The Story of the Chopper

Two friends asked me that they want a chopper by their design.
They wanted it to hack chicken bones and pork ribs.
I answered that for a chopper a special custom order would be too expensive and if you want a Japanese knife its better to buy a nata. For those who do not know what a nata is here is a link to google picture search. nata
Chefs of Ramen shops use this knife to hack bones for the ramen soup in Japan.

But my friend insisted to have a chopper like this:

With permission from Stefan

I asked Yoshikane Hamono if they can make one and the answer was if it is a order of 3 he would like to make it. To make the budget as low as possible for a special order we agreed to make it Kurouchi finish and warikomi with the cheapest carbon steel Yoshikane had.

My friends succeeded to get a third person who wanted it too and I put the order on February 28th. 

On March 25th. I got these pictures from Yoshida san as a sample:

My friends where excited that Yoshida san made a chopper like the sketch.

It took till April 8th till I got the 3 choppers ready from Yoshikane Hamono.

Here are the photos:

On April 15th. I visited Yoshikane Hamono and asked how Yoshida san made these choppers.

He took a chalk and draw with it on a table in his workshop and explained that there are two ways to make warikomi. Most are made like the drawing below by splitting the soft steel and have the hard steel put between it. But for this chopper I made it like the drawing above. By this method you can have more hard steel in the knife.

And he said with smile "I used SK4 for the sample but White Paper for the 3 choppers I send you."

I asked where he has the SK4 chopper and he answered that when he makes special kitchen knife he has one sample in his collection.

So now there are 4 choppers of this kind in the world. Two in Denmark, one in USA and one at Yoshikane Hamono.

You can read posts and blogs of my friends here: 

My new knifes

Soon to be my meat chopper

My new knives (blog)

This was done before I opened my business here with my friends.

I am now open to take special orders (special order means kitchen knives Yoshida san did not made before) for Yoshikane Hamono but it must be in lot of three because Yoshida san will make sample first.

A chopper similar to this  can be custom ordered by one.