History of Japanese knives

[fujiyama]

Been finding some interesting articles lately, some of you may appreciate the links. Feel free to post more.. will update later..


A 17 year old LA Times Article on Tokifusa Iizuka (Shigefusa Master smith)

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/mar/29/news/cl-43936

Iwasaki

https://historyrazors.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/iwasaki/

Natural stones

https://historyrazors.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/kanji-japanese-natural-stones/

Kanji

https://historyrazors.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/kanji-or-japanese-markings-symbols/

 

[StonedEdge]

Sick! Thanks for sharing!

 

[fujiyama]

Sick! Thanks for sharing!

:wink:

As of 2007, these are the 26 certified traditional Sakai craftsmen:

http://brand.sen-shu.com/sakai_utihamono/

 

[idemhj]

https://cheftalk.com/threads/some-basics-on-japanese-knife-history-long.56934/

 

[Aaroncini]

nice! always interesting to get a bit of background

 

[fujiyama]

https://www.chroma-cutlery.com/catalogue/okishiba-cnives.pdf

 

[osakajoe]

https://www.chroma-cutlery.com/catalogue/okishiba-cnives.pdf

Don’t listen to anything chroma posts.

 

[panda]

"The idea was good," he says. "But my skill is much better than that machine."

 

[LifeByA1000Cuts]

@osakajoe I don't know, they might be slowly getting the idea... given one of their newest and cheapest lines ("Ryoma Sakamoto", that line name has nothing to do with the smith though) seems accidentally quite authentic to me, even though the catalog descriptions seem equally cringeworthy. Average F&F SK-5 kurouchi that needs an acetone wash and some work on the stones. Who knows me knows I kind of LIKE that kind of stuff.

 

[osakajoe]

I won’t go into to how well I know that company, but can tell you I use to work very closely with them.

Ignoring that, just one look at that catalog brings up the name Sakai Touji. This is your biggest red flag. They are one of the bigger wholesalers in Sakai and often referred as swindlers amongst the traditional craftsman I know. They love telling pirate tales about knives and will put “made in Sakai” on anything. I have zero respect for them and how they do things.

 

[LifeByA1000Cuts]

"They love telling pirate tales"

I did notice that ... but the pirate tales seem so obvious that they can almost be considered a feature of the brand