Photos Please help me identify this japanese knife. Honesuki? Garasuki?

[Pillfed]

Hello everyone. Yes, this is my first post.

I recently bought this knife for cheap at a yard sale. It was blunted at the time. I began sharpening knives as a hobby, and am still only an amateur, but I managed to get it reasonably sharp (it'll shave the hair on my arm). I like the steel in it, I think it's good quality steel. The handle's plastic, I think.

I've looked everywhere on-line trying to identify some sort of maker/brand.

I suspect from the lettering it is of japanese or perhaps chinese origin. Managed to find the characters in type: 白本. Not sure if they are correct. Google will translate them from japanese (Shiromoto) and from chinese (Bái běn). Also, there is some faded writing after the red symbols, but I can't make it out.

I don't have much else to go on. I'm hoping someone here will know enough to set me straight.

P.S. - I know it's not an expensive knife or anything like that, and is probably something that's been mass-produced, but I'm just curious.

Photos:
http://i68.tinypic.com/ofn72e.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/2ih8hlu.jpg

 

[Rhinoknives1]

It’s stamped out of a sheet or Ribbon if Steel . It may still be a good cutter. I would call it as a Honesuki .. Japanese Boning Knife. I make those as little veggie knives mostly for the ladies..———-There are a few MFG of those kind of stamped steel..There are some sellers of those on EBay, Browse there for maybe finding one like it.

 

[KenHash]

The red letters say Japan (Nippon) 日本
The severely faded black letters look like "Japanese design".
I strongly doubt any real Japanese knife would have such words on the blade.
My guess is that it is an inexpensive Chinese export product.
Interesting design though. Can't tell if single or double bevel from your photos
and no info on blade length or thickness. But from the profile it looks like a petty or gyuto, not a honesuki or garasuki.

 

[Pillfed]

The red letters say Japan (Nippon) 日本
The severely faded black letters look like "Japanese design".
I strongly doubt any real Japanese knife would have such words on the blade.
My guess is that it is an inexpensive Chinese export product.
Interesting design though. Can't tell if single or double bevel from your photos
and no info on blade length or thickness. But from the profile it looks like a petty or gyuto, not a honesuki or garasuki.

Thanks so much for taking an interest and helping me out. I'll try to search again with the aid of this new information. And yes, I think you're right, it's probably a petty (just google-imaged that) - it's a pretty small knife, maybe 15 cm blade, and it's a double bevel.