ZDP-189 // Nakiri Black

ZDP-189 Nakiri Black is a Japanese knife made to serve one purpose - cutting vegetables. It's an ideal knife for anyone who chops a lot of veggies, either for a home cook or a professional chef.

The knife is manufactured at the smithery of Yoshida Hamono in Japan, a family company with an age-long tradition in manufacturing state-of-the-art tools and Japanese swords by hand. Yoshida Hamono has a great deal of experience forging ZDP-189 steel in the traditional manner.

The heart of the knife is made of ZDP-189 steel, proven for its superior qualities and long-lasting sharpness. The steel is laminated (san-mai clad), meaning that the core is made of the super hard ZDP-189 steel, covered with an external layer of softer stainless steel. Such blade remains sharp for a very long time, while the outer layers protect the core steel from external factors.

Kuro-uchi finish, the unprocessed (black) part on the top side of the blade has already developed a dark patina, which protects the blade and gives it a traditional Japanese look. The knife bears visible impressions of the hand-forging process (round hammer dents on the blade), which gives it a beautiful finish and also prevents food from sticking to the blade.

Nakiri Black was fitted a traditional Japanese wooden handle, called Wa. The wooden handle is made of walnut wood with an octagonal shape, so it will fit equally well into the hands of right- or left-handed users.

The steel contains as much as 3% Carbon (C), which is one of the main elements contributing strength and typically found in amounts of up to only 1% in other types of solid steel, while the Chromium (Cr) content, which prevents corrosion, amounts to nearly 20%. It also features 1.5% Tungsten (W), which considerably increases the abrasion resistance of steel, 1.3% Molybdenum (Mo), which helps to preserve the strength and power of steel under variable temperatures, and 0.10% Vanadium (V), the key element in increasing steel strength. Heat treatment produces steel with a hardness of 65-67 HRC.