Petty - Aibocho - Ginsan Damascus

Aibocho (藍包丁) means literally "indigo knife" and represents two distinct Japanese craft traditions - Sakai's six centuries of blade-making and Tokushima's ancient indigo dyeing practices. This special edition all-purpose kitchen knife is both practical and beautiful.

Two crafts combined

Indigo (ai, 藍) has been woven into Japanese daily life for centuries - worn as workwear for its perceived antibacterial and insect-repellent properties, used to dress wounds, brewed as medicinal tea. The light-to-dark gradient on the Aibocho handle is the same indigo used for clothes dyeing in Tokushima, applied here to Hiba wood and sealed with a food-safe waterproof coating that prevents bleed. 

The blade comes from Sakai, Osaka - one of Japan's foremost cutlery production centres, with a tradition of professional knife-making stretching back over 600 years, supplying the country's professional kitchens and cooking schools. The craftsman responsible for the Aibocho blades has spent a career making knives for chefs and culinary institutions.

Ginsan Damascus

The Ginsan Damascus series showcases serious steel pedigree and blade pattern. The core steel is Ginsan (銀三, Gingami No.3) - a high-carbon stainless steel produced by Hitachi Metals, from the famous Yasugi steel district of Shimane Prefecture. With a carbon content of approximately 1%, Ginsan sits at the boundary between stainless and carbon steel in its behaviour: it takes an edge with the responsiveness of white paper steel, sharpens readily on a whetstone, and holds that edge with precision, while remaining stainless and rust-resistant in everyday use. It is the steel of choice for high-end Japanese knives where both performance and low maintenance are required.

The Ginsan core is layered with additional steel to produce the Damascus construction: a flowing, cloud-like pattern across the blade face that is the visual record of the lamination process. No two blades are identical - each Damascus pattern is unique to that knife.

Petty Knife

The indigo and forging craft traditions are applied here to a petty (peti, from the French petit). It is a short, nimble utility knife, that does what other knives cannot. Peeling, trimming, segmenting citrus, halving cherry tomatoes, preparing herbs: tasks that require control over a small area rather than reach. A good petty knife complements bigger knives, used constantly alongside the santoku or gyuto for the work that demands a shorter blade. The Aibocho petty carries the same damascus patterning as its bigger companions in the range.

Specifications

• Steel: Ginsan high-carbon stainless core, Damascus layered construction
• Blade length: 15cm
• Grind: Double bevel (suitable for both hands)
• Handle: Hiba wood (hibaki, Japanese cedar relative), indigo-dyed, food-safe waterproof coating
• Origin: Made in Japan - blade from Sakai, Osaka; handle from Tokushima

Care instructions

Hand wash with mild neutral detergent, rinse, and dry immediately. Do not use a dishwasher. Do not twist the blade, or cut hard or frozen foods - the blade may chip. Do not expose the blade to open flame. The waterproof coating on the handle is durable but may flake under heavy impact - treat the handle with care. Minor variation in grain and indigo tone between individual knives is natural.

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EDIT JAPAN was founded in 2015 by Akiyuki Sakamoto in Saitama, Japan, beginning online sales of Japanese knives in 2016. In 2017 the studio launched its first original brand - 藍包丁 (Aibocho, the Indigo Knife) - a craftsman collaboration combining the blade-making tradition of Sakai, Osaka with the indigo-dyeing craft of Tokushima. The Aibocho is built on a simple premise: that a knife can carry the heritage of two entirely different regional traditions simultaneously, and that doing so creates something more than either could achieve alone. The series has been featured on Japanese television and in design media, and the indigo-dyed handle series has at times carried a two-year waiting list. Edit Japan continues to develop new collaborations across Japanese craft traditions.