Clair-Obscur Etude N° 7
I got contacted by Mrs G who wanted a very special Gyuto for her husband´s 50. birthday.
Together we chose the materials and size for the knife.
It was commissionned at the end of February 2026 and completed at the beginning of April 2026.
the dimensions are:
Blade 240x58mm
Handle 130mm
Mrs G asked me to insert a silver medaillon into the handle pommel with her husband´s initials: HG.
I decided to forge the blade in sanmai composite damascus with UHC+tungsten core and a softer jacket.
The core is firewelded and forged of about 100 layers of:
145sc, TWR, 1.2008, 1.2519 and 75ni8, whereby the 75ni8 layers were added after the first firewelding had been performed in a 1to 10mm proportion in thickness, to preserve the ultra high carbon content.
Two tungsten alloyed toolsteels were used and two carbon steels to ensure that some tungsten would be in the mix for performance and two carbon steels for ultra high carbon content.
75ni8 nickelsteel for contrast only.
The jacket is supposed to protect the core from breaking and also there to help me forge thinner blades with specific geometries.
It is made of:
S700, 75ni8, pure iron, 1.2002 and 1.2842 with 600 layers.
I went for a pattern that would match the western Myall that we chose for the handle material.
western Myall of this quality is pretty rare. I tried to use the yellow splint of it to frame the saya.
A view from the heel to show how thin the blade is, and the special geometry that I forged in.
The name Vendredi 13, because I forged the blade on this day in March 2026.