Santoku • 165mm • VG-10 • Western pakka wood handle • For left- and right-handed use

Features of Takayuki Sumire series 

With a slightly forward balance point, the Sumire series offers excellent control and precision for delicate cutting tasks. The knife is slim and lightweight, making it comfortable to hold and easy to handle.

The blade consists of a VG10 steel core, clad in two softer layers. The polished finish gives the knife a clean, understated look. The black pakkawood handle is comfortably shaped and highly durable.

A great choice for both professional chefs and enthusiastic home cooks looking for a refined, versatile knife for everyday use.

VG10 – Takefu – Steel

Very Gold 10, better known as VG10, is one of the most common steel types on today’s knife market. The steel is produced by Takefu Special Steel in Echizen, Japan. VG10 is popular with both knifemakers and users thanks to its well-balanced combination of performance and ease of use.

It is a stainless steel with a high carbon content, alloyed with elements such as chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, and cobalt. Chromium provides corrosion resistance, while vanadium contributes to wear resistance during intensive use.

Although VG10 is widely used, there are clear differences in quality and performance. During the production process, various techniques can be applied to make the steel harder and refine its structure. Factors such as additional ingredients, the hardening process, and heat treatment all play an important role. In addition, the knowledge and skill of the knifemaker during the grinding process are crucial for the knife’s final sharpness and cutting performance.

At Slijperij Rangelrooij, we are big fans of VG10 steel. It can be brought to a very high level of sharpness and retains that sharpness for a long time. Despite the wide availability of VG10, we always pay close attention to blade geometry as well. Both aspects are extremely important and can strongly enhance each other—something our makers clearly distinguish themselves with compared to others.

Elwin de Veld about the knives of Sakai Takayuki

We usually start our trips to Japan in Osaka, from where we take a Shinkansen ( a bullet train) to Seki, in Gifu prefecture. We start in Sakai, in south of Osaka, where we always recieve a warm friendly welcome from Aoki san and Ogawa san from Sakai Takayuki. In recent years the customers in our shop have been asking for special Japanese traditionally forged knives: Yanagiba, Sakimura, Kengata: all the names of models which are used in Japanese kitchens for preparing various sorts of fish. Sakai Takayuki is my key which opens the door to the world of traditional Japanese knives and to top it all, their product range is targeted for the western market. For making of the traditional Japanese knives Sakai Takayuki employs the best of the best: Itsuo Doi and Kenji Togashi, among others. The blacksmith Yamatsuke san, with his stable hand on the Kaiten Toshi (Japanese water stone), is a guarantor of an exceptionally sharp finish. Sakai Takayuki buys lots of their steel from the Aichi steel (their headquarters are situated close to Nagoya) and works among other with carbon steel shirogami white and aogami blue. A nice detail: the colours in the names of the steel have nothing to do with the colour of the steel itself- it's just the colour of the packing in which the raw steel is being stored in the factory. The western models are manually finished at the company's quarters in Osaka (sharpening), but largely manufactured in Seki, in Gifu prefecture. The finish and the quality is sublime- just what we can expect from Takayuki.