Forged by Shosui Takeda of Takeda Hamono, in Okayama Japan.
This vintage Yanagiba was forged in 2008 in memory of an old friend of Takeda's from Germany. In 2015, we visited Takeda's workshop and stumbled upon this knife and 14 other knives that were in pretty bad shape from years of sitting in the workshop uncared for.
After asking for his permission, Takeda allowed us to re-finish this Yanagiba. We took it to the finest sharpener in all of Sakai. The Yanagiba, made of super blue steel by Takeda's expert hand, was so hard that it took the Sakai sharpener 6 hours to re-sharpen and refinish it, when it typically only takes around 2 hours.
The vintage Yanagiba was re-finished in a Ho wood octagonal and buffalo horn ferrule, protected by a custom-made Saya, and stored in an authentic Japanese Kiri wood box - perfection!
We will be restoring all 15 of the vintage knifes found, each with a unique serial number of 1-15. Serial number "1" knife has been reserved for Tosho Knife Arts in Toronto, Canada, and the serial number "2" knife is reserved for Ai and Om Knives located in Vancouver, Canada. Only these two Yanagibas are right handed and use super blue steel. For inquiries and updates on knives 3 to 15, please send us a note at info@hitohira-japan.com.