800 years of craftsmanship, made for today, a low-maintenance Japanese knife for everyday home cooking.
Check on Kickstarter
We are SUIFU Japan
Our mission is to connect people through authentic Japanese kitchenware.
While samurai and ninja are iconic, what we truly want to share are the quiet values of Japan, such as kindness, gratitude, and respect.
Even in everyday cooking, these values live on.
It’s not just about cutting, it’s about honouring the food, the tools, and the act itself.
That’s why we created a Japanese knife that anyone can use, that is easy, thoughtful, and rooted in tradition.
This is the spirit we hope to pass on.
Traditional Japanese knives are celebrated for their exceptional sharpness. But they come with challenges: they often require special maintenance, and their ultra-hard blades are prone to chipping.
SUIFU is here to change that.
We set out to retain everything that makes Japanese knives special while making them more accessible and durable for everyday use. By combining specially engineered stainless steel with thoughtful design, we’ve created a knife that’s both sharp and user-friendly.
After using the knife, just wash it and wipe off the water. That’s it.
Nakiri (Vegetable Knife)
The Nakiri is a traditional Japanese kitchen knife that has been trusted in home kitchens since the Edo period (1600s). Its name comes from the Japanese words “菜 (na)” meaning vegetable and “切り (kiri)” meaning to cut, directly translating to “vegetable cutter.”
As the name suggests, it was specifically designed to handle vegetables with precision and care. The simplicity and practicality of the design reflect the Japanese cultural value of respecting ingredients and cooking with intention. Thanks to its consistent reliability and ease of use, it has remained a staple in Japanese households for centuries.
While many Western knives rely on a rocking motion to cut, the Nakiri is designed for straight vertical movement.
This up-and-down motion is intuitive even for beginners and allows for more controlled, predictable cuts. Because the entire blade contacts the cutting surface evenly, it reduces the risk of slipping, making it not only efficient but also safer—especially when chopping larger amounts of vegetables.
Another practical advantage of the Nakiri is its wide, flat blade, which does more than just cut. After chopping, the broad blade can be used to scoop up the sliced vegetables and transfer them directly into a pan or bowl, much like a spatula.
This feature helps streamline your cooking process, keeps your workspace tidy, and adds a level of thoughtful convenience that enhances the overall cooking experience.
Skills Handed Down Over Time
To bring this knife to life, we turned to skilled Japanese knife artisans because creating something with this level of intention required generations of knowledge, care, and craftsmanship.
One of the people who helped make this possible is Mr. Mikida, CEO of Finecraft Co.
His workshop is located in Seki City, a place known as the heart of Japanese swordsmithing for over 800 years.
The craftsmen there have mastered the art of channelling that centuries-old forging knowledge into modern kitchen knives.
Mr. Mikida himself inherited his skills from his father, continuing a generational legacy.
Even today, while machines handle part of the process, each knife is still hand-finished with care and precision.
Seki City: Japan’s Blade-Making Capital
For over 800 years, Seki City in Gifu Prefecture has been known as the center of Japanese sword and knife craftsmanship. Often referred to as the “City of Blades,” Seki’s reputation was built on its skilled swordsmiths during the samurai era. Today, that legacy continues through generations of artisans who create high-quality kitchen knives with the same precision, dedication, and spirit.
Seki’s unique natural environment with pure water, high-quality charcoal, and fine clay helped foster the ideal conditions for blade-making.
But what truly sets Seki knives apart is the Craftsmanship: a fusion of traditional techniques and modern innovations. Every blade is made with attention to detail, ensuring balance, sharpness, and durability.
Made with materials used in the medical industry
We carefully considered the blade material before making our final decision.
In the end, we chose Molybdenum AUS-8, a stainless steel known for its balance of performance and practicality.
Unlike traditional Japanese steels like Aogami (Blue Paper) or Shirogami (White Paper), which offer exceptional sharpness but are prone to rust due to their high carbon content, AUS-8 contains less carbon, making it slightly softer (HRC 57–59) but significantly more resistant to corrosion. As a result, it requires far less maintenance and is much easier to care for.
It’s a material trusted even in surgical scissors and medical tools, thanks to its durability, hygiene, and precision.
That same reliability makes it ideal for the kitchen.
For home cooks, AUS-8 offers sharpness, easy maintenance, and daily dependability—a thoughtful, realistic choice for real-life cooking.
As shown above, this blade is slightly softer and significantly more resistant to corrosion compared to traditional high-carbon Japanese steels such as Aogami and Shirogami.
The slightly softer composition of AUS-8 helps reduce the likelihood of micro-chipping, which is a common issue with harder steels.
According to practical field reports and controlled manufacturing tests, chipping risk is reduced by approximately 30–50% when using AUS-8.
Additionally, AUS-8 contains molybdenum and chromium, elements known for their stainless properties.
Comparative corrosion resistance testing has shown that AUS-8 is 90–99% less likely.
Crafted to enhance the true taste of vegetables
(Right-Hand Use Only – Here’s Why)
By designing the blade angle specifically for right-handed users, it smoothly and cleanly slices through vegetables without crushing their fibers.
As shown in the diagram above, standard knives typically have a 5:5 bevel ratio. However, our knife is sharpened at a more asymmetric 8:2 ratio. This allows the blade to bite deeper and more smoothly into ingredients, resulting in cleaner cuts with less effort.
This angled entry into the onion resulted in the following change to its cut surface:
For better understanding, we examined the cross-sectional surface of the same onion after cutting, measuring the differences in surface height. See the results below.
As shown in the blade ratio, a knife with an 8:2 bevel can cut vegetables more cleanly than one with a 5:5 bevel (regular knife).
This means it causes less damage to the vegetable’s cell structure.
By preserving the integrity of the cells, the knife helps retain more of the vegetable’s natural flavor and aroma even after cutting.
The blade preserves up to 60% more of the vegetable’s natural water content
We also wanted to test whether knife sharpness truly affects the flavor and quality of vegetables.
Using a precision scale, we compared the moisture loss from vegetables (Tomato) cut with our 8:2 knife versus a standard 5:5 beveled knife.
The result far exceeded our expectations.
After 30 minutes, the final weights were:
– 8:2 bevel knife: 23.2547g (loss: 0.3839g)
– 5:5 bevel knife: 19.6139g (loss: 0.6495g)
This means that about 60% more moisture was retained when using our 80:20 bevel knife.
Why this is important? Because every drop of moisture lost means a loss in flavor, texture, and nutrients, especially for delicate vegetables.
The SUIFU Vegetable Knife is designed to minimize that damage and bring out the best in every ingredient.
Tradition × Modern
To ensure consistency and durability, the blade is shaped using a precision press, a modern approach that allows us to maintain exacting standards across every piece.
But the soul of the knife is still crafted by hand: each blade is sharpened and refined by master artisans in Seki City, bringing tradition and technology together in every cut.
- Length
Total Length: 290mm (11.4 inches)
Blade Length: 170mm (6.7 inches)
Handle Length: 120mm (4.7 inches)
- Material
Blade: Molybdenum AUS-8 Stainless Steel
Handle: Redwood
Weight: 148.5g (5.2 oz)
