Iron Clad | SKU: MASA_YKW2_BU170

Masakage Yuki White2 Bunka 170mm Stainless Clad

Name: Masakage Yuki White2 Bunka 170mm Stainless Clad
Brand: Iron Clad
SKU: MASA_YKW2_BU170
Price: 369.95 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock

$369.95

IMPORTANT: Carbon steel knives can rust or patina quickly if not cared for properly. They require regular cleaning, drying, and oiling. If you are unfamiliar with carbon steel maintenance, we recommend choosing a stainless steel option instead.

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St Peters, NSW —
2 Bishop St, Unit 2, St Peters NSW 2044
+61 2 8234 8818
Crows Nest, NSW —
107 West St, Shop 1, Crows Nest NSW 2065
+61 2 8234 8848
Pickup only
Prahran, VIC —
180 Commercial Road, Shop 1, Prahran VIC 3181
+61 3 8199 9948
Pickup only

Detailed Specifications

Line	Masakage Yuki White 2 Nashiji
Profile	Bunka / K-tip santoku
Bevel Type	Double Bevel
Weight	159 g \| 5.6 oz
Edge Length	174 mm \| 6 27/32″
Heel Height	47 mm \| 1 27/32″
Width @ Heel	3.3 mm \| 1/8″
Width @ Mid	1.9 mm \| 5/64″
Width @ 1cm from Tip	1.1 mm \| 3/64″
Steel	White 2 / Shirogami #2 \| Carbon
Blade Construction	Sanmai - Stainless Clad
Hardness (HRC)	60 - 64
Surface Finish	Nashiji
Handle	Octagonal Ebony with Black Horn Ferrule
Region	Fukuyama
Best for	Pro chefs Enthusiasts First-timers

Free shipping for knives over AU$200 Australia wide.
World-wide shipping via DHL Express, 3 to 5 days.

Yuki(雪, Snow) is a simple and elegant line offered by Masakage, Nashiji surface, Migaki bevel with soft kasumi polish on the soft cladding, it's a minimalistic design that that aims to display nothing but the organic trace produced by the craft of the blacksmith and the sharpener. This simple silver look almost feels like a gentle snow that takes away colour, leaving just texture and geometry of the blade for you to experience in hand.

The choice of steel seems to complement the name too. With Hitachi White #2, you can obtain an extremely sharpen edge on these blades. Although bring prone to rust, the stainless cladding on the outside covers up most of the core steel with Kato san's masterful forging, making it relatively easier to maintain compare to knives with iron cladding.

The spine of these knives are lightly tapered, enough to let you know it is a hand forged knife, the thickness if the blade ensure a good rigidity and gives weight to the blade, make Yuki a line with very solid feel in hand. That thickness doesn't reduce the cutting performance thanks to the sharpening done by Shibata san. In the spine shot we can clearly see the thick blade gets thinned down to a edge with a beautiful concave grind. Combining with the aggressive edge you can get with carbon steel, Yuki is excellent in food penetration. As the food reach the Shinogi line, they would also release off cleanly.

Fo people look to get an authentically crafted knife, Yuki would be a great option. The hand forging and sharpening feature are strong on these blades while the simple design kept the price relatively affordable. If you are curious about why these knives are beloved by knife enthusiasts and professionals, consider this line as you first step into the world of artisan knives.

Pros	Cons
Excellent performance Great OOTB Thin behind the edge	Prone to rust A little bit brittle

Care Instruction

Don't cut hard things! Japanese knives are brittle so bone hacking is a NO NO!
Wash with neutral detergent after use, and wipe dry;
Please don't wash knife with dishwasher, it will damage the wood handle;
Be careful not to leave the knife close to a heat source for a long time;
It is a lot more dangerous to cut with a blunt knife than a sharp knife!
It is best to sharpen a Japanese knife regularly on a waterstone.
Oil the (carbon) knife if storing for an extended period of time to prevent rust.

Masakage

Masakage (昌景), Takayuki Shibata's brand

Masakage is the first original brand created by Takayuki Shibata, aimed at all-round knives with good performance, fit and finish, and the handcrafted look of village smiths.

The name of the Masakage Brand originated from a Warring States Samurai General Masakage Yamagata, and this name carries the hope of Shibata san of creating a versatile brand that excels in all aspects, just like how Masakage Yamagata excels in battle, strategy, diplomacy, public order, and domestic affairs.

The knives from the Masakage Brand are all collaborations between members of the TAKEFU Knife Village and Shibata san, where the forging and heat treating are done by well-known Echizen makers like Yu Kurosaki, Shiro Kamo, Yoshimi Kato or Takeshi Saji. These blades are then hand sharpened at Shibata’s workshop, where they achieve sharp edges and beautiful finish.

The way that Masakage knives are done are pretty much as handcrafted as you can get while being reasonably affordable, and they do display characteristics that are unique for handcrafted knives. Commonly seen on these blades are the forge-tapered spine, elegant, organic surface finish and complex bevel geometry that offer the smoothest cut. And I have to say I really like the names that Shibata san came up with, Kiri(fog), Yuki(snow), Shimo(frost), Mizu(water), Kumo(cloud)... Each lineup gets a poetic name that triggers your imagery about nature, where that image is reflected on the appearance of the knife through a carefully designed fabrication process. As far as product design goes, Masakage is careful.

So Masakage is indeed doing what Shibata san want the brand to do: providing knives that are truly excellent in all aspects. They got great balance and handling, excellent sharpness and edge retention, great look and on top of that, a beautiful name to complete them as integral packages.

Masakage is an original brand of Shibata Knives, the company of Takayuki Shibata in Fukuyama. On his site, Shibata writes that the Japanese blacksmithing scene was grim, with smiths retiring and dying and no one replacing them, and that he felt he had to make his own brand.

The brand takes its name from Masakage Yamagata, a samurai general of the Warring States period whom the site describes as excelling in battle, strategy, diplomacy, public order and domestic affairs. Masakage's earlier site said its knives were made by blacksmiths and hand sharpened by Shibata before sale.

We stock two Masakage lines: Koishi, in Aogami Super with a kurouchi tsuchime finish, and Yuki, in White 2 clad in stainless steel.

“Takayuki Shibata's own knife brand, named after the samurai general Masakage Yamagata.”

Est. 2007 | 平成19年

Known for Knives the brand says are made by blacksmiths and sharpened by Takayuki Shibata

Instagram @masakage Read more about Masakage

Knife details

Profile

Bunka

文化

K-tip santoku · Double bevel

A compact all-rounder like a santoku; a Sakai maker says its angled K-tip suits fine work.

White 2 / Shirogami #2

白二鋼

Carbon · Hitachi Metals (now Proterial)

Proterial carbon steel, 1.05 to 1.15% carbon, no chromium or tungsten; not stainless.

Construction

Sanmai - Stainless Clad

三枚

3 layers · stainless clad

Hard core between two stainless layers, bare only at the edge; the cladding resists rust.

Finish

Nashiji

Pear-skin texture

A fine matte texture like the skin of a nashi pear. It may help food release.

Handle

Octagonal Ebony with Black Horn Ferrule

Octagonal WA

Ebony, eight-sided, with a black buffalo horn ferrule: the standard all-black wa handle.

Frequently asked questions

Why is it called a bunka knife?

The bunka knife (文化包丁) takes its name from bunka, culture. A Sakai knife maker ties the name to Japan's modernisation, when Western culture and Japanese tradition merged, and says it stands for that new era and for the knife's wide range of uses.

The same maker says that as diets broadened to meat, fish and vegetables, an all-purpose knife was wanted, and the bunka took features from both Japanese and Western knives.

What is the difference between a bunka and a santoku?

The tip. One Japanese knife maker describes the bunka (文化包丁, kengata) as combining the good points of the gyuto and the nakiri with the tip cut at an angle, and the santoku as coming after it, by rounding that tip.

Both are all-purpose knives for the home; santoku (三徳) means three virtues, for the three foods it cuts: meat, fish and vegetables.

Shirogami 1 vs shirogami 2 — what is the difference?

Shirogami 1 (White 1) has a higher carbon content than Shirogami 2 (White 2), roughly 1.3% vs 1.1%.

White 2 (Shirogami #2) has about 1.1% carbon and, per Proterial, a hardening hardness of over 60 HRC; White 1 sits around 1.3% carbon. That 0.2% difference is the core spec gap. More carbon generally means you can push hardness higher and hold a keener edge, but it also makes the steel more brittle and less forgiving. White 2 trades a bit of that potential peak sharpness for slightly better toughness and ease of sharpening.

Shirogami 1 carries a certain prestige. Sukenari's Nobuo Hanaki once told me directly that they only use White 1 for their mizu-honyaki because it is the pure form of carbon steel, it carries that halo. Among traditional smiths, White 1 is still spoken of as the benchmark.

Is Masakage a blacksmith or a brand?

Masakage is a brand, not a single forge. Takayuki Shibata (柴田崇行) dates it on his own site to 2008, as his first brand, and gives his reason: "Smiths were retiring and dying, and no one was replacing them. I felt that I had to make my own brand."

The same site says he took up sharpening in 2007, taught by a local cutler, and put bigger orders in to his blacksmiths as sales grew. Shibata's company is Iron Clad, in Fukuyama, Hiroshima.

Reviewed by K&S Staff · Last updated 31 July 2026

Masakage Yuki White2 Bunka 170mm Stainless Clad

Availability

Detailed Specifications

Masakage

Knife details

Bunka

White 2 / Shirogami #2

Sanmai - Stainless Clad

Nashiji

Octagonal Ebony with Black Horn Ferrule

Frequently asked questions

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Masakage Yuki White2 Bunka 170mm Stainless Clad

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