Sakai Takayuki Byakko (白虎) White 1 Yanagiba by Kenji Togashi

Byakko (白虎, the White Tiger) is an artisan Yanagiba slicer line from Sakai Takayuki, forged by master Kenji Tongashi. The White 1 steel gives the sharpest edge among the commonly available Japanese carbon steels, and is very easy to sharpen. The Byakko series comes standard with a ebony handle, black bufflao ferrule and end cap. 

About Kenji Togashi

Kenji Tongashi received his skilled traditional craftsman award in 1991, which recognizes the best Sakai masters. He is known for able to forge a varity types of steel. During my visit to Togashi-san's workshop, I saw many unique knives, one was a stack of half finished 540mm Maguro-kiri (tuna knife). That was impressive enough, but then I was shown a super long tuna knife: the blade was 160cm (5ft3) and the total length was about 2 meters (6ft7)! I was so impressed by his work, and asked if he would forge us some blue 1 honyaki blades according to my spec. (I always wanted to get one personally as a knifenut) and he gladly agreed. The result was just plain sensational, and I have since asked Togashi-san, with the help of Sakai Takayuki, to make a custom honkayi line for us. 

Specifications:

270mm

• Blade length:263 mm
• Overall length:417 mm
• Thickness at spine: 3.9 mm
• Thickness at 1 cm from the tip: 0.9 mm
• Weight: 211 g

300mm

• Blade length: 291 mm
• Overall length: 453 mm
• Thickness at spine: 3.5 mm
• Thickness at 1 cm from the tip: 1.0 mm
• Weight: 235 g