Santoku 210mm Takedown By Benjamin Kamon & Oliver Märtens

Edition 03 of the MCx Kamon × Märtens line is a Santoku, and the first release in the collaboration to move away from the Gyuto. The blade is forged and ground by Benjamin Kamon in Vienna, the handle built by Oliver Märtens in Kassel, and it features Kamon's own Santoku profile — larger than the classic Japanese Santoku, and unmistakably his. Where the first two editions were dark, classic and deliberately bold, Edition 03 moves the other way: lighter in colour, lighter in the hand and quicker on the board, with the same obsession over performance and build quality that defines the line.

An aggressive distal taper gives the knife a finely balanced feel — rigid and powerful at the heel, fine and deft at the tip — and Kamon's low convex bevels carry it through ingredients with little drag and excellent food release, for an effortless cutting experience. The blade is forged from 1.2519, the German tungsten-chromium tool steel Kamon has worked for years, and his heat treatment takes it to 65 HRC, for a keen edge that holds through months of heavy use. Above the bevels the nashiji texture is taken to a high satin polish, pale and quietly reflective, while below it the belt-finished bevels carry a fine and perfectly even scratch pattern from heel to tip. Hues of blue and red, the result of flame tempering around the neck, give the knife a singular pop of colour that lifts an otherwise light and subtle design.

The handle is Märtens' intricate takedown design, an octagon built from seven hand-made parts, each one precision milled, turned or ground, and finished with the array of techniques that has made his handle work quietly recognisable among collectors. The facets, delightfully relieved, give the handle an ergonomic and comfortable feel and index in the hand without thought, lending the blade a precision feel like no other. Maple and chestnut were chosen piece by piece, since no single timber met the standard across the whole batch, then matched so that every knife in the edition reads as one of a set. Stainless end caps with inlaid brass accents close the handle at both ends, with an Elforyn Super Tusk ferrule set behind the front cap, and the whole assembly is drawn together by a single hex key fastening through the rear cap, so the handle comes away cleanly for maintenance and sharpening.

The same three minds, and a completely different feel. Edition 03 is made in small numbers, and like everything in the MCx Kamon × Märtens line it is built around performance first, with beauty following as its natural consequence. We are very proud of this release and delighted to be able to offer you these exceptional culinary tools.