Tank is the first shape from Tinker. It’s a cross between a mega-sized bunka and a Chinese cleaver. All Tank knives are hand hammered by Ikeda-san and are named after him. Ikeda-san is a tank of a man who plays rugby after his days in the forge. I’ve often called him the strongest man in Japan.

Using Aogami Super steel clad with stainless steel cladding, Tank strikes a great balance between high performance and low maintenance. The blade is left black, as a home forging blacksmith tinkerer might do, but spine and choil are mirror polished to add some refinement. It looks really cool.

*Handle may vary from shipment to shipment. The first photo shown is handle we've gotten on the last two shipments.

About Shibata Tinker knives: Tinker is Shibata-san’s newest knife company/adventure. He enjoys exploring fun ideas and has experience making them a reality—as seen by the success of his previous ventures Masakage Knives and Kotetsu.

Shibata-san loves the name Tinker in the way that it means to make something in an amateurish or rustic fashion. He wants the knives to look like this—but with a certain grace as well. This is his brand for fun experiments, for tinkering.

Tinker will not make entire lines of knives but individual knives in new/experimental shapes previously unexplored. All of the knives will be limited edition. In the last 7 months, they have made only 25 knives in three batches (10, 8 and 7 knives). He plans to make a few knives every month moving forward. They will always be hand-hammered, hand-finished, and hand sharpened like his other brands -