This Japanese Santoku from Miaybi's Mizu collection has an extremely hard micro carbide powder steel core for excellent cutting edge retention and sharpness. Santoku is the best-selling Japanese blade shape and the name translates as "Three Virtues", these being meat, fish and vegetables. The flat cutting edge lends itself to a chopping motion rather than the rocking cutting movement of European chef's knives. Miyabi Mizu knives are made from three layers of micro carbide powder SG2 steel that is hardened to 63 Rockwell and is known as MC63. This creates a blade that is extremely hard and flexible with high corrosion resistance. As beautiful as it is strong, the blade has a hammered (tsuchime) stainless steel finish with a Damascus textured design. As well as being eye-catching, this finish adds strength, reduces drag, and prevents food from getting stuck to the blade. The edge of the blade is hand-honed using the traditional three step Honbazuke method. Honbazuke honing originates from traditional Japanese knife production. Every blade is sharpened and polished by hand in three stages in a complex process. The blade is first coarsely ground using a vertically rotating sharpening stone, followed by a fine honing using a horizontally rotating sharpening stone. The edge is then polished using a leather stropping block for scalpel-like sharpness. The traditional D-shaped handle is made with resilient micarta and the shape is comfortable and balanced in hand. Finishing off the handle is a mosaic accent pin complemented by red spacers and the metal end cap displaying the logo.