A small company in Tsubame

N.Cutlery is a young Japanese knife maker in Tsubame, Niigata, founded in 2015. That is close to the whole of what can be established about the company, and we would rather say so than pad it out. There is no published corporate history, no founder's name in circulation, and their own website is no longer online.

What there is instead is a design idea, and it is a good one.

A hollow handle, and why

Most all stainless knives are made in two pieces and welded, and the weld is the weak point. Enough leverage on the handle and it is the joint that goes, not the blade.

N.Cutlery builds the blade and tang as a single monocoque structure, with a sealed hollow cavity running through the centre of the handle. Their stated reason is two things at once: it takes weight out of the handle, which moves the balance forward towards the edge where you want it, and it removes the welded joint that would otherwise be the thing that breaks.

A sealed cavity also means there is nothing to get into. No scales, no rivets, no seam between handle and blade for water or food to sit in, which is the same argument Japanese makers use for a fully forged one piece knife and not one you often see at this size of company.

Demon Killer

The export line is called Onikiri, which translates as demon killer, and it comes in two builds. The plain version is the working knife. The Premium Damascus adds a patterned cladding over the core.

The steel our supplier specifies is Ginsan, also written GIN-3 or Silver Three, a Yasuki stainless from Hitachi Metals, at around 59 HRC. Ginsan is the steel people reach for when they want white carbon steel behaviour without the rust: it takes a very fine edge and it sharpens like a carbon blade, which most stainless does not. Since we cannot check that against a live page from the maker, treat it as the specification we were supplied with rather than something N.Cutlery has published where you can read it.

What we carry

Four knives, in two shapes.

A gyuto at 7.5 inches, the Japanese chef's knife, flatter through the belly than a German one and thinner behind the edge.

A bunka at 7 inches, which is the shape to buy if you want one knife: a reverse tanto tip that gets into detail work, a flat section for push cutting, and enough height to scoop off the board.

Each in the standard build and in the Premium Damascus.