Authentically Japanese in design, each knife features 101 layers of steel—50 layers clad on each side of the Cryodur-hardened SG2 microcarbide steel core—forming a delicate Damascus pattern with a Rockwell hardness of 63. Each blade in the Birchwood collection is hand-honed using a traditional three-step honbazuke process, and it’s sharpened twice on whetstones with custom grits to achieve a razor-sharp edge.