The Higonokami is a type of traditional friction folder, usually carried by workers of all kinds to perform delicate tasks that require sharpness and precision over strength, for its intended purpose, it forms an excellent pair with other traditional farming or logging tools like Nata. By now, they are still widely adopted for works like sharpening a pencil and are popular as small gifts that are characterful and functional.
The most classic Higonokami is produced by Nagao Kanekoma Factory(永尾かね駒), with their name proudly engrave on the handle: 登録商標(Registered Trademark) 肥後守(Higonokami, name of the knife) 定駒(Defined/designed by Kanekoma). They insist the use of traditional technique Warikomi - a method of manually split soft iron to clad a hard steel in the middle - to produce these knives. This is the same method commonly used for Katana forging to produce a blade that have good overall strength and good edge retention that is also easy to sharpen.
The scales and the knife blade are pinned together by a rivet, which the blade pivots around, then friction created by the rivet between the scale and blade holds the blade from deploying when it is carried. This ancient form of knife was widely utilized way before the invention of ball bearings, and it is a very easy to own item due to the lack of a locking mechanism, which made it unregulated in many places.
This VG10 version of the Higonokami utilized full-stainless Sanmai billets for the blade and stainless steel sheet for the scale, completely eliminate the problem you'd found on traditional carbon steel-brass Higonokami. Although comes at a noticeably higher price, this is a very practical option for those who like this form, the low maintenance nature also make it worry-free as a gift as you friend won't find their beloved knife rusting 3 months later.
By
Nagao Kanekoma Factory
