Gyuto 240mm Full Kasumi Integral Birchbark & Brass
Gyuto 240mm Full Kasumi Integral Birchbark & Brass
No longer available
Some bladesmiths emphasise a focus on technical details, some are all about clean lines, others like to focus on technical geometry. While Jonas is certainly always focussed on performance, his work is all about heart and soul. Consider this, the knife featured here has taken approximately a year to produce. Starting in spring 2021 Jonas would have walked out into the local forests surrounding his forge and harvested the Birchbark used in the handle of this knife. He had to store and dry the bark over the summer and artfully select each layer of the handle you see pictured here.
However, that’s only the beginning for a knife like this. Forged San Mai, the steel used for this blade has been pressed together, a sandwich of wrought iron and premium German tool steel forged welded together and then beaten, steel on steel, heat by heat, into the rough shape of a blade. The integral bolster willed into shape with the strike of the hammer. Grinding refines the overall shape of the blade before hours of work on whetstones polishing to produce the Kasumi (mist) finish. That’s a lot of love!
An Isasmedjan knife will grow on you. Rustic certainly doesn’t mean rough, fit and finish is superb. Rather than using the word rustic to describe these knives it would be better to say that they are full of character, charming, with endearing style and class.
As described, this knife features a full Kasumi polish, wrought iron cladding and a very tough, HRC 64+, 1.2419.05 steel core. The handle is a hand harvested birchbark, Rokaku Hanmaru, forged integral with a wrought iron endplate and brass pin.
The profile is Jonas’s classic santoku tipped Gyuto with a decent flat section that gradually settles into a curve towards the tip. The santoku tip gives the knife rigidity, this is not a flexible blade. Stable, satisfyingly weighted, and well balanced. We are not talking workhorse grind though, the knife features a thin, sub 2mm average blade thickness.
Overall, a pleasure to work with on the cutting board.
Between the beautiful birchbark handle and forged integral bolster, the satiny smooth kasumi polish and the artfully crafted performance profile and grind it’s hard to describe this piece as anything short of functional art.