Favorite niche knife maker

[Logan A.]

Hey everyone! First real thread here. I wanna pose a question.
It seems the community here knows a lot of the big names in knife making. Shig, Kato, doi, konosuke, Toyama etc. There’s an exceptional amount of popular knife makers and brands. Some more expensive than others, or more popular than others.
The question being:

What is your favorite niche knife maker? Perhaps a brand or person that isn’t quite as spoken about.
What about their knives draws you to that brand/person?

EDIT:
I’ve realized that the term favorite is very difficult in this community (fairly so). Therefore, perhaps if you can’t name a favorite then just drop some cool small makers you know of that others may not .

 

[Jason183]

I currently have 8 knives with 7 different makers, Can’t say there’s a favorite for me. I just grab one when it’s more suitable for specific tasks.

 

[BillHanna]

I bought A Milan Gravier from a kkf member and fell in love with it. The steel is C130. I love the aesthetics and find it super easy to sharpen. I’m eagerly awaiting the opening of his books.

 

[esoo]

Yoshikane.

 

[RevJoe]

I have Yoshikane, Mazaki, Wakui. my fav is a toss up between Yoshikane and Mazaki right now. But is Yoshikane niche?

 

[nakiriknaifuwaifu]

What is your favorite niche knife maker? Perhaps a brand or person that isn’t quite as spoken about (enough).

TF
let the games begin

 

[BillHanna]

 

[Pertti]

That WABI-SABI niche!!

???
??? Summer is here. Should be beige?

 

[tostadas]

Not bad, the thread stayed on track for almost half a day

 

[BillHanna]

I know @Forty Ounce is a big fan of kisuke

 

[BillHanna]

Knife Japan has some small makers people like

 

[Logan A.]

I love the disaster that this thread has become.
And if someone makes that TF a shirt then I’d be an immediate buyer.

 

[Pertti]

I love the immediate disaster that this thread has become.
And if someone makes that TF a shirt then I’d be an immediate buyer.

I can make it for you, it might have a tear here or there, but man the logo will smell great.

 

[Logan A.]

Knife Japan has some small makers people like

They do! That’s actually the place that got me thinking of this thread.

 

[big_adventure]

That WABI-SABI niche!!
View attachment 130889
???
View attachment 130890 ??? Summer is here. Should be beige?

I would buy this in a heartbeat.

 

[Pertti]

I'm liking my Matsubara knives (Katsuto Tanaka) and I dont think they are so much talked about. I have a 180mm white#1 ku gyuto, 300mm B#2 tsuchime sujihiki and a 150mm b#2 nashiji honesuki.

Not going to claim they are the best performers in class, but I like them each. Suji could use a bit more weight perhaps at 18x g, but it cuts meat full well.

I have few of the mentioned Kisukes too and they are great, but I just might put them or one of them to bst one day, even when I said I would never do that with the B1 gyuto. I have started appreciating stainless more and more. Thinking Kisukes price might shoot up though in future..

In Matsubara as well as Kisuke I was orginally drawn by the small maker aspect, that there shouldnt be a bigger operaration/factory making the knives. There is some vids of both on youtube or vimeo. There is lots of feeling in the Matsubara clip innmy view!


.

 

[nakiriknaifuwaifu]

@Pertti thanks for the idea, maybe we can massdrop some if there is enough interest, eh folks?

 

[Pertti]

@Pertti thanks for the idea, maybe we can massdrop some if there is enough interest?

Haha please go ahaed, how about mosaic?

 

[BillHanna]

Kisuke shirogami tall nakiri/small cleaver for the next mass drop

 

[big_adventure]

Niche is, ironically, a very broad and difficult-to-nail down word here.

Among "small" knifemakers, man, I love my custom from @The Edge , and I love my Kato.

But... that's not fair to all of the other knives on my strip that I also love, and none of them, except the very old Mundial beaters, are anything other than "niche."

Performance-wise, now, for me, at this time, today, I reach for the Kato more than any other knife I own. Who knows what I'll say to answer that question next month, or next year.

 

[Martyn]

I have a white 1 yanagi from Unshu Yukimitsu and absolutely love it.
It is easy to sharpen and gets crazy sharp. And the steel is very robust for white 1.

 

[esoo]

Yoshikane.

While I did say Yoshikane, all of these makers that are talked about here really are niche makers.

And there is so many great makers that are part of this forum (and I'm not even going to try listing as I'm going to miss someone and do them a disservice).

 

[ian]

@Pertti thanks for the idea, maybe we can massdrop some if there is enough interest, eh folks?

I keep wishing that kkf had a reaction emoji.

 

[WiriWiri]

I keep wishing that kkf had a reaction emoji.

 

[ian]

See, I wish I could forehead smack react to this too. But instead I have to make another post, adding an unnecessary 100mm of height to the discussion on my screen.

 

[WiriWiri]

See, I wish I could forehead smack react to this too. But instead I have to make another post, adding an unnecessary 100mm of height to the discussion on my screen.

Can you not type the the (insert colon here) facepalm thing in old school bb fashion then?
It auto completes on this browser, but back in the day typing : facepalm : without the spaces would make one appear

 

[M1k3]

See, I wish I could forehead smack react to this too. But instead I have to make another post, adding an unnecessary 100mm of height to the discussion on my screen.

He's talking about these

 

[ian]

That was a totally unnecessary 10000mm of height.

What thread is this anyway? I forget.

 

[WiriWiri]

The catch with this lazy-arsed button pressing ‘improvement’ is that I suspect the most bewildering and annoying posters would actually become the most liked.

This may be a win for me. Let’s do it


Anyway, I like knives too

 

[tcmx3]

if we're just talking about stuff that ought to be more popular, Hinoura

if we're talking about WAY off the beaten path, Hatsukokoro