Tetsujin Blue 2 Kasumi K-tip Gyuto 210mm Ebony Handle

Not quite - and it is the single most common point of confusion when people shop for a kiritsuke. The two knives share the same striking angled, reverse-tanto tip, but underneath that tip they are very different tools.

A K-tip gyuto is normally a double-bevel knife: it is ground on both sides like any Western-style chef's knife, so it is forgiving to use, and sharpened exactly the way you would sharpen a normal gyuto. You get the dramatic kiritsuke look with the everyday usability of an all-purpose chef's knife.

A traditional kiritsuke, including the kiritsuke-yanagiba (slicer), is a single-bevel knife, ground on one side only. It is historically a master chef's knife: it takes real practice to use well, is set up for right-handed users by default, and needs single-bevel sharpening technique to maintain.

So if you want the kiritsuke silhouette with no learning curve, choose a K-tip gyuto. If you specifically want the traditional single-bevel discipline - and the precision it allows on fish and vegetables - choose a true kiritsuke. At Knives and Stones we stock both, and each product page tells you which construction you are looking at.

Yes, carbon steels such as Aogami (Blue) and Shirogami (White) are not stainless steels, so left wet they can spot or rust.

Care is simple once it becomes habit. Wipe the blade as you go, especially after acidic food like citrus, tomato or onion. When you finish, wash it in warm water with a little soap and dry it straight away with a towel. Do not let it air dry, leave it in the sink or the dish rack, or put it in the dishwasher. Store it dry: on a magnetic strip, in a saya or in a block in a dry spot.

If the knife will sit unused for a while, wipe on a thin layer of oil before storing. In our video James shows that mineral oil can stand in for camellia (tsubaki) oil, and he picks one labelled medical grade; we list the Kitchen Knife / Cutting Board Mineral Oil Medical Grade for this. If you find light rust, lift it with a rust eraser and a little water, then dry and oil the blade; we list the CKK and Naniwa rust erasers.

Proterial lists 1.05 to 1.15% carbon for both steels; its Blue 2 table lists 0.20 to 0.50% chromium and 1.00 to 1.50% tungsten, while its White 2 table lists neither.

Proterial describes White 2 as a carbon steel with minimum impurities and high hardness, and Blue 2 as an alloy steel with tungsten and chromium to improve heat-treatment properties and wear resistance, with a hardening hardness of over 60 HRC for both. Neither steel is close to the JSSA's 10.5% minimum for stainless.

A hamaguri-ba edge, written 蛤刃, is a convex edge shape, and it is the shape the workshop 明神利器製作所 sharpens its knives to. Kochi City's craft page records that Myojin Riki learned it over several years of training in Fukui.

The same page says the workshop also takes sharpening-only orders from outside Kochi.

Yes. Kochi City's craft page for his workshop 明神利器製作所 says the work runs from forging through finishing in one continuous process, 鍛造から仕上げまで一貫して行う.

That page lists the workshop in Susaki, Kochi.