Echizen knives sought after by chefs overseas

A few other places here produce awesome knives as well. I'm just not telling you where.

japanese knife prices destined to follow the cost of whiskey, nihonshu and gin?

Could well do though they are already pretty pricey.

Japanese knives are the best.

SOME Japanese knives are fantastic, yes, but not necessarily the "best". It depends on what you are using the knife for, how you are using it, and budget plays a factor. In fact, since it is very common for the nation to toot its own horn, there is an entire category called "Best Japanese-Made Chef's Knife" when it comes to ranking... just in case they didn't make the top in any others. German knives like Wusthof also consistently rank at the top, Zwilling, Chicago, and others. Wusthof tends to rank #1 in both frequency and overall rankings, with Miyabi and a couple of other Japanese knives finishing in the top ten based on lightness and durability (often ranking lower due to cost).

So, are they they best in the world? Depends on who you ask, and how they are used. In any case, no point in your average Joe Tanaka or Joe Schmidt taking personal pride in something they didn't make, haven't bought, don't use, and didn't know about until a chef overseas made a comment about it.

I thought Echizen is famous for eye glasses.

$15 million worth? how many knives is that, and where do they find enough craftsmen to hand-make all those? prices vary of course, but if we say $300 per, that would be in the region of 50,000 knives, which is a thousand a week.... that's a lot of handcrafting!

Lived in Echizen for a few years and can say that these knives are excellent. Was gifted one 22 years ago and it's still the best knife I have. Visited the 工場 there 3 years ago and it was great to see the production process.

Rodney san,

if you pamper your eyes using the famous Echizen eye glasses then you can realize how good Echizen cooking knives are.

diagonalslip san,

I agree with your basic arithmetic calculations. But what about " machine assisted " handcrafting? The machines do the heavy weight lifting and the handcrafters inspect and add the final touches.

Jacob: “The machines do the heavy weight lifting and the handcrafters inspect and add the final touches.”

good point. Makes it hard to claim they’re “handmade”.

Echizen knives are fine, but they no better or worse than Sakai or Tsubame-Sanjo knives. In the last 20 years Japanese cooking knives have become world famous, mostly through Kai's (Seki) marketing of their Shun brand introduced in 2002 and Yoshikin's (Tsubame-Sanjo) all stainless Global brand. But pro chefs have for at least 10 years gone beyond that and sought better products. Japanese knives are 15-70 degree bevels with HRCs in the 60-62, sometimes higher, especially with powder steels. No one "compares" J-knives to German and French knives with their Krupp 4116 variant hi chromium low carbon steels at low HRCs. Many chefs own both kinds. Takamura knives from Fukui are rated highy but the popularity is just a current trend.