much less fussy than old internet wisdom suggests. You don't have to obsessively dry the whole blade; you just need to dry the bottom edge. Modern knife-making has made carbon steels far more livable. Which to actually buy first Here's how we'd think about it: First carbon knife, you live in a humid kitchen (most of Indonesia, frankly): Aogami #2 with stainless cladding. Most forgiving on the days you forget. The Hatsukokoro Hayabusa, Kumokage, and Nigara lines are great here. First carbon knife, you're naturally meticulous and patient: Shirogami #2. The sharpening experience alone teaches you about steel. Tadafusa is a classic introduction. You already own a high-end stainless (VG10, SG2) and want to feel something different: Aogami Super. The edge feels distinctly different — more "bite" into food, more responsiveness on the stones. You want a small starter to test the waters before committing to a chef knife: a Petty in either steel. Lower risk, same lesson. In-stock examples we'd point to To make this concrete, here are knives currently on our shelves: Tadafusa Kurouchi Shirogami #2 Santoku 165mm — the classic introduction to Shirogami #2 from a Sanjo maker who's been doing it for generations. Kurouchi finish hides early patina. See it → Hatsukokoro Hayabusa Aogami Super Bunka 180mm — workhorse Aogami Super under a stainless cladding. The "if I had to keep one" pick for many of our customers. See it → Hatsukokoro Kumokage Aogami #2 Kurouchi Damascus Bunka 180mm — Aogami #2 with a kurouchi finish hiding the inevitable patina, layered into a Damascus pattern. See it → Mutsumi Hinoura Shirogami #2 SS Kuro-Nashiji Petty 150mm — small Shirogami petty for testing the steel without committing to a chef knife. Hinoura is a respected Sanjo blacksmith. See it → Or browse all our Aogami knives and all our Shirogami knives. One last thing The single biggest factor in how a knife performs isn't which steel — it's the maker's craft. A great Shirogami #2 from a master smith will out-cut a mediocre Aogami Super from a factory line. Pick the maker first; pick the steel second. If you'd like help thinking it through, drop us an email or come visit Jakarta or Bali. Steel is much easier to understand when you can hold it.