Why no honyaki?

So as the title says, why are fewer and fewer japanese smiths making honyakis? I see numerous new western smiths deferentially hardening blades in pretty impressive numbers. I only ask because I've been waiting 18 months on a honyaki and spoke to Ikeda about them earlier today... it just doesn't make sense when you can charge a 100-150% mark up for what in my head doesn't seem like double the work of a san mai blade.

comes down to efficiency.. guys in Sakai have an insane amount of back orders at the moment.

why bother wasting your time on a knife that takes x more time to make with a higher failure rate when can probably make x successful non honyaki knives at the same time.

If one out of two knives crack during heat treatment then it's getting close to double the amount of work. Maybe more when you factor in the surface finishing expected on a honyaki knife.

It's not just practical concerns.

XooMG said:

It's not just practical concerns.

Click to expand...

Can you elaborate?

The simplest reason is that honyakis have a high failure rate. A 400% markup would probably make more smiths more likely to make them, but even then, frustration in itself can be a big turnoff.