In the latest Coveted episode, a historic lace factory is preserving the dying art of Leavers lace in England: ruclips.net/video/XD2nh75Yz8E/видео.html
@@CyberBeep_kenshi maybe they are taking about a prosthodontist who create dentures. That also would be a treat to watch a skilled prosthodontist create a very high quality set of dentures.
Respectful. Any hand-made yanagiba, with passion and dedication, is a beautiful thing. Not an easy knife to craft and finish. I got mine from Sakai years ago, it's a masterpiece and it's such a pleasure when I get to use it.
The Japanese just make spectacular things. Ranging from their cars in Honda and Toyota, knives/swords, electronics, watches and so many other things. I honestly think they are the best overall manufacturers of stuff in the world. Period. They innovate AND have attention to detail and reliability and aesthetics.
Counterpoint -this is just high quality pictures and talk that don’t result in an answer to the question. Therefore it is common click bait. The implication is that someone of high skill spends a large amount of time to make one knife and many failures. Who is the judge of this skill? Only the guy whose name is on the company. An example of the videos failure -it never mentions that the structure of the knife business is exactly like the premium sushi chefs that buy the knives. Apprenticeship for most of their life in the hope one day they will be deemed worthy by the expert. The $20k knife is the perfect prop for the show.
@@skyak4493Let's see. I'm a metallurgist, and I have been a process engineer for 9 years. This video wasn't just smoke-and-mirrors to me. Making such a high-end fully customized knife is incredibly intricate. Every step is artisanal, meaning someone had to work very long to gain the required experience for the manual work. Hot working, heat treatment, grinding, sharpening, engraving, polishing, handle making, and so on. And with most steps (except maybe for the polishing and the handle making) a mistake can be unrecoverable. But, ok, I agree that much of the above may not be obvious to a lay person.
I have a $10,000 Takeda Hamono that I had hand made, one of one, for my chef career, back in 2014. I no longer cook professionally, but it is a prized possession that will be passed down!
@@smoll.miniatures I have about $26,000 worth. I also worked 90+ hours a week for years straight for $125,000/year in Denver, so you don't spend your money on anything other than rent, booze or other substance, and takeout food. I have a $3000 daily driver that was custom hand made by Takeda in Japan, that I still use daily. There is an incredible knife store in Denver, Carbon Knife Co. that will ruin our wallet with fully hand made Japanese beauties. I was single and just worked. I did NOT use those during my chef career though, I just used Sakai Takayuki or even Shun, thanks to terrible people and thieves. Those were my splurge purchases.
That's cool. Get your kid a nice 100 dollar wustof to practice with them present them with the hamono knife in some elaborate ceremony when they are worthy.
@@smoll.miniatures Combat disabled veteran with 12 years service, and I had another business during that time too. I was always deployed or working, saving money. After I was hit and two years of recovery, I went back into the kitchen, somewhere that I started in at 13. I also was making about $150,000/yr at my last exec job and was working 100 hours a week, so no place to spend money either then on tools and knives!
With age, experience, and understanding how many levels of precision one can intill into these projects, the more these 20k-30k price tags make sense. I'm glad for these craftsmen. It can be difficult to feel truly entitled to the value of your work and stick to your guns.
This is pure material physics and every movement in heating and forging can be calculated as it is known how materiel behaves but these guys are talking from pure experience.
i was watching a video from a guy who does videos of things in japan and he got his sister in law a knife that was "expensive" but lower end. her husband left the knife on the cutting board and it got rust spots and the edge was damaged (just from hours of lying around wet). he took it back to the store/maker and they fixed it like new for free. she said the husband isn't allowed to use the knife again 🙂non stainless steel sounds so stressful!
@@mm-yt8sfI saw this video too! For anyone else interested the RUclipsr’s name is Life Where I’m From and the title of the video is “What I Learned When I Damaged a New Handcrafted Japanese Knife”
@@tshirtnjeans4829 10 people working to produce ~150 of a good per year on average is going to carry a whopping premium. They are as much tools for fine dining as they are works of art. You are comparing the price to a typical Toyota, when they are making Bugattis.
@@abg7750 People will find ways to justify anything. These knives don't slice better than $20 knives from Walmart. The fact that the manufacturing is inefficient does not give the product a $19,980 premium.
It’s fired & stoned steel. As you see, he isn’t even the one doing it. It’s outsourced to normal workers. The marketing is fantastic, but these are $500 blades here. Too simple & easy to make. There’s a reason people don’t think stainless steel is as strong - because it isn’t.
@@RzTheTree I genuinely think you could get every kind of Japanese Knife shape and absolutely stunning versions for 20k. You could legitimately get 9-10 Honyaki Aogami Number 1 and deck out every single staff member at your sushi restaurant.
Well presented. Now , knives today are almost always made with known raw materials and classified types like 1082 or 51n20 that can be sourced from anywhere. These knives are really just works of art keep a traditional methods alive.
Fascinating exploration of the evolving craftsmanship in sushi knife making! Sawada innovative approach with stainless steel challenges traditional norms and could reshape the future of culinary tools. 🔪
Look no further than CPM Magnacut steel. It's the best knife steel there is. Harder than carbon steel and ultra corrosion resistant. A crucible steel made just for knives.
I hesitate to call anything the best but I'm convinced that you are absolutely correct. My Hogue Deka, an Elishewitz designed folder with a reverse tanto Magnacut blade, has easily the best steel I've ever used in a pocket knife. I've had it for two years and haven't needed to sharpen it. Still looks new!
They do accept low quality. It's all in how much it is paid for. There was a time when Japan was known for inferior junk the same way cheap Chinese stuff is viewed today. It also is the same as to why England mandated German made blades to be marked "Made in Germany". At one point in time they were the cheapest options and the quality reflected that. They understand that to remain competitive with what they charge as the economy improved, the cheap mass production just won't cut it. With current labor costs, any cheap quality good produced in Japan will be massively overpriced and won't be competitive. But back when labor was cheap they did produce garbage quality stuff.
Great that at least some people are modernising Japanese knives. Their "historical techniques", while impressive, were fundamentally developed to work with/compensate for the poor quality iron ore they had at the time. Given those restrictions no longer apply, more people should look beyond history and make the most of modern materials and techniques.
He probably sleeps w/ the knives on his bed. LOL. Obsessed is what I will call that. Some people will just make it too extreme over nothing. But I love the dedication to perfection.
Cutting from sheet steel, tapping a few times power hammer, a heat treat montage, and expected grind and polish. Yes, marketing is what this is. I dont see any of the lore of Japanese blade smithing here at all. My understanding of the forging process, hype. Time to put this blade against say 20 other smiths knowing its purpose and shape design. Blind test them with identical handles or its material. Plus lets snap one of these in half and see its grain structure verse the highest placed knife.
If you know anything about metallurgy you’ll know a lot can be done to improve structural properties of the metal. Government’s don’t build synchrotron light source to study materials for no reason. Modern metallurgy has moved forward in the last 20 years enough for an average chef to notice his knife stays sharper for longer.
@@sid35gb I know enough about metallurgy and blade smithing to know that nothing that happened to the steel in that video made a blind bit of difference to the finished product.
I'm confused. I was under the impression that the high price from Japanese knives came from the tamhagane process and then the polishing stages. Industrializing the process that makes this uniquely Japanese (handmade with Kaizen attitude) seem like it should have a lower price. Thinking about this as a westerner looking in doesn't help. If it is Japanese chefs that are driving demand that is different than western chefs who tend to covet the older ways and hours invested from the sword making aspects.
Same, if you start from steel sheet, nothing wrong with that, then you have a datasheet for it, saying that the heat treatment protocol is "trade secret" implies that you are better at metallurgy than the team of metallurgists at the steel factory that makes the steel...
Agreed. Oddly enough, the Japanese needed to use the tamhagane due to them having some of the lowest quality steel at that time in order to get all the impurities out. They’re known for having great craftsman, which is often confused with having great steels. That may be different now but back then it wasn’t the case.
@@pablopeuUhmm... As a metallurgist, and working for a stainless steel supplier, I can tell you that no stainless steel manufacturer will have a standard procedure ready to modify the grain structure from stainless steel plate specifically into the optimal grain structure for an extremely high-end sushi knife. This isn't a simple _"Hold at 1150 °F (721 °C) for at least 30 minutes and then quench in fast oil."_ Instead, it will be a highly specific combination of holding times, temperatures, heating rates, cooling rates, hammering (so hot deformation) which will depend on the specific location on the blade and more. You can't get this from an AMS or ASTM standard, or a manufacturer product data sheet.
I feel like you'd get better results and a WAY higher production if you used industrial production robot arms. I know this is about craftmanship and all that, but this wouldn't take much time to program them to do. Like they said: "The craftman is dying out", so you can teach them your tricks, which won't get told to anyone since they can't speak. I'm pretty sure you could even use the cheapest robotic arm for those movements, so you'll get away with the 2000 dollar arms.
There should be tests done with these knives to show that they are actually better, I kind of find it hard to believe that these knives are that much better than knives of made of comparable steel. If it’s just about status like Gucci or whatever that’s fine, but don’t hum up as some sort of super fantastic thing you can’t find anywhere else.
as a knivemaker i can tell you are totally right the only special thing about them is their marketing team able to sell the same knife that all the japanese crafters do fo 10000% the price of it it's the japanese fever , people love them and think that everything that come from there can cut cannon barrels and slice the air and we the bladesmiths of other parts of the world are just rude medieval bearded guys who cant make proper tools :)
Absolutely, there is so much going on in the knifemaking / metallurgy world right now anyway... and most people are not informed about any of it@@JohnFrumFromAmerica
@@JohnFrumFromAmerica it wins in terms of sharpenability. Powdered steels are hard and tough because of carbides, but those carbides also make it much harder to sharpen.
yea forging most kind of stainless causes the grain structure to swell and a lot of the chromium to burn off. at least in my experience. 304 and 404 are not good but perhaps a high vanadium alloy might work
To get the best out of knives you need the proper steels for the right task. First off moving to a powder metal would help the performance of many knive steels or using the type of steel with the characteristics you need in them. Do you need high alloy low alloy carbon or stainless? Do you need high toughness, corrosion resistance, ability to hold an edge or ease of sharpening? There is alot that goes into a good knife and a good material
The absolute pinnacle of craftmanship and attention to detail based on turning work into art. Japanese not just, but especially with knifes and sword making were high tech way before this term was invented. Excellent report, thx WSJ👍
I never had any problems with cheap knives as long as you sharpen them. These guys, they take knives too seriously. Its not that serious. But I respect the quality.
Powder steels don't need forging by the knife maker just forming the shape and heat treatment. A good powder steel will be significantly better than any forged knife.
It's a ridiculous argument. You're cutting meat. Blade geometry, thickness behind the edge is ALL that matters. How much maintenance depends on blade steel and heat treatment.
Sushi knives aren't made of stainless steel because they need to be extremely sharp and be sharpened easily to be extremely sharp. If you need to sharpen every day to maintain an extremely sharp edge, magnacut isn't good. Very hard steels are good for maintaining a very sharp edge for a long time without sharpening, but not good when you need an extremely sharp edge that requires lots of sharpening.
I know nothing of sushi knives..please forgive my ignorance. However, Has any decent knife maker utilized "super stainless steel" such as s90v, m390, etc for such an application?
@GeneSargentArt yep I agree it's art but as a buyer I would be apprehensive knowing it came from sheet metal. I would prefer it to be forged like a traditional samurai sword but I'm not a knife expert just an enthusiast.
This is way overblown. Sushi is basically diner food in Japan. Most of the sushi we eat in Japan is from the grocery store, and they're not using such high level knives no more than all musicians are all playing top of the line instruments. Like any chef, of any cuisine, of course the very best chefs have the most elite personal equipment. Zero difference. But most, they're using common pro level knives like any chef. You can buy high quality knives in Japan in any department store. The absolute top chefs, of course they have their knives made custom just for them, but that's not the norm at all.
i agree with that! after shopping in kappabashira for kitchen knives, and didn't pick any, i asked an excellent sushi chef his thoughts on the gear. he said it's a little overblown to go for expensive steels. if you keep the tools on-hand sharp by yourself or by hiring someone, that's what's more important which is what i went and practiced. just yesterday i sharpened my coworker's knife. his jaw dropped to see his old $10 cuisinart cut the way it did. pretty video though
"Otaku" means "Geek." It's not anymore mystical or complicated than that. If you are an otaku of anything, it doesn't mean you're an expert, but that you're really into it., a geek.
Very well produced, but this make Nenohi seem like the non plus ultra of japanese knives, which they aren't. They are way overpriced and for a fraction of the price you get way better knives.
Germany has for a long time been very skilled and meticulous about their crafts.. their knives for instance are very high quality, of course they’re of a very different style/materials compared to Japanese cutlery.
Yes it does. A sharp knife will do minimal damage to the meat fibers, which makes for a more pleasant texture to the mouth, which our brain interprets as more pleasant.
Yeah, you can get a Victorinox dirt cheap that can do the exact same thing. Just comes down to taking care of the knife. Fun fact, any real chef or butcher will go through dozens of knives. Very quickly too. This is absolutely not feasible for anyone that uses logic.
@Kevin888yt only makes sense to professional dummies. Pros make their bones on 100-200 dollar knives just fine, and it's performance will be exactly as good as this one. A knife at 20k you are paying for prestige, not performance
You watched that whole video and you come to the conclusion that price is a key factor in the buying decision? Back to Walmart, kid. Adults are speaking.
The hole „carbon steel is sharper“ is because stainless is harder to sharpen. Thankfully this is the 21st century and cheap/high quality diamond sharpening stones and lapping compounds are available now.
It’s probably more supply demand based on individual reputation than hype. I have several Japanese knives, and I can tell you the difference is apparent as soon as you put it in your hand.
As an F&B consultant, I'm kind of skeptical that chefs would pay that much for a knife. I know they strive for perfection, but the return on investment for this is really minimal. There is a drastic drop in benefits vs. costs here. Typical restaurant knives cost $20-30 from Victorinox. An ultra professional knife would cost like $300, but investing in a $20,000? That sounds more of a collector's item than a work tool.
how about if we add in there clout, dependability, precision, comfort, and enjoyment? Some of those things are rather intangible. High luxurious services and goods go beyond tangible economic measures. Is it necessary? i dont think anyone starting their business cares to buy a knife that expensive. But a knife at $20K is the same as someone who buys a Patek or Rolex. For making only 100-200 a year, i don't see why this business and the consumers arent reasonable and passionate and totally validated for wanting something like this.
Skeptical? People who work on cars pays tens of thousands of dollars on tools. A knife is considered a tool as well. I wouldn't see why a chef wouldn't purchase a good quality tool. 😂
@@bphonn88 its about the law of diminishing returns. A car mechanic would pay for tools that increase efficiency, like an air powered lug nuts impact wrench that can take out tyre nuts in a few seconds. Not a $20,000 manual wrench thats made from damascus steel that would function the same as a high-quality $100 wrech.
Spoken like a true penny-pincher. If they're willing or able to spend that much on a knife, I doubt they really care or worry about "return on investment," especially since we're talking probably the top 1-5% of sushi chefs working at the highest end restaurants.
Don’t believe this nonsense about steel. US makes the best knife steel in the world. Damascus just looks pretty. It’s not the best. How sharp do you think you need to cut fish? Do you think a straight razor would cut? I’m a machinist and I have made special purpose knives since 1964.
No I think they just are showing how much effort they put into the fit and finish of their knives. I'll never own one of these nenohi cause it's not my style but I love the Western handle nenox knives.
China and japan always exaggerate things , they make paper - stand in line joins hands incense sticks. As if they are doing something that cannot be done .
@@rhubarbpie2027 no, thats dragging out, they are just slow. look at how much faster Blaupließter in Solinge worked. This is just again one of these Hipster overengineered Workshops where half of the workhours are for cleaning the workshop.
@@rhubarbpie2027 i appreciate their cultur but its also a thing in Japan to do things more complicated then they have to be, especially with knifes and swords. I know the reasons why they did things like they have. the western world has a tendency to romanticizing this things. The realy old Knifemakers in Japan dont work so slow as these guys do but their knifes are also from very high quality i bet and they dont need fancy digital hardness tester or a "special developed" beltgrinder ( which was nothing more than a bigger diameter wheel shch makes grinding and polishing knifes easier )
@@Hans-Yolo ? These are high end knives meant for those seeking perfection. Of course it take a long time for each knife to be crafted. It is because of their crazy prices, high quality and effort to make which gives the knives from Japan the image of being over complicated. However, these knives take up a small amount of the total knives made in Japan. Try finding high end honyakis, several pieces are released here and there and are not easy to find. On the opposite spectrum there are Japanese knives which are much cheaper at around 100USD, but still with good quality, being churned out in crazy numbers and distributed widely overseas. Not every single Japanese knife goes through the crazy and lengthy process as seen in this video. In the Western world where craft knives are also important, there are cheaper mass produced knives, but also high quality custom knives which can make you wait for months to years to get your knife made for you. Look at cars, Rolls Royce in the England are super overcomplicated and expensive. Yes, but there is still a group of people willing to spend the money and time to wait for such products. Toyota, Honda etc from Japan are churning cars out in huge quantities. It is not right to say Japan over complicate things. They do pay greater attention details to the things they do, but they can also excel in high volume manufacturing with good quality.
always surprised how many people in the comments don't realize watching this youtube channel is same as watching commercials, paid programming, or reading a tabloid near the checkout.... this channel is very clear that everything they say is paid for, yet occidentals take it extremely seriously 😂
In the latest Coveted episode, a historic lace factory is preserving the dying art of Leavers lace in England: ruclips.net/video/XD2nh75Yz8E/видео.html
I absolutely love to watch true craftsmen no matter what their discipline is.
Do you give equal deference to the 'designer' of the teeth that will chew the food that these blades will cut?
@@mwng5186there is no designer like that. this is no place for religious banter....
@@CyberBeep_kenshi maybe they are taking about a prosthodontist who create dentures. That also would be a treat to watch a skilled prosthodontist create a very high quality set of dentures.
thats the cleanest knife maker workshop i have ever seen.
That’s what I thought too lol
I hope so - coz he only does 100 blades a year. LOL
almost more of a lab
The Japanese attitude to precision and development is what impresses me.
Masters of precision, and actual quality.
Respectful. Any hand-made yanagiba, with passion and dedication, is a beautiful thing. Not an easy knife to craft and finish. I got mine from Sakai years ago, it's a masterpiece and it's such a pleasure when I get to use it.
Improving on traditional methods is an innovation that someone will continue to improve the process.
The Japanese just make spectacular things. Ranging from their cars in Honda and Toyota, knives/swords, electronics, watches and so many other things. I honestly think they are the best overall manufacturers of stuff in the world. Period. They innovate AND have attention to detail and reliability and aesthetics.
This is an outstanding video and WSJ should keep working with this crew and make more content just like this. Great job!
Counterpoint -this is just high quality pictures and talk that don’t result in an answer to the question. Therefore it is common click bait.
The implication is that someone of high skill spends a large amount of time to make one knife and many failures. Who is the judge of this skill? Only the guy whose name is on the company.
An example of the videos failure -it never mentions that the structure of the knife business is exactly like the premium sushi chefs that buy the knives. Apprenticeship for most of their life in the hope one day they will be deemed worthy by the expert.
The $20k knife is the perfect prop for the show.
@@skyak4493 lol
@@skyak4493Let's see. I'm a metallurgist, and I have been a process engineer for 9 years. This video wasn't just smoke-and-mirrors to me.
Making such a high-end fully customized knife is incredibly intricate. Every step is artisanal, meaning someone had to work very long to gain the required experience for the manual work. Hot working, heat treatment, grinding, sharpening, engraving, polishing, handle making, and so on. And with most steps (except maybe for the polishing and the handle making) a mistake can be unrecoverable.
But, ok, I agree that much of the above may not be obvious to a lay person.
I have a $10,000 Takeda Hamono that I had hand made, one of one, for my chef career, back in 2014. I no longer cook professionally, but it is a prized possession that will be passed down!
I don’t get how a chef could ever afford a 10 grand knife. I have a few $800 knives. I worked at a high 3 star level and they felt like overkill.
@@smoll.miniatures I have about $26,000 worth. I also worked 90+ hours a week for years straight for $125,000/year in Denver, so you don't spend your money on anything other than rent, booze or other substance, and takeout food.
I have a $3000 daily driver that was custom hand made by Takeda in Japan, that I still use daily. There is an incredible knife store in Denver, Carbon Knife Co. that will ruin our wallet with fully hand made Japanese beauties. I was single and just worked.
I did NOT use those during my chef career though, I just used Sakai Takayuki or even Shun, thanks to terrible people and thieves.
Those were my splurge purchases.
@@smoll.miniatures unless u own bunch of places , its very rare for that to happen
That's cool. Get your kid a nice 100 dollar wustof to practice with them present them with the hamono knife in some elaborate ceremony when they are worthy.
@@smoll.miniatures Combat disabled veteran with 12 years service, and I had another business during that time too. I was always deployed or working, saving money.
After I was hit and two years of recovery, I went back into the kitchen, somewhere that I started in at 13.
I also was making about $150,000/yr at my last exec job and was working 100 hours a week, so no place to spend money either then on tools and knives!
With age, experience, and understanding how many levels of precision one can intill into these projects, the more these 20k-30k price tags make sense. I'm glad for these craftsmen. It can be difficult to feel truly entitled to the value of your work and stick to your guns.
wow beautiful blades and craftmanship ! truly masters of the art ! I need to order some of these beautiful cutlery pieces !
This is pure material physics and every movement in heating and forging can be calculated as it is known how materiel behaves but these guys are talking from pure experience.
Not a question of how it behaves more of a question of what behaviour will make it better.
"babe did you put my knife in the dishwasher?!?"
Says “huh” as she’s cutting on a metal platform 😂 Means for a break up right there .
i was watching a video from a guy who does videos of things in japan and he got his sister in law a knife that was "expensive" but lower end. her husband left the knife on the cutting board and it got rust spots and the edge was damaged (just from hours of lying around wet). he took it back to the store/maker and they fixed it like new for free. she said the husband isn't allowed to use the knife again 🙂non stainless steel sounds so stressful!
@@mm-yt8sf LOL THAT'S CRAZY THAT THEY BANNED HIM
"No, it's over by the can of dog food that I used your knife to open."
@@mm-yt8sfI saw this video too! For anyone else interested the RUclipsr’s name is Life Where I’m From and the title of the video is “What I Learned When I Damaged a New Handcrafted Japanese Knife”
I had the pleasure of owning several of these Japanese knives, they are the best I've ever tried and nothing can beat em. Truely masterpieces.
Can whoever does the closed caption subtitles make sure that they're not obscuring the burned-in subtitles?
What do you mean? Don't you like seeing "speaking in a foreign language" and "continues to speak in a foreign language" over the actual subtitles?
you can drag and move the closed caption (if you are on PC)
Whoever did the CC deserves a lengthy jail time, with no parole.
incredible skills
This video got you a subscription. Love stuff like this. People who they take their craft to extreme bordering on insanity. I approve!
Interesting how many people are opposed to craftspeople being paid fairly for their time and effort and skill.
$20K for knives is beyond stupid
@@tshirtnjeans4829 10 people working to produce ~150 of a good per year on average is going to carry a whopping premium. They are as much tools for fine dining as they are works of art. You are comparing the price to a typical Toyota, when they are making Bugattis.
@@abg7750 People will find ways to justify anything. These knives don't slice better than $20 knives from Walmart. The fact that the manufacturing is inefficient does not give the product a $19,980 premium.
It’s fired & stoned steel. As you see, he isn’t even the one doing it. It’s outsourced to normal workers.
The marketing is fantastic, but these are $500 blades here. Too simple & easy to make.
There’s a reason people don’t think stainless steel is as strong - because it isn’t.
@@abg7750except this Bugatti is easily mimicked & made of cheap materials.
It’s great marketing, that’s it.
Give me Nakagawa, Tanaka, Ikeda, Togashi or Doi any day. These are way overpriced. Those first four are the best in Sakai.
Rich and deep history with those other and the brands they work for. Give them your support.
For 20k$ you can get multiple knives from each of these and still have money left over
@@RzTheTree I genuinely think you could get every kind of Japanese Knife shape and absolutely stunning versions for 20k. You could legitimately get 9-10 Honyaki Aogami Number 1 and deck out every single staff member at your sushi restaurant.
Add Shigefusa and Kiyoshi Kato to that list 👌🏽
@@chefknivesenthusiast ohhh absolutely perhaps a bit tougher to find currently though.
Well presented. Now , knives today are almost always made with known raw materials and classified types like 1082 or 51n20 that can be sourced from anywhere. These knives are really just works of art keep a traditional methods alive.
Fascinating exploration of the evolving craftsmanship in sushi knife making! Sawada innovative approach with stainless steel challenges traditional norms and could reshape the future of culinary tools. 🔪
Wow! What beautiful knives. I love the quest for perfection. There is never true perfection, but they get close. Thanks 🎸🔪
Would love to visit this company
Look no further than CPM Magnacut steel. It's the best knife steel there is. Harder than carbon steel and ultra corrosion resistant. A crucible steel made just for knives.
I hesitate to call anything the best but I'm convinced that you are absolutely correct. My Hogue Deka, an Elishewitz designed folder with a reverse tanto Magnacut blade, has easily the best steel I've ever used in a pocket knife. I've had it for two years and haven't needed to sharpen it. Still looks new!
I love how they don’t accept low quality in Japan, in everything they do. It’s truly remarkable yet obvious.
They do accept low quality. It's all in how much it is paid for. There was a time when Japan was known for inferior junk the same way cheap Chinese stuff is viewed today. It also is the same as to why England mandated German made blades to be marked "Made in Germany". At one point in time they were the cheapest options and the quality reflected that. They understand that to remain competitive with what they charge as the economy improved, the cheap mass production just won't cut it. With current labor costs, any cheap quality good produced in Japan will be massively overpriced and won't be competitive. But back when labor was cheap they did produce garbage quality stuff.
Very interesting!
Great that at least some people are modernising Japanese knives. Their "historical techniques", while impressive, were fundamentally developed to work with/compensate for the poor quality iron ore they had at the time. Given those restrictions no longer apply, more people should look beyond history and make the most of modern materials and techniques.
He realised billiet is better. As someone that works with metal all day I like to see others work with metal.
He probably sleeps w/ the knives on his bed. LOL. Obsessed is what I will call that. Some people will just make it too extreme over nothing. But I love the dedication to perfection.
These are not craftsmen. They are artists.
Excellent reporting
Sushi hustle go hard!😂😂😂
There was an awful lot of marketing hogwash in this video but fair play to him for getting people to buy it, that's business.
Cutting from sheet steel, tapping a few times power hammer, a heat treat montage, and expected grind and polish. Yes, marketing is what this is. I dont see any of the lore of Japanese blade smithing here at all. My understanding of the forging process, hype. Time to put this blade against say 20 other smiths knowing its purpose and shape design. Blind test them with identical handles or its material. Plus lets snap one of these in half and see its grain structure verse the highest placed knife.
If you know anything about metallurgy you’ll know a lot can be done to improve structural properties of the metal. Government’s don’t build synchrotron light source to study materials for no reason. Modern metallurgy has moved forward in the last 20 years enough for an average chef to notice his knife stays sharper for longer.
@@sid35gb I know enough about metallurgy and blade smithing to know that nothing that happened to the steel in that video made a blind bit of difference to the finished product.
👇The most important question is👇
Are these knives precise enough to avoid irritating the sensitive skin while shaving privet parts in one run?🤔
😂😂
I'm confused. I was under the impression that the high price from Japanese knives came from the tamhagane process and then the polishing stages. Industrializing the process that makes this uniquely Japanese (handmade with Kaizen attitude) seem like it should have a lower price. Thinking about this as a westerner looking in doesn't help. If it is Japanese chefs that are driving demand that is different than western chefs who tend to covet the older ways and hours invested from the sword making aspects.
Same, if you start from steel sheet, nothing wrong with that, then you have a datasheet for it, saying that the heat treatment protocol is "trade secret" implies that you are better at metallurgy than the team of metallurgists at the steel factory that makes the steel...
Agreed. Oddly enough, the Japanese needed to use the tamhagane due to them having some of the lowest quality steel at that time in order to get all the impurities out. They’re known for having great craftsman, which is often confused with having great steels. That may be different now but back then it wasn’t the case.
@@pablopeuUhmm... As a metallurgist, and working for a stainless steel supplier, I can tell you that no stainless steel manufacturer will have a standard procedure ready to modify the grain structure from stainless steel plate specifically into the optimal grain structure for an extremely high-end sushi knife.
This isn't a simple _"Hold at 1150 °F (721 °C) for at least 30 minutes and then quench in fast oil."_
Instead, it will be a highly specific combination of holding times, temperatures, heating rates, cooling rates, hammering (so hot deformation) which will depend on the specific location on the blade and more.
You can't get this from an AMS or ASTM standard, or a manufacturer product data sheet.
I got one of these on Amazon for $25
I use the plastic knives in take out orders for my at home sushi making
Very clean work shop.
The most impactful and highest regarded people are always absolutely obsessed with whatever it is they are trying to Achieve.
I feel like you'd get better results and a WAY higher production if you used industrial production robot arms. I know this is about craftmanship and all that, but this wouldn't take much time to program them to do. Like they said: "The craftman is dying out", so you can teach them your tricks, which won't get told to anyone since they can't speak. I'm pretty sure you could even use the cheapest robotic arm for those movements, so you'll get away with the 2000 dollar arms.
When I grow up I want to be Japanese.
Nice
That is same like with Stradivarius violins, everyone says they are the best, but no one can recognize them among contemporary violins.
This video goes hard at 2am
There should be tests done with these knives to show that they are actually better, I kind of find it hard to believe that these knives are that much better than knives of made of comparable steel. If it’s just about status like Gucci or whatever that’s fine, but don’t hum up as some sort of super fantastic thing you can’t find anywhere else.
as a knivemaker i can tell you are totally right
the only special thing about them is their marketing team
able to sell the same knife that all the japanese crafters do fo 10000% the price of it
it's the japanese fever , people love them and think that everything that come from there can cut cannon barrels and slice the air and we the bladesmiths of other parts of the world are just rude medieval bearded guys who cant make proper tools :)
It would lose to a modern powder steel in every measure.
Absolutely, there is so much going on in the knifemaking / metallurgy world right now anyway... and most people are not informed about any of it@@JohnFrumFromAmerica
There is a major distinction. Quenching the knives in the tears of blue fin tuna is what makes them superior to anything else on the market.
@@JohnFrumFromAmerica it wins in terms of sharpenability. Powdered steels are hard and tough because of carbides, but those carbides also make it much harder to sharpen.
yea forging most kind of stainless causes the grain structure to swell and a lot of the chromium to burn off. at least in my experience. 304 and 404 are not good but perhaps a high vanadium alloy might work
The ergonomics of this knives are really different. It feels very very different from commercial made knives.
To get the best out of knives you need the proper steels for the right task. First off moving to a powder metal would help the performance of many knive steels or using the type of steel with the characteristics you need in them. Do you need high alloy low alloy carbon or stainless? Do you need high toughness, corrosion resistance, ability to hold an edge or ease of sharpening? There is alot that goes into a good knife and a good material
Truly if you need a 20k knife when a 500$ knife will do the same then its about ego.
Yes all those guys driving Ferrari and Bugatti can get the experience driving a Corolla.😂
How do these carbon steels compare to cd1 or magnacut?
The absolute pinnacle of craftmanship and attention to detail based on turning work into art. Japanese not just, but especially with knifes and sword making were high tech way before this term was invented. Excellent report, thx WSJ👍
I never had any problems with cheap knives as long as you sharpen them. These guys, they take knives too seriously. Its not that serious. But I respect the quality.
No water cooling on the grinders? hmm.
Буквально:
Ножи: 😑😑😑
Ножи из Японии: 🥵🥵🥵
Bark River Knives a bit envious here (**)
Powder steels may give you more control over the blade during the forging process. I've never seen a sushi knife made of Magnacut steel.
Powder steels don't need forging by the knife maker just forming the shape and heat treatment. A good powder steel will be significantly better than any forged knife.
@@JohnFrumFromAmerica
That statement is incorrect
@@zoggrog8823 CPM steels have their "ingredients" more evenly distributed due to how it is processed.
It's a ridiculous argument. You're cutting meat. Blade geometry, thickness behind the edge is ALL that matters. How much maintenance depends on blade steel and heat treatment.
Sushi knives aren't made of stainless steel because they need to be extremely sharp and be sharpened easily to be extremely sharp.
If you need to sharpen every day to maintain an extremely sharp edge, magnacut isn't good. Very hard steels are good for maintaining a very sharp edge for a long time without sharpening, but not good when you need an extremely sharp edge that requires lots of sharpening.
I know nothing of sushi knives..please forgive my ignorance.
However,
Has any decent knife maker utilized "super stainless steel" such as s90v, m390, etc for such an application?
Cutting 20 thousand dollar knife from a blank made from sheet metal?
It's just metal. What were you expecting?
@GeneSargentArt a proportional price. Though I guess if I could sell cnc cut sheet metal for 20 grand per square foot I would.
@@IIrandhandleII but it's not just the material cost, it's all the work and knowledge that goes into it
@GeneSargentArt yep I agree it's art but as a buyer I would be apprehensive knowing it came from sheet metal. I would prefer it to be forged like a traditional samurai sword but I'm not a knife expert just an enthusiast.
Fascinating.
Ridiculous ! might as well call these 20K knives bitcoin
wat
Japan really loves slicing things. From people to fishes.
i hate the wsj, but love this video
The ultimate flex for da roadmen
Respect 🫡
Myamoto Musashi had a few things to say about good and bad blades.
There never was a good blade made of bad steel.
This is way overblown. Sushi is basically diner food in Japan. Most of the sushi we eat in Japan is from the grocery store, and they're not using such high level knives no more than all musicians are all playing top of the line instruments.
Like any chef, of any cuisine, of course the very best chefs have the most elite personal equipment. Zero difference. But most, they're using common pro level knives like any chef.
You can buy high quality knives in Japan in any department store. The absolute top chefs, of course they have their knives made custom just for them, but that's not the norm at all.
i agree with that! after shopping in kappabashira for kitchen knives, and didn't pick any, i asked an excellent sushi chef his thoughts on the gear. he said it's a little overblown to go for expensive steels. if you keep the tools on-hand sharp by yourself or by hiring someone, that's what's more important which is what i went and practiced. just yesterday i sharpened my coworker's knife. his jaw dropped to see his old $10 cuisinart cut the way it did. pretty video though
I want to know who made his eye glasses
I wonder what other type of 👓 do you have in US an a...s glasses, a knobbbb 👓 ??
the hubris of the menu
Why not just inflate the price to $100,000, if you’re going to sell knives for $20,000? 😂😂😂
Remarkable
outstanding viewing content here.
I’d love to use one of these in Call of Duty
"Otaku" means "Geek." It's not anymore mystical or complicated than that. If you are an otaku of anything, it doesn't mean you're an expert, but that you're really into it., a geek.
just like everywhere else - people pay that much just so that they can say they paid that much
ngl these are kinda overprice
Very well produced, but this make Nenohi seem like the non plus ultra of japanese knives, which they aren't. They are way overpriced and for a fraction of the price you get way better knives.
why is it seemly the japanese are only producing incredible craftsmen these days. in the west we also used to make beautiful things but no more.
Never heard of Apple….!?!?
Because it's completely unnecessary and overly expensive.
@@rickwilliams967 Hmm... Something tells me your watching this on one of Elons androids 🤷♂ spare a thought for the rest of us...
Germany has for a long time been very skilled and meticulous about their crafts.. their knives for instance are very high quality, of course they’re of a very different style/materials compared to Japanese cutlery.
No real money in custom work. They are painstakingly training people over a long period of time. Need a lot of patience.
Quentin Tarantino reincarnated as a Japanese knifemaker.
Everything in japan is hand crafted with passion, .. japan is the best country to live in...
working in japan is really stressful and tough though
@walv7952 I rather live in japan over the states where I'm at.. too much crimes all around.
Is this a Hattori Hanzo knife ?
Does it make the food taste better?
Pretty sure it does
Yes it does. A sharp knife will do minimal damage to the meat fibers, which makes for a more pleasant texture to the mouth, which our brain interprets as more pleasant.
I respect the craftsmanship,but put this effort into ceramic and create something out of this world.
Yeah, you can get a Victorinox dirt cheap that can do the exact same thing. Just comes down to taking care of the knife. Fun fact, any real chef or butcher will go through dozens of knives. Very quickly too. This is absolutely not feasible for anyone that uses logic.
Are you a professional cook by any chance? Would love to hear you elaborate your opinion
@Kevin888yt only makes sense to professional dummies. Pros make their bones on 100-200 dollar knives just fine, and it's performance will be exactly as good as this one. A knife at 20k you are paying for prestige, not performance
"yusuke continues to speak foreign language" blocking the actual subtitles is such a bad oversight
Look at Sandrin Knives, this is really new.....
Impressive
There's plenty of handmade stainless steel from other knife makers for a much better price, this is just brand hype
You watched that whole video and you come to the conclusion that price is a key factor in the buying decision? Back to Walmart, kid. Adults are speaking.
おしゃっる通りです
@@angryspacerasta1398 That comment is beyond dumb
The hole „carbon steel is sharper“ is because stainless is harder to sharpen. Thankfully this is the 21st century and cheap/high quality diamond sharpening stones and lapping compounds are available now.
It’s probably more supply demand based on individual reputation than hype. I have several Japanese knives, and I can tell you the difference is apparent as soon as you put it in your hand.
And I’m over here getting mad at my $80 knife for not slicing like this…
You should sharpen it. an expensive knife wont cut well if its dull.
Awesome 😎
Hes in his 50's?! Dude looks younger than me and im 35!
Did these generational blade makers make blades for Unit 731?
As an F&B consultant, I'm kind of skeptical that chefs would pay that much for a knife. I know they strive for perfection, but the return on investment for this is really minimal. There is a drastic drop in benefits vs. costs here. Typical restaurant knives cost $20-30 from Victorinox. An ultra professional knife would cost like $300, but investing in a $20,000? That sounds more of a collector's item than a work tool.
It’s the name and the marketing team lol.
how about if we add in there clout, dependability, precision, comfort, and enjoyment? Some of those things are rather intangible. High luxurious services and goods go beyond tangible economic measures. Is it necessary? i dont think anyone starting their business cares to buy a knife that expensive. But a knife at $20K is the same as someone who buys a Patek or Rolex. For making only 100-200 a year, i don't see why this business and the consumers arent reasonable and passionate and totally validated for wanting something like this.
Skeptical? People who work on cars pays tens of thousands of dollars on tools. A knife is considered a tool as well. I wouldn't see why a chef wouldn't purchase a good quality tool. 😂
@@bphonn88 its about the law of diminishing returns. A car mechanic would pay for tools that increase efficiency, like an air powered lug nuts impact wrench that can take out tyre nuts in a few seconds. Not a $20,000 manual wrench thats made from damascus steel that would function the same as a high-quality $100 wrech.
Spoken like a true penny-pincher. If they're willing or able to spend that much on a knife, I doubt they really care or worry about "return on investment," especially since we're talking probably the top 1-5% of sushi chefs working at the highest end restaurants.
Don’t believe this nonsense about steel. US makes the best knife steel in the world. Damascus just looks pretty. It’s not the best. How sharp do you think you need to cut fish? Do you think a straight razor would cut? I’m a machinist and I have made special purpose knives since 1964.
Some one who does not live in Africa but only in their imagination.
Kinda just seems like an infomercial for this guy.
High end Japanese knives have been made from stainless steel for decades now.
They talk as if its rare yokai magic or something. Its impressive craftsmanship, but they exaggerated as if their lives were dependent on it.
No I think they just are showing how much effort they put into the fit and finish of their knives. I'll never own one of these nenohi cause it's not my style but I love the Western handle nenox knives.
Yeah... everything in Japan seemes to be art. Even cutting the fish for sushi is an art.
China and japan always exaggerate things , they make paper - stand in line joins hands incense sticks. As if they are doing something that cannot be done .
Right? I can get my klien wire cutting knife pretty sharp with a grinder
@@timothyb.4928 yikes
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Japanese in my life, they know how to drag a job out
Drag it out, or ensure the best possible outcome?
@@rhubarbpie2027 no, thats dragging out, they are just slow. look at how much faster Blaupließter in Solinge worked. This is just again one of these Hipster overengineered Workshops where half of the workhours are for cleaning the workshop.
@@Hans-Yolo I hope you get the chance to visit Japan for an extended period and learn to appreciate their culture.
@@rhubarbpie2027 i appreciate their cultur but its also a thing in Japan to do things more complicated then they have to be, especially with knifes and swords. I know the reasons why they did things like they have. the western world has a tendency to romanticizing this things. The realy old Knifemakers in Japan dont work so slow as these guys do but their knifes are also from very high quality i bet and they dont need fancy digital hardness tester or a "special developed" beltgrinder ( which was nothing more than a bigger diameter wheel shch makes grinding and polishing knifes easier )
@@Hans-Yolo ? These are high end knives meant for those seeking perfection. Of course it take a long time for each knife to be crafted. It is because of their crazy prices, high quality and effort to make which gives the knives from Japan the image of being over complicated. However, these knives take up a small amount of the total knives made in Japan. Try finding high end honyakis, several pieces are released here and there and are not easy to find. On the opposite spectrum there are Japanese knives which are much cheaper at around 100USD, but still with good quality, being churned out in crazy numbers and distributed widely overseas. Not every single Japanese knife goes through the crazy and lengthy process as seen in this video.
In the Western world where craft knives are also important, there are cheaper mass produced knives, but also high quality custom knives which can make you wait for months to years to get your knife made for you.
Look at cars, Rolls Royce in the England are super overcomplicated and expensive. Yes, but there is still a group of people willing to spend the money and time to wait for such products. Toyota, Honda etc from Japan are churning cars out in huge quantities.
It is not right to say Japan over complicate things. They do pay greater attention details to the things they do, but they can also excel in high volume manufacturing with good quality.
Many, many better Japanese knife makers than Nenohi, whose knives are middle of the road.
my budget for a sushi is $4 max
I have a small knife from these guys its ok may be a bit over rated and a bit tough to keep an edge on
always surprised how many people in the comments don't realize watching this youtube channel is same as watching commercials, paid programming, or reading a tabloid near the checkout....
this channel is very clear that everything they say is paid for, yet occidentals take it extremely seriously 😂
Never pay for that price. Theres a lot out there. Way better.