Excellent weight, front-leaning balance, and a very thin, razor-sharp edge of 1.2419.05 tungsten carbon steel will have this Oliver Märtens nakiri moving through vegetables with effortless ease. Oliver's OEL mark is stamped into the blade's forge-finished flats that contrast the low, convex bevels and show the marks of the knife's hand-forged origins. A heat-colored blade tang disappears into the handle, passing first through a faceted, stainless-steel ferule and then into the beautiful piece of walnut wood shaped in Oliver's recognizable form, flat along the sides and bottom, gently rounded across the top, and blended nicely at each transition for comfort and control.