The santoku, 'three virtues': vegetables, meat, fish, is the all-purpose workhorse of the Japanese kitchen. Its tall profile provides a generous working surface and good knuckle clearance, while the rounded tip naturally favors a push-cut motion. This VG-10 model brings that versatility into a compact format suited to everyday use and longer prep sessions alike.
Hitohira's T10 line is built on a sanmai construction: a VG-10 core encased in an outer cladding, finished with a migaki polish on the blade body. The satin-reflective surface highlights the geometry without added ornament, consistent with the clean, precise character of this line.
VG-10 has been made by Takefu Special Steel since the early 1960s, designed from the start for knifemaking. Its composition, 1% carbon, 15% chromium, 1.5% cobalt, allows it to reach 60,61 HRC while maintaining strong corrosion resistance. The cobalt addition is what sets it apart: it improves toughness and enables higher hardness than a standard stainless steel at comparable chromium levels. The trade-off is that high chromium content makes the steel less responsive on the whetstone than lower-alloy options. Quality stones and a few extra passes are enough to bring the edge back to a fine level.
Care
Rinse and dry after each use. Never put in the dishwasher. Regular sharpening on water stones keeps the edge performing over time.
