Makoto Kurosaki trained as a sharpener and apprenticed under Hiroshi Kato-san, as part of Takefu Knife Village, based in Echizen city, Fukui prefecture, Japan. While Makoto is Yu Kurosaki’s older brother, he has his own shop separate from Yu's, and has sharpened several different lines from knife makers such as Yoshimi Kato and Takumi Ikeda, as well as Yu Kurosaki.

The “Style-K” line knives still have a great grind and geometry to them, they are slightly more robust than Yu's knives on the spine making them slightly less delicate. The R2 (SG2) core steel is one of our favorites at the shop for its great edge retention and surprising ease of sharpening for such a tough stainless. It also has a very fine and consistent grain structure as it is a powdered steel so it will benefit from being taken to a much higher grit stone than a more traditional stainless steel will. The fit and finish on these knives is also of a very high level with a perfectly smooth transition between the handle and ferrule, the joint between the tang and handle, and the rounding and polishing on the spine and choil.