About Shoichi Hashimoto⁠ - He is known as the best Damascus knife artist in Japan and he started making kitchen knives about 3 years ago. He quickly learned the essential properties of kitchen knife making (thickness, grind, taper), and incorporated them into his beautiful Damascus art. He uses many different types of steels for his masterpieces, and like many Japanese knives, they are also sanmai (three-layer clad), but each layer is already layered steel. Crazy, right?

The outer layer, or "Jigane", is made with Nantetsu soft steel and a variety of other soft steels (i.e. SK3), then folded over and over. The "core" steel is made with white 2 and blue 2 Damascus, for an absolutely stunning cutting edge. This is a very unique piece of art that no other knife can compare to.⁠