Hatsukokoro's Ginyo(銀葉, silver leaf) line is forged by Yoshihiro Yauji, a relatively young bladesmith who acquired the Traditional Craftsman Certificate in 2019. His personal style is well reflected on this line: dazzling damascus pattern, solid fit and finish and a grind that packs performance.
The Ginyo is has a Ginsan stainless core steel and stainless damascus cladding. The pattern on this cladding is very dense, covering up almost the entirety of the blade and leaves very little core steel exposed. Combining with the Migaki finish, the blade gets a metallic grey look from afar, with some of the blades having a wide than usual profile, they indeed like leaves made of silver.
Just like the leaf reveal its veins upon close inspection, the Ginyo shows more details when you pick them up for a closer look. Not only the damascus pattern is beautiful to look at, the choil and spine, although having no visible rounding, are well polished, the Migaki finish is very fine with only light grind marks can be seen, and finally, the bevel is done in a convex grind, which greatly enhances the strength of the cutting edge and reduces food sticking and resistance when cutting something thick.
The Ginsan steel that the line receives is a high carbon stainless steel, it is surprisingly easy to sharpen and does have a performance on par with VG10. Although when picking these kinves up, the thick spine and extra material left from convex grind will leave an impression of the blade bring too thick to cut well, but the blade geomety does seems to do the user a favour and indeed make food penetration easier. The grind on this line will be categorized as a workhorse due to this thickness and strength, but I believe this doesn't necessarily means these knives don't cut well.
If you enjoy the benefits that the Ginsan offers and looking for a series with good performance, this Ginyo line should be something that you keep on the list.
By
Yoshihiro Yauji