Choosing a steel is really choosing how you want to look after your knife. Carbon steels (Shirogami, Aogami) take the keenest edge and are the easiest to sharpen, but must be wiped dry after use. Stainless steels (Ginsan, VG10, SG2) are easy to care for, and the best are just as sharp. Either way, you can't go wrong.
Carbon steel: Shirogami and Aogami
Shirogami (White paper steel) and Aogami (Blue paper steel) take their names from the colour of the paper the bars were wrapped in.
- Shirogami (White): a very pure carbon steel that takes an extremely sharp edge and is the easiest to sharpen. #1 has the most carbon and is the hardest; #2 is the most common; #3 is tougher and the easiest to sharpen.
- Aogami (Blue): Shirogami with added chromium and tungsten, for better edge retention and durability. Slightly more effort to sharpen.
- Aogami Super: more carbon, plus molybdenum and vanadium – the hardest and longest-lasting edge among these carbon steels.
Carbon steel will rust, and the blade can discolour after acidic food. Wash and dry it straight after use and it builds a grey-black patina that actually helps protect it.
Stainless steel: Ginsan, VG10 and SG2
- Ginsan (Silver #3): a fine-grained stainless that sharpens much like carbon steel; common in stainless yanagiba and santoku.
- VG10: a stainless steel with cobalt and vanadium, around HRC 60–61. Sharp and rust-resistant, and one of the most widely used Japanese stainless steels.
- SG2 (also known as R2): a powdered stainless steel, around HRC 62–64, with excellent edge retention and easy care.
We also stock knives in other specialist steels, including the powdered high-speed steels HAP40, ZDP189 and SRS13, and the semi-stainless tool steel SLD.
At a glance
| Steel | Type | Sharpness | Edge retention | Ease of sharpening | Rust | From our range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shirogami | Carbon | Very high | Medium | Easiest | Wipe dry | Munetoshi x Turumaki Kouiti, Masaki Naoki |
| Aogami | Carbon | High | High | Easy | Wipe dry | Tadafusa, Kajibee x Ishikawa |
| Aogami Super | Carbon | High | Very high | Medium | Wipe dry | Masakage |
| Ginsan | Stainless | High | Medium | Easy | Easy care | Sakai Takayuki x Yamatsuka, Tadokoro Makoto |
| VG10 | Stainless | High | Medium–high | Medium | Easy care | Sakai Takayuki VG10 Nashiji, Kurokage |
| SG2 | Stainless (powdered) | High | Very high | More effort | Easy care | Kotetsu x Shibata Takayuki, Takamura, Tanaka Shigeki |
Beyond the core steel: construction and finish
- San-mai: a hard steel core clad in soft iron or stainless steel. With stainless cladding, only the edge needs protecting from rust – for example the Fujiwara Teruyasu and Sanjo Yoshimune stainless-clad Shirogami knives.
- Honyaki: the whole knife is forged from a single carbon steel, then differentially hardened with a clay coating and a quench, which leaves a visible hamon. Difficult to make and produced in small numbers – for example work by Nakagawa Satoshi, Togashi Kenji and Yamamoto Sukenaga.
- Kurouchi, tsuchime, nashiji, suminagashi and Damascus are blade finishes. They change the look and how much food sticks, not the steel at the edge.
Which should you choose?
- First knife, no rust worries → VG10, SG2 or Ginsan.
- The keenest edge, and you'd like to learn to sharpen → Shirogami #2.
- A long-lasting edge with the feel of carbon steel → Aogami or Aogami Super.
Browse by type in Gyuto or Santoku, or start with How to choose your first Japanese knife.