GINSU Hanaita Series Damascus Stainless Steel 8-Inch Bread Knife

Over 2,400 years ago, the art of forging Damascus knives as we know it today began with the Wootz technology from India. The Damascus technology centers around using different metals heated in a forge, until hot enough to be hammered together into a single piece of material, a process also known as forge welding. This welding process was repeated multiple times to fashion the layers in a large piece of material, with the number of layers varying from a few to thousands. The ancient smiths' only problem with this layering process was the difficulty in controlling it by hand, as blades would break apart at their forge welds if not properly done. In the following centuries, the process was further refined by wrapping the materials together during the forge welding. Twisting the blank together with the next layer of hot metal as it was hammered added quality to the blade, and was the secret to its ability to hold an edge and have the elasticity to prevent snapping off under extreme use.

Ginsu Damascus material is made by hot rolling multiple sheets of different grades of stainless steel together and hammering (forge welding) them together in large machines, instead of by hand. Every Ginsu Damascus blade is comprised of 33 layers of stainless steel materials. The core of the blade is made of high carbon, very hard Japanese VG-1 stainless steel. The VG-1 stainless steel core is overlaid in the forming process with alternating layers of Japanese high carbon 420 and low carbon 430 stainless steels. Each knife blade is then cut from this Damascus stainless steel sheet. The blades are then sharpened to a wickedly razor-sharp Asian knife edge angle of 10°, ensuring that every blade is wicked sharp right out of the box. Each blade is then cryogenically cooled in a proprietary process that uses liquid nitrogen to draw the molecules of the steel closer together for ultimate edge retention.

Hanaita Damascus Blades are made with 33 layers of alternating high and low carbon Japanese stainless steel, forged together and sharpened to an extreme 10-degree Asian knife angle. The blades are cryogenically cooled with liquid nitrogen for ultimate edge retention by aligning molecules, creating one of the sharpest, strongest knives in the world. These knives are hand wash only and come with a limited lifetime warranty.

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