Nimai(Two Piece) is the Japan's traditional approach to the kitchen knife making, this construction method is typically found on knives with native Japanese origins like Yanagiba, Deba and Usuba. When constructing a Nimai knife, a piece of soft cladding metal will be placed onto a core steel, the two pieces of metal are then forgewelded and shaped into the knife.
The Nimai knives are usually sharpened in single-bevel fashion, with hardened core steel exposed on the flat/hollow-ground side and soft cladding warping over the other side and over the spin. The soft cladding offers support for the harder yet more brittle core steel so the knife can have a thin, sharp edge while have some overall strength. Since the single bevel Japanese knives usually don't have a secondary bevel, the combination of soft cladding and hollow-grind have made the sharpening process easier than Monosteel and Honyaki knives.
Knifemaker in Japan have been encoporating newer features into their products, including the more traditional Nimai knives, damascus pattern and stainless steel were two of them. With the core steel completely exposed on the hollow-ground side, the stainless cladding cannot protect the core from rusting like it does on Sanmai construction, this lead to the combination of stainless core steel and stainless cladding. With addition of damascus pattern, the Nimai knives with traditional design have never been this attractive and approachable.
