Yoshikazu Ikeda Honyaki

Mizu honyaki (水本焼) is water-quenched honyaki, and Yoshikazu Ikeda's own page says it is one of the professional Japanese knives he mainly makes. The Ikeda honyaki we list under titles that say Mizu-Honyaki are water-quenched.

On hardening, Ikeda says on the City of Sakai film site that the fire's temperature is everything and that he judges it by the colour of the flame. Honyaki can run about 1 to 2 HRC harder than comparable non-honyaki knives, and how much varies by maker.

Yoshikazu Ikeda (池田美和) of Ikeda Tanrenjo (池田鍛錬所) in Sakai, who began making knives under his father, a blacksmith, in 1967 and went independent as Ikeda Tanrenjo in 1983.

The City of Sakai's register lists him under forging (鍛冶), certified in 1988.