Knife Deep Dive: Rockstead Shin - A Japanese Masterpiece

It is always fun in our store when we can unpack a box of new Rockstead knives from Japan. Last week it happened again. The latest shipment included a model that we had not had before, the Shin. Time to take a closer look at what this knife is all about.

The Rockstead Shin - What is it made of?

The handle of the Shin is immediately recognizable as Rockstead: like that of the Tei and the Chi, it is made of hard anodized black A6063S aluminum with a shagreen inlay and precisely machined curves and lines. It is, in my opinion, the 'classic' handle construction for a Rockstead folding knife and provides a nice mix between modern technology and a more organic, traditional look. The handle has a sturdy liner lock that stands out because of the smooth but confident feeling it gives during use. The material Rockstead uses for the liner and pocket clip is sus420J2 stainless steel with a Rockwell hardness of 50 hrc. As far as I know, Rockstead is the only company that specifies the hardness of parts such as the locking liner and clip. The clip itself is located on the right side of the handle for tip-up carrying. The handle curves down at the end to provide a secure grip.

The steel and hardness of the Rockstead Shin

The blade of our Shin is made of YXR7 steel. It may be less known than the ZDP189 blade steel that Rockstead also uses, but it is still a very interesting choice due to some unique features. In contrast to ZDP189, YXR7 is not a powder steel, but a matrix steel with relatively much Molybdenum but a lot less Chromium. This means that it is less corrosion resistant, but slightly tougher. To ensure corrosion resistance, Rockstead applies a mirror-polished DLC coating to their YXR7 blades. It results in a spectacular appearance that we have not encountered anywhere else. Our Shin's blade hardness is 65.5, typical of Rockstead's YXR7 blades. It is slightly softer than Rockstead's ZDP189, but probably less brittle. Combined with a honzukuri (convex) grind and spectacular mirror finish of the blade and edge, this makes the Shin DLC a spectacular cutting tool.