Guide: How To Choose Your First Japanese Kitchen Knife
February 7, 2018
Buying your first Japanese knife feels like a gamble. Here’s how to read shape, steel and handle so it isn’t, plus the 100-day guarantee that softens the risk.
The Journal · Stories from Oishya
The Oishya Journal
Stories from the workshops, the table, and the long way around.
Featured · From the Journal
In this issue
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15 Best Christmas Gifts For Japan Fans
November 23, 2017
Fifteen presents for the Japan obsessive in your life, from a 100-sheet origami set to a kintsugi kit and 24-carat gold-lined bone porcelain.
How To Kintsugi DYI – Japanese Art Of Kintsukuroi Repair
November 15, 2017
No glue, no filler: urushi lacquer and real gold powder bond broken pottery, and the golden seam is meant to stay imperfect because that flaw is the point.
The Best Way To Store Your Kitchen Knives And Metal Tools Safely
November 11, 2017
Why a loose drawer ruins knife edges, and how magnetic racks and blocks keep blades sharp, space saved and out of children’s reach.
8 Ways To Use A Magnetic Kitchen Knife Rack
November 10, 2017
That magnetic strip will hold more than knives: drill bits in the workshop, drying paintbrushes, makeup brushes, pot lids and stray bobby pins.
How To Fillet A Fish With A Japanese Knife (+ Video)
August 28, 2017
Trim the fins, open the belly, run the blade along the spine: filleting a round fish like sea bass or mackerel with a Deba, with a video to follow.
Are Japanese Carving Knives As Good As The Western Ones?
August 17, 2017
The Sujihiki packs 240-300mm of thin, double-bevel blade, and some sushi chefs reach for it over the yanagiba when slicing sashimi.
How Do I Check If My Kitchen Knife Is Still Sharp?
August 16, 2017
How to tell if a kitchen knife still needs sharpening, using the paper slice and everyday cutting tests, plus how edge angle affects sharpness.
Knife Drawer, Knife Stand or Magnetic Rack – What Is Better?
August 13, 2017
Knife drawers, blocks and magnetic racks compared on space, usability, hygiene, child safety and price to help you store blades well.
Guide: Kitchen Knife Handle Types And Materials
August 12, 2017
Most buyers obsess over the steel, but the handle carries the knife: cocobolo, ebony and rosewood compared, plus why soft woods fail in a wet kitchen.
A Pole Who Teaches Japanese How To Make Knives
August 7, 2017
A self-taught blacksmith from Reda, Poland now teaches young Japanese how to forge the knives their own country made famous, one YouTube vlog at a time.
Top 10 Knife Care Tips We Learned From Professionals
August 5, 2017
Master blacksmiths told us to sharpen four or five times a year and judge the edge on a sheet of paper. Nine more habits that keep a blade honest.
Tobacco, Portuguese & The Japanese Knives: The History Of Sakai Knives
June 20, 2017
Portuguese traders brought tobacco to Sakai in 1543, and the knives farmers needed to cut the leaves became the cooking blades the town is famous for.
15 Kitchen Tips Every Pro Cook Should Know
June 14, 2017
Fifteen working tips from chefs like Emeril Lagasse and Daniel Boulud: spotting ivory marbling in beef, skipping the £110 mandoline, and braising cheap cuts tender.
How to Prepare Wagyu, The Most Expensive Steak Ever, At Home
June 10, 2017
Wagyu runs around £200/kg, but 1kg feeds six and the cooking is almost insultingly simple: sear, season, serve from a screaming-hot cast-iron pan.
How To Mount A Blade To A Knife Handle?
June 6, 2017
Tape the edge, wear the glasses, mind the dust: fitting a handle to a razor-sharp Japanese blade, plus a simple antler mount borrowed from hunting knives.
Top 25 Kitchen Tricks That Will Help Any Aspiring Cook
June 4, 2017
Run a pizza wheel through dough, drop a bread slice in with clumped brown sugar, microwave a lemon for 30 seconds: 25 fixes for everyday kitchen snags.
The Difference Between Aogami #2 And Aogami Super Blue
May 25, 2017
Both come from Hitachi, but Aogami Super adds vanadium for a harder, longer-lasting edge, while #2 stays easier to sharpen. Which fits how you cook?
Steel Qualities Of Kitchen Knives – A Cheat Sheet
May 20, 2017
One chart lining up Shirogami, Kigami, Aogami and the GIN stainless grades by hardness, price and what each blade is actually built for.
What Is Yasugi Steel And What Makes It So Great?
May 20, 2017
Smelted from sand iron in Shimane, Yasugi steel splits into yellow, white and blue grades. Top smiths favour the white and blue and skip the cheap yellow.
What Is Rockwell Hardness (A.Ka. HRC)?
April 14, 2017
An axe sits near 50 HRC, supermarket knives 54-58, good kitchen blades 60-66. What that diamond-point test measures, and why harder isn’t always better.
Different Types Of Kitchen Knives, What They’re Used For
April 13, 2017
Most homes own three or four knives without really thinking about it. Here are the ten common types sorted, and the four worth buying first.
How To De-Rust And Sharpen An Old Knife Like A Pro
April 10, 2017
How to remove rust from an old knife using vinegar or lemon juice, then sharpen the blade back to a clean edge on a stone or honing rod.
All About Cooking Knives
April 10, 2017
The chef’s knife began as a butchery tool for slicing through cartilage. Here’s how the gyuto and its French and German cousins compare today.
Our Latest Trip To Takefu & Sakai – Japanese Knife Villages
February 7, 2017
Back from the forges of Takefu and Sakai, where an ageing trade and few young smiths explain why a handmade knife can take months.
The Most Comprehensive Guide To Japanese Kitchen Knives You’ll Ever Read
February 7, 2017
Nine blade shapes, six steel finishes, and how to keep any of them sharp. If you read one thing before buying, make it the long version.
Top 10 Most Expensive Knives In The World
February 7, 2017
A $5,300 Yoshihiro Honyaki with a hamon shaped like Mount Fuji is only number ten here. Above it: diamonds, gold and rare wood.
What’s The Difference Between German Vs. Japanese Knives?
February 7, 2017
One holds a near-scalpel edge but will rust; the other shrugs off abuse. It comes down to Rockwell hardness, high 50s against mid 60s.
Western Vs. Japanese Kitchen Knife Types
February 7, 2017
Five blades, two traditions: the chef’s knife, Santoku, paring, bread and carving knife, and where Western and Japanese versions part ways.
Are Japanese Knives Worth Their Price?
February 7, 2017
A £1,000 knife can take five weeks and a workshop of four to forge. What the price buys: layered steel, hand-welding and balance.
The steel decides when it's ready. Not me. — Our Sakai blacksmith, on patience
From the workshops
Stories from the places our knives are made.
Japanese Knife Care: 5 Essential Rules for a Lifetime of Sharp Cutting
April 4, 2026
Five rules for caring for a Japanese knife, covering hand washing, the right cutting board, whetstone sharpening, and proper storage.
The Story Behind Oishya: From Japan’s Knife Villages to Your Kitchen
April 4, 2026
The story of Oishya, a brand born from trips to Sakai and Seki that works with Japanese workshops to make knives for European home cooks.
Best Kitchen Gifts for Summer 2026: 10 Ideas They Will Love
April 4, 2026
Ten kitchen gifts for summer 2026 cooks, from a Sakai Kyuba santoku and brass chopsticks to walnut cutting boards and a three-knife set.
A note from Kamila
Why we write a journal at all.
We grew Oishya through stories, not ads. The articles we wrote, the workshops we visited, the meals we cooked. This journal is where that work lives.
Some pieces teach you about steel and edges. Some are recipes. Some are just the long way around to saying that good tools, made by people we know, are worth keeping.
On the table
Meals worth keeping.
Japanese Knife Care: 5 Essential Rules for a Lifetime of Sharp Cutting
April 4, 2026
Five rules for caring for a Japanese knife, covering hand washing, the right cutting board, whetstone sharpening, and proper storage.
The Story Behind Oishya: From Japan’s Knife Villages to Your Kitchen
April 4, 2026
The story of Oishya, a brand born from trips to Sakai and Seki that works with Japanese workshops to make knives for European home cooks.
Best Kitchen Gifts for Summer 2026: 10 Ideas They Will Love
April 4, 2026
Ten kitchen gifts for summer 2026 cooks, from a Sakai Kyuba santoku and brass chopsticks to walnut cutting boards and a three-knife set.
Blades behind the stories
The knives these stories are about.
Every story here started with a blade. Find the one that matches the way you cook.
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