Fleur de Lys Nickel San-Mai Nakiri-4 125mm (Blade Only)

SPECIFICATIONS

Knife Style: Nakiri
Steel Type: Carbon Steel
Blade Material: 80crv2
Blade Finish: 410 Stainless with Nickel San-Mai
Blade Hardness: 62HRC (+/-1)
Bevel: Double
Handle: None ➛ Choose yours
Blade Length: 125mm

Forged in Québec. Built by hand. Made only once.

The Fleur de Lys Collection is a celebration of Québec bladesmithing at its most hands-on—a collaboration between Kakushin, Noah Vachon, and Jérémie Yelle created for cooks and collectors who appreciate Japanese-inspired geometry, purposeful performance, and the character that can only come from a truly handmade knife.

This version of Fleur de Lys is built around a striking San-Mai construction, combining an 80CrV2 high-carbon steel core with outer layers of 410 stainless steel, separated by pure nickel.

At the center of the blade, 80CrV2 forms the working edge. Valued for its toughness, fine edge potential, and approachable sharpening characteristics, it is a performance-focused carbon steel chosen for a knife intended to work hard in the kitchen while still delivering a refined cutting feel.

Surrounding that core, 410 stainless steel forms the outer cladding, reducing the amount of reactive carbon steel exposed across the blade face. Between the core and cladding, pure nickel creates a bright visual transition that clearly reveals the handmade San-Mai construction and gives each blade its own distinctive character.

The result brings together the best qualities of both materials: the responsive cutting performance and personality of a carbon steel edge with the added practicality of stainless cladding.

Every blade is individually forge-welded, shaped, ground, heat treated, polished, and finished by hand in Québec. Slight differences in the cladding line, nickel transition, grind, texture, and overall appearance are part of the process. These are not knives built around perfect repetition—each one carries visible evidence of the hands that made it.

Inspired by traditional Japanese kitchen knives, Fleur de Lys combines thin cutting geometry, carefully considered profiles, refined tapers, and precise edge performance with a distinctly Québec approach to bladesmithing.

This particular piece is Model No. 4, a one-of-a-kind 125mm Nakiri.

At 125mm, this Nakiri offers a compact but noticeably more substantial interpretation of the traditional Japanese vegetable knife. It keeps the quick, controlled feel of a shorter blade while providing a little more cutting edge for everyday board work.

Its broad rectangular profile gives the knife excellent stability and control, while the relatively flat edge promotes clean contact with the cutting board for push cutting, chopping, and repetitive vegetable prep. The added blade length makes it especially practical for herbs, fruit, shallots, onions, smaller vegetables, and other daily ingredients.

The 125mm format sits in a particularly interesting middle ground. It remains shorter and more maneuverable than a traditional full-size Nakiri, but feels less specialized than the ultra-compact versions in the collection. For cooks who appreciate smaller knives but still want enough blade to comfortably handle meaningful prep, Model No. 4 offers an excellent balance.

Its compact proportions also allow the nickel San-Mai transition to become a strong part of the knife’s visual identity, highlighting the contrast between the 80CrV2 carbon core and 410 stainless cladding.

This knife is offered blade-only, leaving the final character of the piece in the hands of its future owner. Choose a handle from Kakushin’s available inventory and the knife will be professionally assembled, balanced, sharpened, and finished in our workshop.

Because the exposed 80CrV2 cutting edge remains carbon steel, it will naturally react to moisture, acidity, and use, gradually developing a patina unique to its owner. The stainless cladding makes maintenance more forgiving across most of the blade face, but the exposed edge should still be kept clean and dry after use.

Fleur de Lys is about the work hidden inside the finished blade—the forge welding, shaping, grinding, heat treatment, and countless decisions made by hand along the way.

Kakushin can handle the blade-to-handle assembly for you at our shop. If you're new to the custom knife world and want to confirm the fit and sizing of a handle with a specific blade, feel free to reach out!