Kyohei Forging

The world is constantly accelerating. It is produced more efficiently, cheaper, faster and above all more. In this era, it is rather rare to come across honest handwork where quality and tradition win over quantity and profit. The entire galaxy of great blacksmiths is at the end of their productive years, and not everyone was able to raise an adequate successor.

We believed that if we have a patience and set aside enough time and resources, we will manage to keep representatives of traditional hizukuri in our assortment. That's why we went to the legendary Tosa, the place of work of such greats as Tsutomu Kajiwara and Takeo Murata. The first success was the establishment of cooperation with Master Kitaoka. His knives have proven themselves for us, but we needed another source to bridge the long delivery times. After more than a year, we have the honor to introduce you to our new supplier, Kyohei Forging. 

The company was founded by Kyohei Shindo. Born in Sapporo, he decided to study biology in Okinawa as he grew up. However, he was very skilled and liked to do crafts. They eventually won out over biology and the planned Sapporo-Okinawa route ended halfway, on the island of Shikoku. He worked in the workshops of experienced blacksmiths and his talent helped him become an instructor at the Tosa Cutlery Federation Cooperative Association at a young age. Today it has its own Kyohei Forging workshop. 

Shindo san specializes in knives typical of the Tosa region. They are hand-forged San Mai blades from Aogami "blue" steel with a symmetrical Hamaguri edge on both sides and a Kurouchi finish. As tradition dictates, the blades are hand-stamped. In addition to the kanji characters of the region (Tosa), the name of the author (Shindo), you will also find the type of steel (blue inside). In this particular case, Aogami 2 steel with a hardness of 63 HRC was used. 

The blades are set in octagonal walnut handles. The black ferrule is made of stabilized pakkawood.

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