Blue Steel #2, with Hou and water baffalo horn ferrule handle. Sharpened by Mizuochi-san himself. A great daily usage knife. Easier to sharpen and lasts longer.

You might have read in various websites that Blue Steel don't get as sharp as White Steel, but unless you have both a ve~~~ry good sharpening skill and a ve~ry fine natural stone, I can comfortably bet that no one can tell the difference blind folded. I can assure you it will be sharp enough.

These knives were made for Kiya by a friend (Hoshino-san) of Mizuochi-san. Kiya is the most famous knife brand in Japan, renouned for their high quality knives made by various blacksmiths. For instance, Shigefusa still make knives for Kiya, and a very famous blacksmith Shirataka Yukinori who was appointed (by the super famous master temple builder, Nishioka-san) to make every single Japanese nails when Houryu-ji temple's main tower was restored, has made knives for Kiya as well.

These were made intended to be sold as this famous knife brand, but some were kept for selling to the locals, thus doesn't have the Kiya stamp = cheaper.

Since Mizuochi-san can't make any knives anymore (because of the limited size of the forge downsized to focus on razors), he asked his above mentioned friend in Shikoku who Mizuochi-san can trust to forge a knife for him long time ago to supply the local demands, and has recently fixed the minor warp and polished it to his standard. Oh, incidentally, Mizuochi-san's friend, Hoshino-san, was an apprentice of Shirataka-san's father. Hoshino-san and Shirataka-san are both from Shikoku and have both worked for Kiya.

These are very good knives for daily use, because they are in black finish. Polished style knives require lots of attention (not to keep it wet for extended period of time, etc.) to not to have patina(stain), so if you are looking into getting two knives, maybe one polished style for special occasion, and one black finish for daily heavy duty usage might make sense. Since Nakkiri is focused on veges, maybe Santoku will be better according to this strategy(^^) Some people seem to be worried that the black oxide will come off and contaminate the food, but that is really not the case. Black oxide protects the steel from further rusting, so it is less contaminating than the polish finished knives where the rust will affect the taste and the presentation of the food if you are not careful.

What is good about these knives, are that they are fairly old (was made a while ago. Iwasaki factory cannot make knives anymore, because their forge was downsized to focus on razor making, which they are known for) so it has been aged, becoming harder and tougher. Also that it can be delivered right away. And there's the rarity aspect as well, because these are no longer made.