Gihei (Sanjo)

Gihei was established in 1928 in sanjo City (Niigata Prefecture), Gihei is one of the small but very innovative small blacksmith shops working in Sanjo city today. Gihei is known for producing top quality knives with excellent grinds. The heat treating is exceptional and they make these knives in small batches with tight controls on quality. Core of these blades are made of HAP40 or ZDP189 steel clad with stainless steel which is one of the best in terms of wear resistance on the market today. These knives are heat treated flawlessly at 65-66 Rockwell and they take a great edge and hold it for an incredibly long time.

Atsushi Hosokawa is the current owner and uses only the best steels available such as ZDP189 and HAP40. We visited mr. Hosokawa's workshop in 2019.