UP!!May 23rd                                                                                                Just Released !!
                      SHIKI High End Custom Damascus Series

      Mr. Masui , he is now 67 years old of experienced, innovative knife craftsman.

      He has over 45 years of knife making experience. However he is still very active and aggressively challenging to create something new and something different in designs and ideas.

      He is one of the rare craftsmen who can design own knife with own idea, and realize it all by himself.

      This time, Mr. Masui has decided to make High End Custom Line for SHIKI brand knives, which means he needs to devote all his energies, skills and times for producing these new Custom High End SHIKI Damascus Knives.

      For distinguishing from other SHIKI selections, Mr. Masui has paid more attention to select the best materials, and spent much more times for every making process and detailed hand working process.

      For the handle, Mr. Masui researched and managed to import and use much rare and unique wood material called “California Buck Eye” from U.S.A.

      This wood makes beautiful natural texture with mixture of grayish and calm tan coloring. Each wood has a different and unique texture and coloring, giving you a feeling to own the special "one-of-a-kind" knife.

      The Stabilized California Buck Eye wood handle is nicely hand contoured for perfect balance and comfortable grip.  Gorgeous 3 Mosaic Pins are the elegant accent for the unique wood handle.

      Unique grey/silver coloring and mat finish of VG-10 Nickel Damascus Blade is also matching well with the California Buck Eye Handle. Mr. Masui has struggled and finally achieved this unique mat finishes Damascus blade. He has tried several acid etching times and processes to test and find the best appearance of the Damascus layered textures on the decent unevenness blade surface. He has then added lightly blasted finish and shinny nickel layers. I'm sure you will love this outstanding Damascus blade finish 

      Mr. Masui did not forget to pay his special attention to the bolster too, and added extra process to make it matching matt finish and calm silver color for total beauty.

      For every part and details, Mr. Masui did not make any compromise and we are proud to introduce these SHIKI High End Custom Damascus Series knives for those who seek a pleasure of owning and using in addition to the functions.

      Each blade has hand chisel engraving logo in Kanji meaning “SHIKI  Hiroaki made”.

      Each item is being available now in limited quantity.  This is the Top of the SHKI line of Custom High End Damascus knives.

        We often heard a good rumor and reputation of the outstanding forge-smith, named "Tsukasa Hinoura" in Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture, another Japan's cutlery producing district of traditional "Echigo" Forged Knives.

        Having our business based in Seki, we have a meeting frequently with major knifemakers in Seki to discuss a production schedule, new products and general matters. While talking with Mr. Hattori, he spoke very well of Mr. Hinoura's work. Since he is a knifemaster who never compromises and admires, I'm bit surprised to see that he has other knifemaker to admire and respect, but I understand only the top level craftsmen can respect each other and share the same feelings. We've heard same story from the knife expert and metallurgist, Mr. Onoue in Seki. He mentioned that Mr. Hinoura's knife is the best in the forged knives both in function and beauty. He has made metal analysis and testing of all kinds of knives, and proved that Mr. Hinoura's knife was in top ranking in every aspect. It can stand hard uses without warping and breaking.

        We are excited to hear these good things from both Seki knife specialists and are eager to introduce the Hinoura knives to our JCK customers as the high-end line.  At the Seki Knife Show in October, we had a chance to see his knives in hands and discuss about his backgrounds and his insistences on knife making. After a month, we finally got 4 knives we have selected at the show.

        Echigo Blacksmith, Tsukasa Hinoura is the third generation of Blacksmith family. He inherits his family's trade name "Ajigataya", but is also creating his original knives under his "Tsukasa" brand. He is aggressively searching his own way to express his skill and passion to the blades.

        Our first impression of his knives is the "Honed Beauty", and we can recognize his skills, times and passions behind it. It is the perfect knife with beautiful seamless line and form, no sharp corners, no distortion, no gaps etc. He devotes tremendous times from start to finish one knife for every detail.  Unlike some other forgesmiths, he never uses modern machineries and finished clad steels developed by the lastest technologies, because he believes the old fashioned traditional hand works of from forge cladding, Hizukuri forming to a water tempering  can only use his experienced skills and express his soul and passion into the blades.


        For the final finishing, he does a hand honing using the several different grids natural whetstones and spends at least two hours to polish and sharpen one blade. He says the whetstone hand honing is the best to get the sharpest edge of carbon steel blade. This is also very important work, not only to enhance total beauty of the blade apperance and function of the blade performance, but also to check the condition of the steel. He can judge to see if the steel has been treated properly by this stone polishing.   It is the essence that these time-consuming and never-compromising processes make his knives super-outstanding among many forged knives in Japan. When you hold his knife, you will see what we mean, a perfect fusion of the forged carbon steel with clad soft iron on the polished edge line with mysterious sparkling that shows a functional beauty ….

        His basic blade pattern is called “Kitae-Ji” (鍛地), using Shirogami No.2 Carbon Hagane steel core wrapped and layer-forged with wrought irons, and is available in polished finish and blackened finish. To start with, we have selected two new evolved patterns in blackened finish. These new distinct Damascus patterns are from his forging technique to give you a visual joy as well as the highest level of craftsmanship.

1)   Unryu-Mon (雲流紋) clouds flow patterns

        Based on the “Kitae-Ji” pattern, the layers have been twist forged repeatedly, creating unique clouds flow Damascus patterns on entire blade surface including the spine

"Unryu-Mon" Wa Petty 135mm Unryu-Mon Wa Petty 135mm Cutting edge length: 140mm Total Length:275 mm  Blade Thickness: 3.6mm Blade Width:35mm Handle Length:120mm Total Weight:94g  $660.00 Available in Stock

"Unryu-Mon" Wa Santoku 170mm Unryu-Mon Wa Santoku 170mm Cutting edge length: 170mm Total Length: 310mm Blade Thickness: 4.2mm Blade Width: 52mm Handle Length:128mm Total Weight: 149g $1100.00 Available in Stock

"Unryu-Mon" Nakiri 165mm Unryu-Mon Nakiri 165mm Total Length 315mm              Blade Thickness 4.6mm              Total Weight 178g  $1100.00 Available in Stock

"Unryu-Mon" Wa Gyuto 240mm Unryu-Mon Wa Gyuto 240mm Cutting edge length: 240mm Total Length:405mm  Blade Thickness: 5.6mm Blade Width: 47mm Handle Length:146mm Total Weight: 245g $1780.00 SOLD OUT

   As you may know, there are several cutlery producing districts in Japan. The Seki cutlery industry, where the JCK headquarter is located, is the biggest among them, but each district has different and unique products from their different tradition and history. 

   Echizen (formerly Takefu city) in Fukui-Prefecture is famous for Uchi-Hamono (Forged blades), that can trace back it’s origin about 700 years ago when the renowned Kyoto swordsmith, Kuniyasu Chiyozuru began producing sickles and other agricultural blades in addition to swords for local formers.

   At the Seki Knife Show in October, I had a chance to talk with Mr. Takeshi Saji who attend this show every year from Echizen. He told me about the “Echizen Japan” project that is underway by Echizen Knife Consortium to create the line of the “Ultimate Tool” under the “Echizen Japan” brand by uniting the traditional Echizen Uchi-hamono forging technique and the advanced technology of the multi-layer clad metal produced locally. He invited me to come and see the first line of kitchen knives that have just come up and started selling in Japan.

   Next day after the Seki Knife Show, I drove up to north to visit Echizen city. Mr. Saji took me first to the local shop where the projected products are displayed. My first glance went to a big glass case, in which the series of 11 different kitchen knives were displayed with wooden Sayas and stand, All wooden handles, Sayas and Stand are beautifully decorated by local traditional Urushi and Makie works (Echizen Urushi-nuri). Mr. Saji has made these blades out of the colored Damascus steel blades (new multi-layered steel with copper and brass). He said he has made two sets so far, and one set was already sold at one million Yen and another one is displayed here (not for sale). He accepted to make another set for JCK and is now proceeding the collaborative works with Echizen Urushi artists. I’m so excited to be able to introduce this work of art to you in early 2011.

   The main product of this project is a series of kitchen knives made of three different clad metal blades with a seamless metal handle. It is a lightweight and well-balanced for comfortable grip and cutting performance. The #1110 series have a VG-10 core 3 layered (San-mai) blade, #1210 series have a VG-10 core multi-layered (Damascus) blade, and #1310 series have an unique Core-less multi-layered blade, and each series come with 8 different blade models. We are already familiar with the VG-10 core San-Mai and Multi-layered Damascus blades with other knives, but I’m very impressed with the new Core-less Damascus blade, and decided to introduce this series to JCK customers.

   As you know, the clad metal is produced by forging different layers of meal together, taking advantage of the strength of each  piece as an integrated unit while ensuring any weaknesses are balanced out by each layer. With this clad technology, they have succeeded in forging two different Haganes of VG-10 and VG-2 steel layeres together. It was considered to be impossible to forge two different high carbon steels together. It is layered of total 70 very thin VG-10 and VG-2 steels, that makes a Core-less multi-layer stainless Damascus steel. Thanks for this state-of-art technology that made it possible to compose of a perfect blend that produces a long-lasting and extremely sharp cutting edge, in addition to the resistance to bending, breaking and rusting. This blend layers also feature a beautiful Damascus patterns that are fine and unique ripples covered entire blade surface including the tang.

   This series have been designed by an award-winning product designer, Mr. Chiaki Murata in Osaka, and are consisting of eight blade models with stainless steel hollow handle. When I saw the handle, I first thought why the metal handle now for this advanced blades, but picking up a Santoku knife and holding it in my hand, I immediately recognized his design concepts. It is a comfortable grip perfectly balanced in weight and matched with the blade in streamline design and function too. The unique spoon cut configuration connecting the blade and handle and the roundness of the handle allow a variety of grips to be used when handling each knife. You will see an extended Damascus pattern on this spoon cut tang integrated with elegantly blast finished sturdy metal hollow handle.

   Each knife comes with traditional Japanese style package of Kiri wood box with Echizen Washi paper cover inside.

月光Gekko                                by JCK

     Damascus blade kitchen knives are getting well known and much popular in the market. There are many kinds
of Damascus kitchen knives available from Japanese knife makers.

   This is another unique&beautiful Damascus knives with Tsuchime pattern. (Unique dimples by Hammering Process)

   Hand sharpened and hand honed VG10 core cutting edge forged with 15 layered Damascus stainless steel.
 (HRC60 to 61 and  50/50 double bevel edge). 

     Below half part of the blade has beautiful Damascus layers and it is well matching with above half part of the blade
which has Tsuchime dimples and greyish coloring.

   Full tang black pakka wood handle or Mahogany wood handle with stainless steel bolster and rivets.

     From my first glance of these beautiful knives in my hand,  I came up with the name "GEKKO" that means "Moon Light" in Japanese. From the different angle of look, Gekko knife makes different scene as Moon 
Changes its shape and lightning every night.

    For those who would like to try the first Japanese knives and for those people who are looking for beautiful Damascus knives at reasonable price range, good quality and moderate price range of Gekko knives can be our recomendation.

稲妻Inazuma                                             by JCK 

  We have introduced JCK GEKKO Series which have been one of popular models with unique Tuschime Damascus blade. Many people are impressed with its unusual and beautiful looks, and also its affordable price range for the value.

  Now we are ready to introduce another fine new products "JCK INAZUMA" made of Sandvic Sweden Steel 19C27 core (HRC60) forged with Nickel and Stainless Damascus steel blade. The Nickel alloy material makes additional layers of total 45, and beautiful and deep impact of White Layers on the Damascus blade.

  To mach with Japanese Traditional Taste of Tsuchime Damascus blade,  we have selected “WA” Taste of Octagon Shaped Rose Wood Handle with Black Pakkawood ferrule. 

  Each item comes with Japanese Traditional wear “KIMONO” patterned presentation box.

  I came up with the name “INAZUMA” hand engraved in Kanji on blade, that means "Thunder Lightning" in Japanese. Like Thunder lightning, the JCK INAZUMA will flash and shine your kitchen to bring you the joy of cooking with fine cutting performance.

   Total 6 kinds of blade are available with beautiful Japanese Traditional soul, and yet Modern design.