Okeya 150 mm Utility Gin-3

Okeya is a small forge located in Miki-City, Japan. Originally specialized more in forging 'Kogatana' knives, which are small handy multipurpose knives, but over recent years have started to move further into kitchen knives.

These knives are built in 3 layers with Gin-3 as core steel, surrounded by a stainless cladding. They are then finished with a beautiful tsuchime finish (hammer blow) on the top of the blade, which meets a nice wide bevel grind that tapers nicely, down towards the edge.

Gin-3 can almost be called a stainless 'carbon steel' type. It has exactly 13% Chromium in it, which is the dividing line between stainless bearings and carbon steel bearings, i.e. they get many of the same properties as carbon steel, such as, for example, it is easy to grind and has a really good biting edge, but without it rusting.

The knife here is a so-called utility knife of 15 cm. After the chef's knife, it is probably the most universal knife of the common types, and can also replace a chef's knife in many ways. It is not quite as tall as a chef's knife and is also shorter, making it very easy to handle. It can be used for slicing vegetables and cutting smaller pieces of meat - and it is fantastically good for trimming meat as well as finer cutting tasks in fruit and vegetables.

The knife must never be washed in a dishwasher, must not cut into hard objects such as bones, cartilage, bones and frozen objects as well as hard cheeses. Remember that it is a property of thin, hard metal that it can break.