Yoshimi Kato SG2 Minamo

The Minamo is the latest offering from master Yoshimi Kato from Kintaro Hamono of Takefu Knife Village. The Minamo line is forged with the SG2 powdered steel that is very fine, sharp and has great edge retention.

The elegant hammered "Minamo" pattern is inspired by the summer Thunderstorm, and the way they lines up along the blade forms patterns looks like ancient coins. As master Kato has been working with Master Kurosaki for a very long period of time, and their knives are highly similar in terms of design and performance: super thin behind the edge, with a great OOTB edge and excellent food penetration, on top of that, they often put very unique patterns that differentiate their knives from other lineups, just like how this Minamo line does.

Like any other knives made by Yoshimi Kato, these blades are thin and nimble in hands, while retaining that excellent trait, the line bring some shiny appearance along with good performance. Considering the level of finish, artistic value and the SG2 core steel, I believe the pricing for this line is actually very good, thus I would bring it out for anyone who is after a SG2 knife.