The man behind Daruma Hamono: Aki Furukawa visits Binlin Knife Store
It isn’t every week that the bladesmith behind one of the knife brands we carry walks through the door. Earlier this month, Aki Furukawa, the craftsman behind Daruma Hamono visited Binlin Knife Store in Singapore. He shared with us his story and passion for knives, and why the blades he is making out of Hirosaki, Aomori is one of its kind.
Daruma Hamono is one of the few emerging Japanese knife brands carrying genuine Hirosaki provenance, and Binlin Knife Store is the first to stock his full range of knives in the region.
If you are looking for a quality knife with high precision, ease-of-sharpening, and the price ceiling of an emerging maker rather than an established one, this is the one for you.
Browse Aki Furukawa's collection →
Who is Aki Furukawa?
Akihiro Furukawa (古川晃裕) is one of the rising young craftsmen associated with the Nigara school of forging in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture.
His introduction to Japanese knives came in Tokyo, where he managed a specialist knife store in the city’s storied Kappabashi cutlery district, the world’s most concentrated cluster of Japanese knife retailers.
Day after day, he stocked, sold and explained the knives that working chefs from across Japan came in to buy. The experience taught valuable lessons required to eventually start his own brand.
In 2023, he moved to Hirosaki to learn forging at Nigara Hamono. the 350-year-old, eighth-generation smithy whose lineage runs back to swordsmiths for the Tsugaru clan in the early Edo period. Under that roof he has been researching and developing his own line, working in the Nigara style of forging while finding a geometry and finish that is recognisably his.
Hirosaki's forging tradition
To understand why a young maker training in Hirosaki is worth paying attention to, it helps to know where Hirosaki is an its history in blade-making.
Hirosaki sits in northern Aomori Prefecture, at the head of the Tsugaru region. Its smithing tradition is older than most of the more famous Japanese knife cities — older than Seki, older than Sakai’s modern cutlery boom.
Nigara Hamono, where Aki trained, has been forging blades in the city since the early 1600s. The smithy made swords for the Tsugaru clan, transitioned through tools and bayonets, ceased sword production in 1965, and is today one of the very few Japanese workshops still producing honyaki-style, fully forged kitchen knives using traditional methods.
The Nigara school is known for two things in particular: clean, controlled grinds with very thin geometry behind the edge; and a forging culture that takes apprentices seriously.
Daruma Hamono's unique brand
The name Daruma（達磨）is formed from two characters: 達（daru）, meaning to reach or achieve, and 磨（ma）, meaning to polish or refine. Together, they reflect Furukawa’s pursuit of excellence, crafting the finest knives through meticulous and relentless work and refinement
It also takes inspiration from the Daruma figure, a traditional Japanese talisman symbolising good luck and perseverance. The hope is that every user experiences not only exceptional performance with the blade, but a touch of luck each time they cook.
The Ginsan (Silver 3) advantage
Aki Furukawa shared with us, what makes Daruma Hamono blades stand out is the use of Ginsan (銀三) / Silver 3 stainless steel. Ginsan has the following advantages:
• It takes a very fine edge. The crystalline structure is closer to traditional carbon than to most modern stainless steels, which is why Ginsan is often favoured by sushi and Japanese-cuisine chefs working at the level of detail where edge geometry actually matters on the plate.
• It sharpens easily. Crucially for a working kitchen, Ginsan responds well on natural and synthetic Japanese water stones. You can bring an edge back without fighting the steel. A real consideration if you, or your sharpener, see the knife once a fortnight rather than once a quarter.
• It is genuinely rust-resistant. Unlike Shirogami or Aogami, Ginsan can handle the humidity of Singapore and the realities of a busy kitchen without demanding the carbon-steel hygiene routine.
• It holds an edge harder than its sharpening ease would suggest. A well-heat-treated Ginsan blade lands at around HRC 60–62 in the hand of a smith like Aki, putting it in a comfortable performance band for daily commercial use.
For buyers, the practical translation is this: Ginsan gives you the cutting feel of a traditional Japanese carbon knife with the maintenance reality of a stainless one. It is a working chef’s steel.
The Daruma Hamono line at Binlin
Aki’s current series line at Binlin spans the working profiles a professional kitchen actually needs — petty work, vegetable prep, all-purpose chef duties and longer slicing. Drop by our stores to have a feel of each blade. Or order through our webstore today:
Shop Aki Furukawa's Daruma Hamono collection →