Why are Japanese knives so expensive?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “japanese knife store portland“
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Why are Japanese knives so expensive?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “japanese knife store portland“
About Athena
They’re not.
Maybe you are comparing cheap western knives with expensive japanese knives.
If you compare top quality japanese knives with top quality western knives like a Wusthof, they’re actually not that different at around $150–200.
And of course importing fees will always affect.
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Because you are looking at the high-end ones only? Some are and some aren’t. If there’s a Japanese supermarket in your area and go look at the knives they carry that are made in Japan (日本製), they really aren’t that expensive, as they would carry more of low to middle range products.
Having said the above, it’s also probably some high-end Japanese knives became newly known outside of Japan, in comparison to how some Swiss or German knives had been known for a long time. If someone asked the same question in the older era when Japanese products meant cheap outside of Japan, the response would have been rolling eyes. Yet. even in the same era, some sushi chefs for high end restaurants in Japan would have been buying expensive high-end knives.
And comparison is always relative, if the deemed qualities are same, they may be cheaper or more expensive, depend on which countries those are from as well as how they are made and their selling channels.
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Many Japanese knives we see in the West are top-quality ones from the country.
They’re forged using the best steels (usually harder steels than the ones used in Western knives— their hardness levels are typically somewhere between 59 – 64 HRC vs Western knives’ 54 – 60 HRC). Their handles are usually made of natural wood, which costs more than plastic or pakka wood.
Some of the knives go through a long, tedious process of manual hardening and sharpening performed by the blade-smiths. If the grips are made of wood, a lot of time, effort, and artisticity is spent on making them comfortable to hold and fastening them securely to the tang, all by hand. All of these will be reflected in their prices.
Like Alonso said, importing fees could also be a contributing factor.
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