Sunizumi store Our First Original Knife Design, Where the Hand Still Shows

Sunizumi (Sanizumi Shoten) was founded in 2005.
Over the years, our relationship with knives has been shaped through use and observation—paying attention to proportion, balance, hand feel, and the character of materials.

This time, those ideas became a physical piece:
the first knife designed and produced under the Sunizumi name.

The First Piece: An Outdoor-Style Kitchen Cleaver

This knife begins with the efficiency of a cleaver, while retaining the stability and presence needed for outdoor use.
Rather than aiming for an exaggerated profile, the focus is on directional grip, blade rhythm, and control in real cutting.

The design brings together influences from different contexts:

• The handle lines reference the structure of a rifle stock, emphasizing support and stability in the hand

• Elements of a traditional Japanese octagonal handle add clear orientation and confident handling

• The blade form takes cues from a Bowie-like framework, refined through a Japanese cleaver variation for practical food prep

It sits between outdoor utility and everyday kitchen work—an intentional connection rather than a compromise.

Seki Knife Show: A Public Presentation

In 2025, this piece was exhibited at the 33rd Seki Knife Show, and received an Outstanding Knife Design Certificate from the Seki Cutlery Association.

For us, it was simply a chance to present the design in an open setting—
to be seen, discussed, and understood within a real context.

The First Custom Batch: “Human Touch”

After returning from Seki, we began the first custom batch.
The theme is clear:

Keeping the human touch.

Not as a pursuit of roughness, but as a way of allowing the material—and the hand—to remain visible in the final result.

Stag Antler & Desert Ironwood

For the handles, we chose:

• Stag antler

• Desert ironwood

Both materials share one defining trait: variability.
Grain, density, tone, and texture shift from piece to piece, which means each handle must be shaped according to its own conditions.

As a result, each knife is finished as an individual object—not a repeated output.

Marks Kept: Not Retro, But Recorded

This batch is primarily hand-finished.
We did not pursue an overly polished surface. Instead, we chose to retain:

• natural file lines

• belt-sanding traces

• the layered texture of the process itself

These marks are not decoration. They are simply a record of how the work was done.

Blade Steel Options: Japanese Laminated Steels

The blade is offered in multiple Japanese laminated steel variations:

• SPG2 laminated steel

• R2 laminated steel

• VG7 laminated steel with copper layer

• Silver #3 laminated steel

Each has its own character, but all are built with long-term use in mind—beyond display alone.

Crafted in Tokyo — Sunizumi × Soubikoufu | 100% Made in Japan

This batch is produced through the combined work of Sunizumi (Tokyo) and Soubikoufu.
Design, material selection, production, and finishing are all completed in Japan.

100% Made in Japan.

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A Beginning

From 2005 to now, this is the first knife defined by Sunizumi.
Not as an end point, but as the start of a longer practice—continuing to work through form, material, and handwork.

If you’re drawn to knives that still carry the trace of the hand,
we invite you to follow what comes next.