Sukenari ZDP-189 Hairline K-tip Gyuto 210mm, Ebony Handle with Blonde/Marble Ferrule

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.

ZDP-189 holds an edge longer than any other steel we sell. The price is a blade that chips more easily, takes a long time to sharpen and is only modestly rust resistant. It's a specialist's steel, and we wouldn't make it your first Japanese knife, or your second.

The good:

• Edge life. In Knife Steel Nerds' CATRA testing it lasted about 162% as long as 440C, well past SG2. On a board full of meat and tendon it keeps cutting long after most stainless knives have gone dull.
• Hardness. Proterial gives a hardening hardness of over 65 HRC, so it takes and holds a very fine edge.
• Bite. Roughly 30% of the steel is chromium carbide, more of it and coarser than in SG2, and you can feel the edge grip fibrous protein.

The bad:

• Chipping. At that hardness it won't forgive bone, frozen food, a twist in the cut or a glass board.
• Sharpening. We find it slow on most waterstones, with vague feedback, and much happier on a diamond plate. Given the choice, we'd rather not sharpen it at all.
• Rust. The spec sheet says about 20% chromium, but the 3% carbon ties most of that up in carbides. Larrin Thomas's modelling puts the chromium left in the steel near 6.5%, and in his water test a ZDP-189 sample rusted inside eight hours while SG2 and VG10 stayed clean. Treat it as stainless, not stainproof, and dry it straight after use.

It suits a cook who already sharpens on stones, cuts a lot of protein and treats knives gently. For most people SG2 is the better buy. We call SG2 the goldilocks of high-performance cutlery steels: a little softer than ZDP-189, but tougher, more stainless and far easier to keep sharp. Our SG2 vs ZDP-189 page has the full comparison.

ZDP-189 comes and goes in our range. When it's in, it's Hatsukokoro's Hayabusa line and Sukenari's Hairline line.

On Proterial's own figures, ZDP-189 carries 3.00% carbon and 20.00% chromium, with the molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium and cobalt figures kept closed.

Proterial describes it as a stainless blade steel made by a powder metallurgy process, lists its hardening hardness as over 65 HRC, and gives it for custom knives and high-quality cutlery tools.

Sukenari's own site carries both names together, titled the official site of 株式会社スケナリ with 佑成 named as a registered trademark. 佑成 is the house mark that appears on the blades.

So one house answers to both names: Sukenari is the company, 株式会社スケナリ, working from Fuchu machi in Toyama City, and 佑成 is its mark on the steel.

Yes. Sukenari says its knives are made by craftsmen by hand, one at a time, at its workshop in Fuchu machi, Toyama City.

The Sukenari lines we stock carry the workshop name in their titles.

The workshop says the 佑 of its registered mark 佑成 (read Sukenari) is written with the person radical and 右, right, and that the character carries the wish for its tools to become the cook's indispensable right arm.

The company's own site title reads 登録商標 佑成 (registered trademark), and 佑成 is the house mark on its blades.