Sentan

Origin of Sentan

Sanjo is a very unique knife producing region. Unlike Sakai and Echizen which craftsmen are highly specialized: blacksmith only specialise in forging and will hand over the finished blanks to a professional sharpener; followed by the engraver. While this type of flow-line collaboration greatly enhances the production rate, some say the knives lacks individuality under such arrangement because two different brands could contract the same smith for knives, resulting in very similar profile / geometry.

Sanjo, in contrast, still keeps the very traditional everything in-house style. From the top brands like Shigefusa, Hinoura, to less known knife brands, all finishes their products in-house, from initial forging to the finial engraving. By making everything in house, different brands were able to preserve their unique characteristics. This well-kept tradition gives the Sanjo knives another layer of personality reflecting the maker’s interpretation, making buying Sanjo knives that little more appealing. For Knives and Stones, we decided to give the name of our Sanjo offerings: Sentan (仟锻) literally means “forged a thousand times“.