Miyabi Birchwood SG2 Santoku Knife Review

Miyabi Birchwood SG2 Santoku Knife Features

The Miyabi Birchwood SG2 Santoku knife is made in Seki Japan. The Miyabi knives are a Zwilling J.A. Henckels brand which incorporates Japanese knife making tradition with high end German engineering. This mixture of tradition and high end engineering give the knives qualities from the best of both worlds. The SG2 Birchwood line is most Japanese oriented then all other Miyabi knives and this can be seen throughout their design. From blade to handle the Miyabi SG2 Santoku is one of the best Japanese santoku knives that can be bought worldwide.

Miyabi Birchwood SG2 Santoku Knife Blade

The Mitabi Santoku knife blade core is made out of the special micro carbide MC63 powdered steel. This type of steel is specially produced for the Birchwood line of Miyabi knives. The micro carbide MC63 powdered steel is a very hard steel that is not brittle. But in order to create a great blade Miyabi has covered this steel core in 101 layers of soft and hard steel in order to create a beautiful Damascus flower pattern. The layers of steel in combination with the hard core make for blade that has a very high edge retention. Thus your blade’s edge will last for a very long time and you don’t need to constantly sharpen your knife.

To complete this super steel the santoku knife is being hardened through the Zwilling J.A. Henckels CRYODUR technique. This is a special technique in which the blades are heated up in a vacuum sealed oven, then cooled down to room temperature before the blades are frozen at -321 Fahrenheit. This process ensures the the santoku blade’s edge reaches 63 HRC (Rockwell scale) while still being flexible. The freezing process removes stress from the blade in order to remove the danger of it becoming hard but brittle.

Miyabi Birchwood SG2 Santoku Knife Handle

The handles of the Miyabi SG2 santoku knives are also special. They are crafted out of Karelian Masur Birchwood. The damascus pattern on the blade works perfectly with the unique lines on the knives wood handle. This is a highly priced wood because of the rarity of the irregular lines in the birch. These lines are found in just a few logs in hundreds. The Karelian Masur Birch is mostly found in Finland and Russia where it is highly priced and used for knife handles and decorative art.

The Santoku is a Japanese kitchen knife used for general purposes. It is a great knife for mincing, slicing and dicing. The blades you find have a length between 5 and 8 inches. They are lighter, shorter and thinner than a Western chef knife. Also, the Santoku has a sheep’s foot design thus a flat edge. Because of this it is best used for up and down cutting techniques. But you can also find types of rocking santokus that have a rounded edge to the tip thus easier to be used for rockchopping. The Birchwood SG2 Santoku knife comes in only one size and namely 7 inches.

The Miyabi SG2 santoku knife comes with a lifetime manufacturer warranty.

Pros of the Miyabi Birchwood Santoku.

• MC63 Micro Carbide Powdered Steel Core
• Hardened at 63 HRC
• 101 Layers of Damascus Steel
• CRYODUR Blade Hardening Frozen at -321 Fahrenheit
• Karelian Masur Birch Wood handle
• Japanese 3-step Honbazuke hand Sharpening
• Mosaic Pin and Stainless Steel End Cap

Cons of the Miyabi Birchwood Santoku.

• The knives are on the pricey side
• There is only one size Santoku

The Birchwood line is one of the top product lines from the Miyabi brand. Thus before you buy make sure you check out the entire Miyabi Birchwood product line.