buttermilk

Korin has definitely got a huge marketshare. I appreciate what they've done for the industry and the exposure they've given to crafted knives. Their website used to drive me crazy though and it was rare for me to find an exciting double-bevel knife. Love to them though.

Hi! I really appreciate your response!

I feel bad about the leading section of that article. A few others commented on this as well, and I quickly realized it was misguided. I am re-working that section, and page as a whole. I want to clarify that I in no way meant offense or shame or to express elitism (or hipster bullshit). The Global bread knife is totally worthwhile and an exception to my feeling on the rest of their line. Globals are, if they work for the user, acceptable knives but twice the price of their value. Thank you for the feedback. My apologies.

Building a better landing page for the video button is high on my to-do list. You're totally right about that. When you clicked that button, what information would you have liked to see? Information on our selection of makers and knives? Knives separated by maker?

I'm not opposed to sets as a whole, I'm opposed to pre-determined manufacturer sets. I guess I should say box sets? Would you theoretically be more interested in two knives that I've paired as a set than you would be in selecting those two knives individually?

Thanks for the kind words. I've had a hard time determining appropriate places to insert broadly educational info like Knives 101. I don't want people to get stuck on text walls and give up, but I certainly see how it would be helpful to have pieces be a part of your path through the shop. Any suggestions as to placement?

Yes! Exactly this! The problem is that the majority of available AEB-L knives aren't treated in ways that display the potential of AEB-L. Devin Thomas is the only maker I know that spent years developing metallurgical research on AEB-L, bringing it to perform as well as, or better than, anything out there. ZDP-189 is another great modern stainless.

Thanks! Feedback is a great gift. I appreciate it regardless of whether or not you ever buy from me. I'll keep the articles coming...

What petewailes said. They the exposure has increased exponentially, the monetized result of that has been the sale of machined knives.

Many craftspeople of many industries in Japan, have a surprisingly limited exposure on the internet. The known names definitely have year long waits now, but there's still room.

Again, what @jarcane said.

There are more than zero people in the US making great kitchen knives. The number is, fortunately, growing. I'm in talks with two US makers and a Canadian, in addition to a couple from Europe.

As has already been said, it is a matter of economics and culture. High-end American makers are able to consistently get more money from outdoor knives. Not to discredit that category of knives, but rough outdoor knives can be made much more easily and emphasize toughness and wear resistance and aesthetics at the upper end, with subtle elements of cutting performance being difficult to evaluate. We have a long history of sought-after outdoor and pocket knives in the US. For this, Japanese knifemakers turn to the US and studied with people like Bob Loveless.

Despite outdoor and pocket knives being cherished, the orientation to kitchen knives in the US has long been held as utilitarian. My guess as to why? Because kitchen knives were tools for women, and chefs (a class of people long thought of as outcasts) bought from Europe when they cared. The client base of most all custom or upgraded or modified consumable tools/vehicles/electronics/etc. is male dominated. We don't have a strong history of swordmaking and we readily abandoned them in favor of guns. Guns not being a significant part of Japan's industrial history, the Japanese continued their craft of swords until public carry was outlawed. A lot of these multi-generational swordmaking families found a market in making kitchen knives.

I would totally support you in learning knifemaking. I think it's an awesome craft. Reading about how to make high-performing kitchen knives though, might first require learning to read Japanese. Great kitchen knives can be made within your first few years, but it's rare, and at the end your knives will be more expensive than their Japanese counterparts.

Chefs don't need to import knives from Japan, they can get them all over the US. Sure we want a strong knife in our restaurant kitchens, but it's a tool that we're attached to for 16 hours a day. It's an extension of who we are as chefs, and you can tell a lot about one based on their knives. I demanded finesse from my cooks, and it's hard to understand finesse with a hamhanded tool.

@jarcane Well said! +1

I'm surprised that I too have been using a santoku as a daily driver. They're great when they're done well.

Yeah. The hours. It's life-absorbing.

Good for you! Thanks for the luck.

Oh, for sure! That kind of display is wildly effective but unfortunately misleading. Part of the problem is that a great knife will cut a carrot, a garbage knife will cut a carrot, a house key will cut a carrot. Displaying their abilities isn't easily captured in media. I'll work on it.

Stock images: I wondered how this was working for people. You're the first to bring it up, but I didn't feel super comfortable with them either. Thanks for mentioning it. They were a shot in the dark, but I'll work on replacements now.

Damascus: I think that your assumption about this is largely fair. There has been a plague of bad mass-produced damascus knives, or damascus-printed knives, available everywhere recently. This is unfortunate because there are still many extremely high performing knives utilizing damascus steel.

Damascus and suminagashi are techniques built on antiquated necessity but remain as a way for makers to flex their skill. It is extremely labor intensive and requires a significant skill set. My interest in the damascus of Shigehiro knives is the beautiful pattern that is specific to Ikeda-san. It shows incredible skill and through aesthetic can heighten the users interaction with the knife. I assure you that despite many damascus knives putting form and price over function, they will never be in my shop.

Table: Thanks! You're saying they're good as is, right?

Bevels: Great point. I haven't yet listed any single-bevels so it hadn't crossed my mind. They will primarily be categorically separate, but would a line inclusion on the tables suffice?

Guarantee: You're right. I wasn't explicit here, partially to clip abuse. I realize that it might seem slightly self-protective, but I do want to instill confidence that I do guarantee full satisfaction from what we offer. I'm concerned about being too explicit because I don't want to offer a time cutoff nor can I say that if you decide you don't quite like a knife in five years that I'm liable for it. There are many potential scenarios, in most of which I'd pay the shipping, but how many do I list? If you've got suggestions for what would make you feel more comfortable, I'd love to hear them.

Single-bevels: They totally will. Both sides are important

Board: thanks! I'll add that now.

Petty: I'm not sure what you mean by this?

Thanks!

Great point. Thanks for this! Part of the problem in elaborating on these differences is needing avoid the insider lexicon and references to insider knowledge. When I start to explain it, it becomes excessive. When I don't explain it, I risk alienating those that, for good reason, don't already know. Either way, I'll definitely work on this.

Well, both of you are right. The kitchen knife market in larger by way of necessity. However, I suspect that the market for outdoor knives >$500 is larger than that of kitchen knives. I do have kitchen knives showing up soon above $800 and am talking to makers that produce knives around $1500.

Still, I'm interested in outdoor and pocket knives. I plan on integrating them within a year. For now though, I'm trying to find a great EDC knife <$100. If you've got any suggestions on any of these fronts, I'd be happy to hear them!

There are a few problems with ceramic knives. The problems that I see personally are:

-Not sharp enough and no way to sharpen them at home without diamond, or potentially aluminum oxide, stones -They're chippy and breaky. One of the reasons most makers produce them without a pointed tip. The high hardness of a material that is inherently not tough, reduces the toughness further. This material has the ability to take a razor edge, but it would be uselessly brittle. Under light use though, I can see them working really well for some users. -The geometry is terrible. The bad geometry of the blade sacrifices cutting performance, the bad geometry of the handle is just uncomfortable. Their near weightlessness is also a detriment for anything beyond small tasks. -They're typically only small and, again, lack pointed tips -I find them to be particularly unattractive

Again, if they work for you, great! I got nothing against that and nobody should think less of you. They just don't work for me.

If you'd like to get in touch, send me a note through the site, or to the email listed on the site.

Hi Gesman. Thanks for the kind words! I was the one that built the site. What can I do for you?

Ha! I appreciate fingerpointing with some knowledge behind it. You're right, I don't currently have any Sakai lasers. Though some of my knives are made in Sakai. The two reasons I'm not stockpiling lasers are: -they're typically manufactured and not hand-forged (most of the better ones are hand-ground, however) and though I have no significant opposition to this, it's not where I wanted to start. I have limited resources and I'd prefer to support to individual craftsmen for now. -I've used a good handful, and I've loved very few. People lose their shit over the Sakai Yusuke, but I can't get into the samples I have. That said, I've owned and loved some Tanaka R2 knives. Crazy thin and also high performing. I'm working on stocking some soon.

The hipsterish feel was not an accident. I wanted clean and hip with both modern and traditional elements. The other side of this spectrum has been done already!

Not an ad! I was looking for any input, which so many people have been kind enough to offer me. Though I understand your irritation. My apologies.

Thanks for all of this!

- Glaring Issues: You're totally right. I need to build a landing page for that link. I had originally hoped to create an enticing link to get people into the shop, but I'm realizing it just seems misleading. It had been on my to-do list, and I clearly should've finished that before posting.

-General Sales Feel: This is actually a bit of a problem. Quantifying the characteristic benefits of hand-forged knives, made by people doing it their entire lives, is close to impossible. Any knife is capable of taking a sharp edge and cutting things. How long it holds an edge, how well it performs when cutting food, how it feels, I don't know how to equate these to reasonable metrics. I could give a 1-10 personal rating based on my perception of each knife, but would that make sense? Or help?

I had heard about the "brands to avoid" issue from another poster, and I totally agree with you. I'll be working on changing that tonight. All I meant to say, especially regarding a company like Wusthof, is that price/value ratio is not right. You can get a better knife than a Wusthof for the money. Wusthof still makes some worthwhile knives if they fit your style, but they also produce an incredible amount of not worthwhile knives, at slightly lower prices, in an effort to capitalize their trusted brand name. Again, my apologies for any offense I've caused. If a person loves any knife they have, then it's a good knife.

You're also right that it's an information overload. I feel that it's my responsibility to educate where I can; I'm not just in this to make money. It doesn't seem fair to sell knives like these without offering people a local way to learn the elementary concepts of these knives. What would you suggest I do otherwise? Should I keep these articles but produce simpler and abbreviated ones that could link to the full articles? Where would you want to see this information?

-Selling High-End Stuff: That's a good point. Ultimately, I want make my shop accessable to chefs and the industry. Yet, it will be essential to orient myself towards the home enthusiast, be it the collector or home cook. I believe that the majority of my sales will go to home users. Yet, some of the posters have called out the hand-made, pedigree, and tradition aspects of my content as bullshit-y. I think that both sides are important, but I still haven't found my balance of fully expressing both. Is there product copy that you think works particularly well, or poorly?

That video of John Neeman, god damn. So picturesque. Process videos, use videos in fine-dining restaurants, etc. are on my list. I won't be able to get back to Japan this year, so it'll be a while. I'm working with some American makers, so I may approach this idea with them. That's one hell of a video.

Are there any videos that you would've liked to see on my site?

Thanks again!

Not shitty comments, they're helpful. Thank you.

When I wrote about these styles not having a western equivalent, I meant just that there is literally not a similar style in western knives. I in no way hoped to infer that these knives are unrivaled by western knives. They're just a totally new style for western chefs. I'll work on that wording though!

Somebody else said something similar about hand-made. I'll write a post today or tomorrow to elaborate the benefits of generational makers or experienced makers. Where would you like to see this information on the site?

Carbon steel knives are largely better than stainless in all ways (other than preventing oxidation). This is not a necessary truth, as some recent modern stainless steels have great capabilities, but there are extremely few makers capable of utilizing stainless steel in a way that rivals the performance of carbon steel. I'll be replying to the other poster but, in short, a lot of what they wrote is misinformed.

Wow. Thanks for all of this. I appreciate your emotional investment. I, too, want me to suceed.

- a premium experience is what I'm hoping to provide. It's what I offer through the experience of buying from us. Do you have any suggestions for what I could work on to provide a more premium browsing experience? Are you saying that my photos and navigation should be better? If so, what would you like to see different about them?

- You're totally right. The knives page is just a bunch of knives. I know them, and I wasn't able to unknow them for the sake of development. I offer explanations of the knife type on the browsing page for each knife type, but you're totally right that the general knife browsing page should be different. Should I only list categories and a brief overview of which category is for what use?

Also, I love the idea of building a "Choose your own adventure"-style navigation, separately, to help focus your search.

- I'll add an explanation of why hand-made is better. I think I started to go into it in one of the artcles, but I should make it more clear and available. Where would you like to see that kind of information?

- International shipping was a total oversight. Thank you! I'll clarify that today.

I'm curious about your silicone and magnet sheets, do you have a link to something similar online? I've never heard of this. I am working on knife rolls, magnetic wood knife racks, and individual knife covers as well.

It's in your blood! I'm impressed you managed to stay out of the industry.

I appreciate that feedback and will definitely work on a page for this purpose. Great idea. It's one of those things where it's so clear to me that it's hard to lay it out as barebones to people that don't yet get it.

Thanks for pointing this out. I realize now that this was a bit flagrant. I'll try moving this portion to a separate post and elaborating more gently on reasons why it's worth avoiding these brands. Do you think that would be an improvement?

That, along with pros, certainly is my target. That's the message that I hope to make clear. Do you have any specific copy that stands out as not saying this?

Thanks for the feedback. I know I'm definitely guilty of this on the "Which knife should I buy?" page, and I'll be updating it today. Besides that, could you point out other areas that read like this to you? I'm certainly not interested in shaming or sounding aggressively negative.

In response to the name, I'll be selling a wider selection than just knives. The offering looks limited now but it'll soon be expanded to everything necessary to working as a chef, or tools and supplies that would be worth having at home. The emphasis, though, will always be on knives. I know the name doesn't inform anyone that we're selling knives, but I personally like the name and wanted to take the approach of how we name restaurants. Something to suggest the experience.

Wow. Thank you so much for all of the feedback and response. I appreciate this so much. I'll be going through each comment today with a response.

Thanks! I tried to make it largely compatible. I'm still working on making the mobile version load real cleanly. Thanks again.

I know e-commerce might not get a ton of love here, but I'd really appreciate any feedback you might have for me. I've been a fine-dining chef for years and recently left my restaurant to build a business around my love of Japanese knives. I've been working on the site slowly over four months. I think it's good, but I'd happily accept anything you can say about it. Thank you!