[JP]Sakai, Japan
Sakai knives, six hundred years of edges
Ninety percent of Japan's professional chef knives come from one city. Sakai's forges have been drawing out steel since the samurai stopped needing swords.
When Japan outlawed sword wearing in 1876, the swordsmiths of Sakai, a port city south of Osaka, turned their steel to kitchens. They had been forging blades since the 1400s; the tobacco knives they made for the Edo shogunate were already famous for holding an edge.
A Sakai knife is usually single bevel, ground on one side only, which is why sushi chefs prize them: the flat back releases each slice cleanly. The work is still split the old way between three craftsmen: one forges, one sharpens, one fits the handle, and the blade carries the maker's name.
Chefs fly to Japan to buy them; the forges on 1VIM ship the same blades with the landed price shown before you pay. A knife is a lifetime purchase, and it should come from the city that has been making them for six hundred years.
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