The questions we hear most.

Six lines, each built around a steel and a character. In short:

Most home cooks start with KATA. For a full Damascus all-rounder, RYU. For a knife forged in Sakai, KYU. For looks, NIJI. For the finest edge, SHIN. The Knife Quiz narrows it in a couple of minutes, or see them side by side, with current prices, on the comparison page.

Japanese double-bevel knives are sharpened to a finer angle than Western ones, typically 10 to 15 degrees a side against around 20, so they cut with less effort. The steel is harder too, which keeps the edge longer but asks for a little more care.

Hand wash and dry it straight after use, store it on a magnetic rack or in a block, and keep it to wooden boards. No dishwasher, no twisting through the cut, and nothing frozen or bone-in. These habits become second nature quickly, and the knife rewards them for years.

The KATA Bunka is where most people start. A Gyuto or Santoku in KATA or RYU is just as easy to live with.

For most home cooks, a Gyuto or Bunka chef's knife. It's the workhorse: slicing, chopping, mincing, general prep. A 20–21cm blade suits most kitchens.

If your counter or your hands are smaller, the 18cm Santoku is a lovely alternative and easy to control. If you cook vegetable-forward, the 16–18cm Nakiri makes push-cutting a pleasure.

Gyuto is the Western-style chef's knife: long and gently curved, the all-purpose workhorse for meat, fish and vegetables. Santoku is the Japanese all-rounder: shorter and flatter, easy to control, ideal in smaller kitchens. Bunka is close to a Santoku but with a pointed reverse-tanto tip for finer detail work. Nakiri is the flat, rectangular vegetable knife, made for clean straight-down cuts.

If you want one knife for most things, choose a Gyuto or Santoku. Add a Nakiri if you cook vegetable-forward, or a Petty for small, precise jobs.

Sets save you versus buying the same knives separately and cover most tasks in one go, which is ideal if you're replacing a whole collection or buying a gift for someone setting up a kitchen. Every Oishya set is three knives from a single line.

That said, we often suggest starting with one good knife, learning to use and care for it, then adding over time as you discover what you reach for. Many people begin with a KATA Bunka and later add a SHIN Petty or a NIJI Nakiri.

Yes, and many people do. A common mix is a KATA Bunka or RYU Gyuto as the everyday knife with a SHIN Petty for precision.

Every handle across the range is built the same way: stabilised maple burl in one of three finishes, Natural Brown, Mediterranean Blue or Olive Green, with the same octagonal shape, bog oak ferrule and copper ring. A mixed collection still looks like a set on the rack even when the blades show different patterns.

Three reasons, none of them the box. The steel is harder (HRC 60–63 against 55–58 for most Western knives), so it takes and holds a finer edge. The blade is ground thinner, which is slower, more skilled work and the reason it cuts with so little effort. And a properly made Japanese knife is built to be resharpened for decades: enough blade height to survive a hundred sharpenings before the geometry runs out.

Spread over the years it is the cheaper knife. Used and sharpened for decades, it will still be cutting when the third or fourth budget knife has gone in the bin.

They are the cutting core of the blade, the part that meets the food. All four are stainless. VG10 (KATA, RYU) is the reference Japanese kitchen steel: hard enough to hold a keen edge, easy to sharpen at home. AUS10 (KYU) is a close cousin, a touch tougher and more forgiving of the occasional knock. SG2 (SHIN) is a powder steel: finer grain, harder (HRC 62–63), the longest edge between sharpenings and the most expensive. 12Cr18MoV (NIJI) sits alongside VG10 in hardness at HRC 60–61.

Honest guidance: for most home cooks the difference between VG10 and AUS10 is smaller than the difference between a sharp knife and a dull one. Choose SG2 if you sharpen rarely and want the longest working edge. The shape and size of the blade matter more to how the knife feels than the steel does.

Largely, yes, and we would rather say so. The pattern is the outer cladding: 33, 37 or 46 layers of softer steel folded around the core. The core does the cutting; the layers protect it, add a little flex, and carry the wave you see. More layers do not mean a sharper knife.

What is not decoration: the hammered (tsuchime) finish on KYU and KATA. The dimples hold a film of air so slices release instead of clinging to the blade. Choose Damascus because you like looking at it. Choose the line for the steel and the shape.

HRC is Rockwell hardness. Our blades run from 56–57 (PAN, deliberately, for a serrated edge) to 62–63 (SHIN). Harder steel holds an edge longer and can be ground thinner, but it is also more brittle: it will chip where a softer German blade would roll. Harder is better for how long the edge lasts; it is not better for someone who cuts through bones or twists the blade. Between 60 and 62, where KATA, RYU and KYU sit, is the everyday sweet spot.

All stainless, every line. No patina, no oiling the blade, no rust if you dry it after washing. We chose stainless because most people who buy from us are home cooks who want the sharpness without the ritual. If you were hoping for a reactive carbon blade, we are not the right shop, and we would rather tell you now.

Every Oishya knife is double-bevel, ground symmetrically on both sides, so it works the same in either hand. The octagonal handle has no left or right. Traditional single-bevel Japanese knives (Yanagiba, Deba) are handed; we do not make those.

21cm for almost everyone. It handles a whole cabbage and a shallot with equal grace and fits a normal domestic board. 24cm (SHIN only) is for large boards, big joints, and cooks who already know they want the length. If you are between the two, take the 21.

The blades are forged in Japan (KYU in Sakai, the other five lines in Seki) by workshops we have worked with for years. The handles are made in Poland, where the stabilised maple burl and bog oak, around 2,500 years old, are shaped and mounted to the blade. The hiba boards come from Aomori, Japan. We say all of this plainly because "made in Japan" on its own would not be the whole truth.

The knife, in a handcrafted wooden box. A certificate of authenticity under the Sakai Kyuba or Seki Kyuba name, carrying our hanko stamp. And a five-yen coin. No wrapping needed if it is a gift.

The superstition, that a gifted blade cuts the bond between giver and receiver, turns up across Europe and Asia, and the answer to it is the same everywhere: the receiver pays a coin for the knife, so it counts as bought, not given. That is why a five-yen coin comes in every box. Said aloud in Japanese, five yen is go-en, which also means a good connection.

Practically: every knife ships gift-ready in its wooden box, you can send it to a different address, tick "this is a gift" at checkout and no prices go in the parcel.

Hand wash with warm water and a little soap, then dry it straight away. Never the dishwasher. Store it on a magnetic rack, in a block, or in a saya, not loose in a drawer.

Keep it to wooden cutting boards, and don't twist through the cut or use it on bones or frozen food. That's really all it asks.

On a whetstone, which is the right tool for a Japanese edge. Avoid pull-through and electric sharpeners, and we don't recommend honing rods for these knives.

When the blade stops gliding through a tomato skin, soak a 1000/6000 grit stone, hold the blade at 10 to 15 degrees (on a typical chef's knife that puts the spine about 12mm above the stone), and draw it heel to tip, a dozen or so strokes a side at each grit. For most home cooks that's three or four times a year. There's a full guide in Knife School.

The blades are stainless, so they don't need oiling. The handle is stabilised maple burl with a bog oak ferrule, and a little food-safe oil now and then keeps the wood from drying out over the years.

Wood, ideally a soft-to-medium hardwood like hinoki, hiba, walnut or cherry. Avoid glass, stone, marble and hard bamboo, which are harder than the steel and dull or chip the edge quickly. Good plastic is fine for raw meat, but wood is kinder day to day.

Used as a kitchen knife, no. Hard steel chips when it is used as a tool: through bones, frozen food, hard cheese rinds, squash skins, crusty bread, or when the blade is twisted to prise something apart, or scraped edge-down across the board to gather food. Slice with a forward stroke, gather with the spine, and keep it off glass, stone and hard bamboo boards.

For bread, that is what the PAN is for. For bones and frozen food, a cheap Western knife you do not mind abusing.

No. The heat and the detergent dull the edge, the blade knocks against everything else, and water gets into the handle. Warm water, a little soap, dry it straight away. Thirty seconds.

It can, if it is left wet, or sat in salty or acidic residue overnight. Stainless resists rust; it does not refuse it. Wash and dry after use and you will never see it. If a spot does appear, a rust eraser or a fine stone lifts it in a minute without harming the blade.

We say no. Steel rods are made for softer Western blades; on a hard Japanese edge they can chip the very edge you are trying to keep. The whetstone does the same job better and takes a few minutes every couple of months. If you must have a rod between sessions, use a fine ceramic one and a very light touch.

For a home cook using the knife most days: a proper session on the 1000/6000 stone three or four times a year, with a quick pass on the 6000 side in between when the tomato skin starts to resist. SHIN holds an edge longest; KATA and RYU are the easiest to bring back. Sharpening is a ten-minute skill, and Knife School teaches it.

A small chip comes out on the stone at home; Knife School shows how. For anything bigger, such as a broken tip, write to us with a photo. Repairs are done in our workshop in Poland, and we tell you what can be done before any work starts.

Sharpening is included for the life of every Oishya knife: send it to us and we sharpen it. You cover the shipping both ways. We would still teach you the stone first.

On a magnetic rack or stand, or in its wooden box, never loose in a drawer, where the edge knocks against everything else. If you take it anywhere, wrap the blade or use a saya; on a plane it goes in checked luggage, never hand baggage.

The maple burl is stabilised with resin, so it does not swell, crack or drink up water the way raw wood does. Wipe it dry with the blade. A rub of food-safe oil a few times a year keeps the burl and the bog oak looking as they did on day one.

Worldwide, with one flat fee per region and free shipping above a set order value. The fee and the free-shipping threshold for your country, in your currency, are on the shipping page, with an estimator. In-stock orders leave us within 1–2 business days.

Possibly, depending on where it's going. We ship from the United Kingdom duty-unpaid, so any import VAT, duty or carrier handling is settled on arrival rather than at our checkout. For deliveries to the EU that is in practice around 20–25% of the order value, paid to the carrier rather than to us. Elsewhere it depends on the country and the carrier.

If you're in the EU, write to us at info@oishya.com before you order. For part of the range we can ship from our warehouse in Poland, in which case there are no import charges at all. We'll tell you honestly whether that is possible for the pieces you have in mind.

We always declare the true value, so we can't mark parcels as gifts.

After the 1–2 day dispatch, transit is usually 2–7 business days within Europe and 6–21 days for the US and rest of world, depending on the service. Customs can add a little time during busy or changing periods.

In the UK, yes. The law does not allow knives to be sold to anyone under 18, so parcels containing a blade travel on an age-verified service and the courier may ask for ID at the door. If you are sending a gift, make sure the recipient is an adult who can sign for it. Other countries have their own rules; we ship compliantly to each.

You have 100 days. Cook with it a few times and see how it sits in your hand. If it isn't right, send it back in its original condition, sharp and free of chips or damage, for a full refund. A knife that has been used until the edge is dull can't be returned.

Not once it's shipped, unfortunately, as whetstones are fragile and can't be resold. Please check yours the moment it arrives and report any manufacturing defect within 24 hours with clear photos.

Yes, on our Sakai Kyuba and Seki Kyuba knife ranges and on the wooden magnetic stand block and wall-mounted magnetic rack. If a manufacturing or material defect ever functionally impairs one, we repair or replace it free of charge. It doesn't cover normal wear, accidents, misuse, loss or improper storage.

No. A chip is damage from use, not a defect, in the same way a dent in a pan is. The guarantee covers faults in materials or making: a handle that loosens on its own, steel that fails. For chips and broken tips, write to us with a photo; repairs are done in our workshop in Poland, and we tell you what can be done before any work starts.

Visa and Mastercard, credit or debit, and PayPal. PayPal adds a 3.5% processing fee.

No. Our prices stay the same all year. There are two exceptions: 5% off your first order when you join the Slow Letter, our monthly email, and a small thank-you code after you leave a review of your knife.

Yes. You'll get a tracking link as soon as it leaves us, and express orders travel signed-for so the knife isn't left on a doorstep.

Pounds, euros or US dollars. Switch at the top of any page and the prices, and your checkout, follow. The shipping page shows the free-shipping threshold in your currency.

Yes. Tick "this is a gift" at checkout and the parcel goes out with no invoice or prices inside, to whichever address you give. We cannot add handwritten cards or choose a delivery date (the knife ships from a fulfilment centre), but the wooden box needs no wrapping.

Sometimes, on some pieces. Engraving is up to four words and costs £30. It isn't an option at checkout: email info@oishya.com before you order with the knife and the words, and we'll tell you whether we can do it for that piece.