The honyaki is the epitome of Japanese kitchen knife craftsmanship, requiring extremely high levels of skill, along with decades of experience to fulfill.
We have been fortunate enough to secure 3 rare honyaki knives, all are 240mm gyuto. 2 of these knives are crafted by Shiraki blacksmith and the 3rd by Kikuchiyo, both legendary blacksmiths. You can find them here...
Hitohira Kikuchiyo Kambei Honyaki
High end Sakai kitchen knives (like these) are crafted in 4 main stages. Firstly, a blacksmith will forge the knife and quench the steel, then a specialist knife sharpener takes over, sharpening the knife and refining it's shape. Whilst this occurs a dedicated handle maker will craft a knife handle. Once these 3 stages have been completed a finisher will take over, designing the knife on paper, then selecting all of the elements required and finally assembling them in harmony. Once this has been completed, the finisher will then finish sharpen the completed knife by hand on a whetstone.
This process is both lengthy and complex, each stage is completed by specialist craftsman that have dedicated their entire lives to the production of just one element of a knife. Once brought together, they yield some of the most amazing knives ever made.
ProTooling Australia
