26,5 cm Gyuto made of bloomery steel

The showpiece of the current batch. The blade of this 26.5 cm Gyuto is made of bloomery steel with a carbon content of over 1.0%, which I smelted as part of museum craft demonstrations. The cutting edge has a hardness of over 60 hrc. 

The hematitic iron ore comes from a German ore deposit in which ore for steel production was demonstrably mined in open-cast mines as early as the early Middle Ages. Only historically correct tools were used in smelting (e.g. bellows instead of an electric blower). The iron ore is characterized by a high iron content and a low steel pest content. The achievable steel quality is similar to that of the well-known Japanese sword steel (Tamahagane). After smelting, the raw bloom (a type of sponge iron) must be cleaned and homogenized by folding it multiple times lengthwise and crosswise.

The steel of this blade has been finely refined, but still has visible inclusions and voids, as was typical of medieval steels of the European Middle Ages. At the same time, the material is homogeneous enough for a closed cutting edge that cuts without picking or tearing. You can see a clear pattern of the steel, which is also typical of medieval blades. The blade was traditionally differentially hardened in water with a clay coating. This results in a clearly visible hardness line (Hamon) with a variety of hardness effects. 

The knife has a very thin, user-friendly geometry with a slightly thicker choil and a pronounced taper. Due to the long blade and the relatively flat profile, the knife is primarily intended for “pleasure cutting” as a slicer and less as a workhorse in the kitchen. The finely ground tip must be handled with care.  

The western handle is made of oak from a medieval well. The cover plate is made of historical iron from a wall anchor from 1653.  

The knife comes with a handmade oak sliding lid box, which was made by a carpenter friend. Inside there is a cork jar with a sample of the ore used, a piece of the blank and a piece of the finished refined steel.