Honesuki means "bone lover". This knife is mainly used for boning chicken. Traditionally, the Honesuki has only one bevel, with a concave on the back side of the blade. This helps to work around the joints when boning. The upper part of the cutting edge and the thin tip are used to cut through ligaments and remove skin, while the stronger heel is used to get between bones. The Honesuki can be used for deboning all poultry and smaller pieces of red meat and for butchering small fish.
Super Gold 2 or SG2 is a powder metallurgy steel developed by Takefu Special Steel Co Ltd in 1991 in Takefu, Echizen, Fukui Prefecture. It is a high carbon stainless steel that is pulverized into very fine grains. These are then put back together. This process results in a homogeneous grain structure, making it easier to sharpen and very durable. SG2 can reach a hardness of 64 HRC, making it a very famous steel in the Japanese cutlery world.
Takefu Special Steel Co Ltd, creator of the popular VG-10 steel, wanted to offer with SG2 a superior product in all aspects of hardness, cutting retention, durability, etc.
Today, the company no longer manufactures SG2. The SG2 knives on the market are, most of the time, made of almost identical steels and are manufactured by other companies. For example, Kobelco's R2 has the same characteristics as the SG2.
