Buckthorn Beam Gyuto 276mm

The challenge of creating a top-performing gyuto drives Milan Gravier to produce his best work like few things can: balance, profile, taper, geometry that evolvesthrough the length of the blade, and that feel in the hand present when only all elements align, come together to form a culinary tool that is so much more than the sum of its parts. For his first offering in our collection, an extraordinary chef’s knife rises, forged by hand at Milan’s studio in southern France from homemade, damascus-clad 135Cr3 carbon steel. The twisted damascus cladding has been stretched through power and fire and coated selectively with iron oxide to produce a dynamic, kurouchi finish through which the viewer may experience the beauty of each material as though viewing it with different lenses at different points throughout the blade. Thin at the edge and convex above, balancing finesse and strength superbly, the bevels are both shaped and polished using some of the finest Japanese natural stones from the Nakayama mine. As the blade is forged to shape by hand, the shinogi, or line separating bevels from flats, is by design not perfectly straight, Milan instead prioritizing the shape of the bevels themselves, ensuring an evenness that allows the stones to fully contact every portion of the surface. Extrapolating time into the future, this also means that as the edge is sharpened, the same geometry will remain at every point. At 276mm / 10.9″ long with a 55mm tall heel, rounded, polished spine and choil, and full-distal taper to a fine, needle-like tip, there is nothing this cutting tool cannot accomplish. A special handle has been crafted with which to wield this special object; found and dried locally, Milan has selected a rare, local, and dense wood, carved into an elegant, shield-style wa handle: buckthorn, with its stunning reds, oranges, and grain. A contoured, darkened stainless steel ferule completes the build.