Celebrity Chef Claims Luxury Japanese Knives as his Favourite
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, star of BBC2's 'In Search of Perfection', columnist for the Sunday Times and owner of the Michelin 3 Star restaurant, the Fat Duck Bray, officially endorses the Tojiro Senkou knife range, after he found them to be his favourite knives:
“After trying many knives over the years, Heston Blumenthal now uses the Japanese 'Tojiro Senkou' range. These precision-made knives offer perfect balance with extreme sharpness. The knives are the result of several centuries of Samurai sword-making tradition and expertise with up to 63 layers of steel, which has been folded and hammered to create very strong, yet flexible blades with excellent edge retention.” Heston Blumenthal ,Fat Duck Restaurant
They have also featured on his appearance on Five's motoring show, Fifth Gear. The new Tojiro Senkou range of Japanese kitchen knives and accessories makes centuries of Samurai sword making tradition and expertise accessible to everyone. After testing under laboratory conditions, Tojiro Senkou knives have been found to be one of the sharpest kitchen knife ranges on the market.The specialist manufacturing techniques were developed for the feared Samurai warrior caste, which needed a weapon that would be reliably sharp, strong and sufficiently durable to defend them against repeated danger. Samurai warriors often gave names to their swords and considered them to be the ‘soul’ of their warriorship, so style and character are also key design features.The Mica handle of Tojiro Senkou knives incorporates a naming plate to allow each knife to be personalized."Favourite Kitchen Gadget
My Japanese Tojiro Senkou knives (pictured).They have 50-odd layers of steel and are beautifully weighted.”. Heston Blumenthal ,Telegraph Magazine October 2008
Damascus Steel
The technique of laminating steel was first seen in Damascus, Syria around 400AD. It was later adopted by Japanese sword smiths who would fold and hammer many layers of steel into their blades.
A perfect blade needs to be hard, but also strong and flexible. In many respects, these features can be contradictory. The cutting edge on Tojiro Senkou knives is made of extremely hard steel (Rockwell 60° - 62°). This allows the knives to be sharpened to a more acute angle and to emerge from the factory razor sharp. If the knives were made solely of this hard steel, however, they would be inflexible and brittle, breaking easily if dropped or misused.
The solution lies in using the process of lamination to cushion the super hard inner core by adding outer layers of softer stainless steel. This results in a knife as flexible and strong as any single layer knife, but with a cutting edge that is harder, sharper and last longer.
Tojiro knives are made of 37 or 63 layers of steel. (Deba knife with 19 layers) This results in the beautiful Damascene effect - a pattern formed by the many layers of steel, which is known in Japanese as "kasumi-nagashi" or "floating mist.
Sharpening Guide for Tojiro Senkou Knives
The cutting edge on the Senkou knives is made of extremely hard steel (Rockwell 60º - 62º). This allows sharpening to a more acute angle and the knives emerge from the factory razor sharp. For safety and best performance Tojiro Senkou knives should be kept sharp at all times.Cooks Knives offers one of the widest ranges of sharpeners on the internet. For professional results we recommend sharpening your Tojiro knives on a whetstone around once or twice a month. After soaking the whetstone as directed, tilt the blade edge at an angle of 10° - 20° to the stone and draw the blade up and down the length of the stone. Whilst sharpening, do not flush away the thick liquid which will form from your whetstone, as this contains the sharpening agent.
After sharpening, your Tojiro knives should be washed in hot water and then dried thoroughly.
