I'm having trouble finding official pages

there are a lot of different japanese knife brands, most of which have websites; however I can't seem to find the websites for Asai Knives, Itto-ryu Rentetsu, Kohetsu, or Tanaka.

All of my searches lead me to online dealers, does anyone know how or where to find more info on these brands?

-fred

It's usually better to get info from a vendor. A lot of these companies/blacksmiths don't do direct sales or offer a lot of info via their own sites. Most vendors are fairly knowledgeable on the wares they carry.

knyfeknerd said:

It's usually better to get info from a vendor. A lot of these companies/blacksmiths don't do direct sales or offer a lot of info via their own sites. Most vendors are fairly knowledgeable on the wares they carry.

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fair,i appreciate the prompt reply. It would be really great to get more info on these particular brands though. If anyone could help point me in the right direction, that would be awesome!

-fred

Look to find a vendor that carries said knife(knives) and fire some questions off to them. Some of these guys even have Facebook pages. Shigeki Tanaka is my friend!

Just because you ask a vendor for questions doesn't mean your on the hook to purchase from them.
Also Google some of these names and look for discussions across all the knife forums............................
...or you could ask us.

Here's Shigeki Tanaka's site. Though I don't know how much info you can garner from it. You could also ask what you would like to know. Maybe we can help.

http://miki-japan.com/kajiya/tanaka/tanaka.htm

thats actually not his site... just a place that sells his wares

Yeah but he told me It's his official distributor. That's the best I can do.

yeah... that makes sense

I think there are some of those Japanese brands that are really only to communicate in Japanese, which might be part of the reason that it's hard to find info. And some makers might not see a strong need to promote their brand to customers, when they are already known to, or can just focus on communicating with, vendors.

here's the thing; I'm thinking of the possibility of perhaps becoming a local vendor where i live, there are certain brands that i'd love to get a hold of.

would anyone have any tips or tricks as to going about this?

I understand I'm new to this forum and i don't want to step on any toes

Fred said:

here's the thing; I'm thinking of the possibility of perhaps becoming a local vendor where i live, there are certain brands that i'd love to get a hold of.

would anyone have any tips or tricks as to going about this?

I understand I'm new to this forum and i don't want to step on any toes

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Learn Japanese and then visit Japan to meet with them.

^^ Quite the warm welcome there. Nice job.

Fred, welcome aboard. There are a lot of members here who most likely can help with the info you request. As far as opening up shop, I wish you the best! I think that's pretty cool,though I imagine not easy at all.

Cheers

Sorry, I didn't realize that this was the new member introduction thread. Nice passive aggressiveness, by the way

Seeing as Fred lives in Montreal, he might have a good idea. It seems there are few options catering to Canadian Francophones.

Cheers,

Rick

Fritzkrieg said:

Learn Japanese and then visit Japan to meet with them.

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It's actually not bad advice!
I would definitely try to learn some Japanese. A lot of the J knife vendors have a decent understanding of the language. I'm not sure how the other guys do it.

Fritzkrieg said:

Sorry, I didn't realize that this was the new member introduction thread. Nice passive aggressiveness, by the way

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"A sailor can always spot another sailor from afar"

Speaking of Kohetsu, I would like to find a 240 suji with a nicely thin grind in HAP40 if anyone can steer me to a place.


Rick

If you're trying to become a vendor, certain brands might already have their agents in your area. You would have to go through them. You could try to go OEM but you usually need to already be established and have some capital to back it up. Doing this usually requires big volumes of orders, and paid in advanced. It's not something you can do half heatedly. Learning Japanese would help a lot as most manufactures do not have very good English skills. You'd need to hire a translator if you were to come to Japan. And most importantly, networking.

Networking is definitely a very important ingredient to make things work. A lot of popular brands / maker just won't deal with you without the proper introduction by someone within the industry.

knyfeknerd said:

... learn some Japanese. A lot of the J knife vendors have a decent understanding of the language.

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Doubt it!

I understand that this is a sensitive community, and i completely agree that networking is the best way to deal with blacksmiths and such, however it's difficult to go about that when their contact info isn't available anywhere.

I have several years kitchen experience, and several years sales experience. I've done dishie to head-chef in kitchens, and I've worked as lead sales in music stores; dealing with instrument makers and manufacturers directly so these aren't uncharted waters for me.

This is a community I'd like to be friendly with and be a part of, I'm just trying to do my homework before jumping into a new venture.

-fred