Tank is the first shape from Tinker. It’s a cross between a mega-sized bunka and a Chinese cleaver. All Tank knives are hand hammered by Ikeda-san and are named after him. Ikeda-san is a tank of a man who plays rugby after his days in the forge. I’ve often called him the strongest man in Japan.

Using Aogami Super steel clad with stainless steel cladding, Tank strikes a great balance between high performance and low maintenance. The blade is left black, as a home forging blacksmith tinkerer might do, but spine and choil are mirror polished to add some refinement. It looksreally cool.

Knife Shape Mega Bunka Blade Length 180mm Steel Type Aogami Super (Super Blue carbon) Steel clad with Stainless Steel Rockwell Hardness 63:64 Handle Wa (Japanese) Handle, Octagon wood handle with red Pakka wood collar* Blacksmith Shibata San & Ikeda San

*Handle may vary from shipment to shipment. The first photo shown is handle we've gotten on the last two shipments.

About Shibata Tinker knives: Tinker is Shibata-san’s newest knife company/adventure. He enjoys exploring fun ideas and has experience making them a reality—as seen by the success of his previous ventures Masakage Knives and Kotetsu.

Shibata-san loves the name Tinker in the way that it means to make something in an amateurish or rustic fashion. He wants the knives to look like this—but with a certain grace as well. This is his brand for fun experiments, for tinkering.

Tinker will not make entire lines of knives but individual knives in new/experimental shapes previously unexplored. All of the knives will be limited edition. In the last 7 months, they have made only 25 knives in three batches (10, 8 and 7 knives). He plans to make a few knives every month moving forward. They will always be hand-hammered, hand-finished, and hand sharpened like his other brands - Read more.