A knife that lasts a lifetime
The most sustainable knife is the one you keep, you sharpen and you pass on. At Kashiku, we work with seven Japanese forges, no back-stock, and we re-sharpen every blade for life. Here is, without greenwashing, what that means concretely.
Why these commitments?
The knife industry produces a lot, fast: stamped stainless, glued handles, blades discarded the moment they dull, single-use packaging. A culture of throwaway tools.
Kashiku was born of the opposite conviction: a knife should last decades, be sharpened, repaired and passed on. That starts with steel forged by hand in Sakai and ends with the sharpening service we provide for life at the atelier.
We speak frankly about what we do, what we still need to improve, and where we want to go. Read below.
Our four commitments
Not slogans — verifiable acts
Direct from the forges
We import directly from seven Japanese workshops in Sakai, Echizen and Takefu — no intermediaries, no OEM. Every blade is traceable to its smith.
No back-stock, no waste
Knives arrive in batches of six to twelve, two or three times a year. Nothing sits in the shop. Nothing gets discounted because it didn't sell.
Repairable for life
Send your knife back when it needs it: re-sharpening, polishing, handle replacement. A knife we repair is a knife that doesn't end up in the bin.
Replaceable wa handles
Traditional Japanese handles are friction-fit, not riveted: a worn handle is replaced without damaging the blade.
Our packaging: kraft, paper, magnolia
Packaging is what you touch first. It must protect the blade, be sober, and contain zero plastic.
- 100% recycled kraft boxes, soy-based ink
- Crumpled kraft paper padding, never plastic bubble wrap
- Magnolia saya or reusable cotton wrap with every blade
- Kraft paper tape, zero plastic tape
- No single-use plastic in our shipments since 2021
Our partner forges
Six workshops we work with directly
Tosuke (Sakai)
Aogami #2 carbon-steel cores, double bevel
Yu Kurosaki (Echizen)
Damascus blades, multi-layer cladding
Tetsujin (Sakai)
Shirogami sanmai construction
Sukenari (Echizen)
ZDP-189 and SG2 stainless cores
Hatsukokoro (Sakai)
Traditional single-bevel sashimi knives
Naniwa (Japan)
Premium water stones, #1000 to #10000
Kashiku in numbers
Our choices in clear terms
We import to order, in small batches: no overproduction, no unsold knives. Every blade is forged by hand in Japan, then re-sharpened in our Paris atelier before it ships.
A question on the provenance of a blade or a stone? Write to contact@kashiku.com.
Goals 2026-2028
Second Life programme
Send us a Kashiku knife you no longer use, we restore it and offer it again. €30 credit on your next blade.
Full forge traceability
Goal of indicating, for every model, the smith's name, the steel origin and the date of forging.
Carbon-neutral shipping
Offset all transport emissions from Japan to France and from Paris to customers.
Choose a knife that lasts
Every Kashiku blade is hand-forged in Sakai and sharpened for life at our Paris atelier.