Hello Forum, I am new here and coming from a Kurouchi style background, the Shibata knives seem to have machine tolerances down to the maker mark. They cut well; however, what percentage of the knife is handmade? Thanks for your insights and happy cooking!
Shibata Knives
- Thread starter Manchez
- Start date
Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:
Infrared
Well-Known Member
Should be about as handmade as the average Kurouchi knife from that area.
If you want something a little more "handmade", you can find a maker who laminates the steel by hand and does the quenching and tempering by eye.
- Hammer forged to rough shape.
- Cut or stamped to shape.
- Heat treat.
- Sharpened on a variety of horizontal and vertical wheels.
- Handle installation.
If you want something a little more "handmade", you can find a maker who laminates the steel by hand and does the quenching and tempering by eye.
The thin R2 knives are likely stamped to shape, heat treated then hand Sharpened by Takayuki Shibata san. He is a sharpener that does not forge knives, so his blank is from somewhere else, consider he is a member of TKV, maybe he got it directly from Takefu
There is nothing wrong with it tho, powdered steel like R2 really don’t benefit much from hand forging, in fact with wrong techniques it could be detrimental. Many knife makers like Shibata, Kobayashi or Myojin are sharpeners that don’t forge their own knives, but their job is as important if not more in some cases. Anyway enjoy your Shibata, it is a nice knife.
There is nothing wrong with it tho, powdered steel like R2 really don’t benefit much from hand forging, in fact with wrong techniques it could be detrimental. Many knife makers like Shibata, Kobayashi or Myojin are sharpeners that don’t forge their own knives, but their job is as important if not more in some cases. Anyway enjoy your Shibata, it is a nice knife.
It's easy to slip into the murky waters of trying to define "hand made".
Pretty sure Ikeda forges for Shiba at TKV. I’d guess from prelam stock, but that’s pretty common.
That’s for the Masakage and his personal aogami super lines.
I believe the Tinker stuff as well.
The R2 stuff is most likely just stock removal. Excellent stuff with a great grind from what I had.
The R2 stuff is most likely just stock removal. Excellent stuff with a great grind from what I had.
So Ikeda-san is Anryu's nephew and makes the Anryu knives now that Anryu retired, but also works with Shibata and makes the Knives for the Tinker Company. I don't think he makes all of Shibata's knives. So I know Shibata Tinker tank and Tinker project knives are all hand hammered by Ikeda-san. As the Tinker company is a joint venture between Shibata and Ikeda-san. Ikeda-san forges the blades and Shibata does the grinding and sharpening.
Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
As long as the result is a good and affordable knife I don't care if it's hand-made by using a human hand to press 'start' on the CNC machine.
So I have a Tinker Tank so read about this before and it isn't completely clear, but Shibata has 4 different brands. Now from what I can see his plan was to help and grow the tradition of blacksmithing. To save the culture and bring younger people into it and it seems all his blades maybe hand forged by different blacksmith and he designs the blades and sharpens them. I know his brands Masakage, Tsunehisa, and Tinker all seem to have either a single smith, a forge or a collective make his knives by hand.
Blademaster
Active Member
I read Shibata's official site (new design & content) few weeks ago, so Masakage, Koutetsu, Tsunehisa, and Tinker are his knives brands.
Last edited:
Totally agree, Koutetsu line is so good I don't really care if is stamped or not. In takefu kato would be a good candidate to forge his sg2 line, don't think yu kurosaki or saji would ever bother
