The Knifenerd Guide to Japanese Knives : The Insider’s View of the Blacksmiths, Creation, Care, and Artistry of the Best Kitchen Knives in the World

This book came to my attention when it came up as missing during a shelf check for holds. I found the book misshelved but close to where it belonged. What I was first taken with was the very attractive and well made binding of the book. Library staff have to deal with a lot of binding damage so good binding is very appealing. When I was processing the book for a hold I noticed it was about Japanese knife making. I was intrigued and placed a hold on the book for myself for when the book came back. 

I had been in Japan two years earlier and had seen just how amazing Japanese cooking knives are first hand in the Kappabashi neighbourhood while I was in Tokyo. Kappabashi is famous for its dozens of kitchen and restaurant supply stores. Kappabashi’s patron mascot is the kappa, which is an anthropomorphic turtle-like creature from Japanese folklore. I still do not know what the connection is between cooking stores and kappas, but nearly every store and signpost had statues and cute cartoons of the creature. I must forewarn anyone who plans on looking up the Wikipedia article, kappa mythology is grossly bizarre or riotously funny depending on your sense of humour.

Cooking and the history and technology of cooking are subjects of interest and hobby for me so seeing Kappabashi had been on my bucket list for things to see in Tokyo. I was hoping to see beautiful traditional Japanese ceramics and lacquerware in Kappabashi and I was not disappointed. One of my favourite souvenirs from that trip was a bunny shaped stoneware salt cellar that I bought in Kappabashi. 

What I was unprepared for was all the knives! There were so many stores there that sold nothing but kitchen knives, and every single knife I saw a work of art. I had never seen so much variety and quality in finish and grind and there were so many different shapes and sizes of knives that did not exist in Western cooking. When I tried to talk to knife store workers my ignorance of Japanese knife conventions quickly became apparent. What was the functional difference between a knife made from super blue steel versus VG10 stainless steel? Alongside Western style knife types like carving knives and chef knives there were Japanese specific knife forms such as usaba and gyuto knives that I had no idea what they were used for. I noticed that many of the Japanese style knives were asymmetrical and only sharpened on one side or bevel of the blade. When I asked a store worker if the single sided blades could only be used by right handers or if there were left handed knifes that were ground on the reverse side, he looked at me like his head was going to explode. I left the kitchen market very, very curious to learn more about Japanese knives.

When The Knifenerd Guide arrived for me I was expecting a technical reference book with some historical information about Japanese knife making. The book definitely had that information, but it was more of a cross between a photo travelogue and an ethnographic account by a Canadian ex-chef and knife seller on how he first discovered Japanese knives and how he went to Japan to meet the artisans. 

The first half of the book records the stories of the various Japanese blacksmiths, apprentices, machinists, and sharpeners who work at the smithies and factories that still produce hand forged kitchen knives. There are many full page pictures of heavy industrial looking forges strewn with half finished masterpiece knives. Every surface is covered in black carbon dust. Some of the people interviewed were from families that had been smithing for more than ten generations. With the ban on the samurai from carrying swords during the Mejji Restoration and then the demilitarization of Japan after WWII, blacksmiths specializing in sword making lost most of their business. Many of the sword makers switched over to forging kitchen knives and incorporated many of the materials and techniques used to make swords.

There was juxtaposition in the book between the stories of the older generation of traditional blue collar craftsmen and the younger demographic that was more non-conformist. The oldest men interviewed, and they were all men, started apprenticing after WWII. When asked about their choice of career most of the old men said there was no choice, they were born into blacksmith families and expected to take on the family business after their fathers. The younger workers had more diverse reasons for pursuing knife making careers. Some of them were simply keeping on the family tradition, but many of them had grown up expecting to work white-collar jobs in big companies and knife making turned into their second career. Many said how they liked the creative freedom and the opportunities for experimentation in high end metal work compared to normal jobs. I suspect the longtime stagflation of the Japanese economy is a major factor in the flight of workers from “good” jobs to “dirty” jobs. There was only one young female knife worker in the Japanese knife industry that the author knew of but one of the blacksmiths spoke about wanting to apprentice his daughters when they got older.

The second half of the book goes into the technical details of how traditional Japanese knives are made. Forging steps, the chemistry behind the metallurgy, and the different finishes and ways of grinding are explained. For example the stainless steel Damascus steel used on some of the flashier knives does not usually form the cutting edge, but it is useful as a corrosion resistant cladding and for strengthening the more brittle carbon steel that typically form the razor sharp cutting edge and core of Japanese cooking knives. Different Japanese knife types are explained and how they are used and handled compare to standard Western knife types. There is how-to information on knife sharpening and sharpening stones. The second half of the book is geared towards professional food industry workers and collectors but it is useful information for home cooks who want to understand more about how their own knives work. I inherited some carbon steel and molybdenum steel knives and found the care and sharpening information very useful. 

Find this book in the Mississauga Library's Catalogue