Wakui Hamono

Toshihiro Wakui forges, heat-treats, and grinds all his knives himself at his small Sanjo workshop. Like many family knife-making operations, the workshop is located in a residential neighborhood, with the ground floor of the house transformed long ago into a workshop. The sound of forging during the day is the only giveaway as to the nature of the work being done. Sanjo used to have numerous shops like this, producing a variety of metalwork. Wakui-san’s father still produced pry bars, but cheaper imported tools sold at large home centers in Japan have taken the lion’s share of the business.

Wakui-san decided to dedicate himself to knife-making to keep the family business running and began his knifemaking journey by working long hours as an apprentice at Yoshikane Cutlery in Sanjo, Japan. He has built a loyal following since we first carried his knives in 2015. His hard work shows in the quality of his smithing and excellent grinding work. We’re proud to offer his knives and feel they represent top-shelf Sanjo knifemaking, though Wakui-san may be too modest to say so himself; in our eyes, he has joined the ranks of Sanjo’s top knife-makers.

Wakui knives have a solid, robust Sanjo feel, thin behind the edges, thicker at the spine with clean grinds that make follow-up thinning easy. Of his offerings, the iron-clad V2 carbon steel is the thinnest, followed by the stainless-clad Shirogami 2, and the stainless-clad Aogami 2 is the thickest; the ease of sharpening is also in that order, with the aogami having a bit more wear resistance than the Shirogami 2 or V2.