Crafting Taski's Excellence

Discover the Legendary Blades of Seki City

Taski is a 100% Japanese-made kitchen knife, crafted with great care by skilled artisans of a long-established cutlery manufacturer with a history of 800 years.

Seki City: One of the World's Three Major Cutlery Production Centers

Located in the heart of Japan, Gifu Prefecture is a blend of history and craftsmanship. Situated in the southern part of Gifu Prefecture, the city of Seki is renowned as one of the world's three major cutlery production centers.

The story of Seki as a cutlery production hub began some 800 years ago when skilled swordsmiths settled in this area, blessed with high-quality soil and clean water. At that time, Seki was highly esteemed by samurai for its unparalleled strength and razor-sharp precision, as well as for its "unbreakable, unbendable, and excellently sharp" blades.

For the samurai, the sword was not merely a tool, but also a companion that they always carried with them. The skills and spirit that went into making swords in those days have been passed down to the kitchen knife, one of the most essential tools in our daily lives.

Specialized Division of Labor in Seki Knife Making

One of the characteristics of knife making in Seki City is the division of labor in each process. By implementing a division of labor, highly skilled artisans can specialize in each process and refine its accuracy with their expertise. This system enables the production of a large quantity of high-quality products.

How Taski Knives Are Made

01: Select the steel

Steel and stainless steel stand as the most popular materials for crafting kitchen knives, each possessing distinct characteristics. However, stainless steel is the preferred choice for most home kitchen knives due to its ease of maintenance.

1: Steel

Steel is a material made by adding carbon to iron. This material has long been used for Japanese swords and continues to be favored by professionals such as Japanese cuisine chefs and sushi chefs. While its sharpness is highly valued by many professionals, it is also prone to rusting, making proper daily care essential. Additionally, a certain level of skill is required for sharpening.

2: Stainless steel

Stainless steel is a metal made by adding chromium to iron, which makes it resistant to rust.

Even within the category of "stainless steel," there are hundreds of varieties, each with characteristics determined by its composition. Therefore, we select the type that best suits the product's purpose.

When it comes to the heart of kitchen tools, the knife, understanding its hardness isn't as simple as believing "the harder, the better.” Harder blades, while durable and capable of maintaining sharpness longer, are more prone to chipping due to their brittleness. Also, hard blades require skillful sharpening, a process that can be demanding for the average user. We believe that the best knives for the home kitchen are those that are reasonably hard but easy to maintain on a daily basis.

Therefore, at Taski, we place a great emphasis on the ability to sharpen the knives ourselves. For this reason, we use AUS-8 steel, which not only retains its sharpness for an extended period but is also easy to sharpen in a typical household setting.

02: Shaping

In the manufacture of kitchen knives, there are two main different types of processes for shaping the blade:

A: Forging

In forging, craftsmen hammer heated steel to shape the steel for the blade.

B: Press

In the press process, a steel plate is industrially shaped by a steel manufacturer and then precisely cut into blade shapes using a press or laser. In Seki City, Gifu Prefecture, this press method is commonly employed as the primary manufacturing technique, and Taski knives are also crafted using this process.

03: Tempering

The process of heating blade materials to high temperatures and then cooling them to activate the metallic components, thereby increasing the hardness and toughness of the material, is called "tempering.”

04: Grinding and Polishing

After tempering, the process moves on to shaping the surface of the blade and finishing it to the desired shape, sharpness, and finish. Grinding" is the process of shaping a knife by removing excess material, while "polishing" is the process of smoothing the surface of a knife to enhance its appearance and functionality. These processes are very important to achieve high quality knives with excellent sharpness and beauty.

05: Designing Damascus Patterns

The beautiful flame-like pattern seen on the surface of Taski knives is called Damascus and is created by layering different metals and then grinding them to reveal the pattern.

To produce this beautiful pattern, the steel is hammered to create distortions, then reshaped, and finally, abrasive particles are blasted onto it (a process known as sandblasting) to bring out the exquisite Damascus pattern. The appearance of the Damascus pattern can vary depending on the way the hammer is used, as well as the size and coarseness of the hammer's head.

Since this process is extremely dangerous, only a few companies in Japan can perform sandblasting.

06: Handle Mounting and Polishing

And finally, the last stages of knife production are handle mounting and blade sharpening. "Handle mounting" refers to the process of attaching the handle to a knife.

Taski's handles are made of water-resistant reinforced laminated wood, and the handle attachment is designed to be waterproof.

Additionally, the surface of the handle to which it is attached is finely polished to achieve a beautifully smooth finish.

07: Blade Edging

"Blade edging" is the process of sharpening the cutting edge of the blade. This is an important process that greatly improves the smoothness and sharpness of the blade edge.

At Taski, each knife is individually edged by our craftsmen, some of whom have been making knives for more than 40 years.

08: Inspection

As the knives near completion, they undergo a final polishing process to meticulously eliminate any remaining burrs from the surface with tanned leather, ensuring a flawless finish. Following this, each knife is meticulously inspected by the craftsman for perfection, marking the culmination of the Taski knife production process.