The newest maker in our catalogue, Yosimitu Kajiya, produces knives with rustic charm and unbeatable value.
🔪 Santoku – The Japanese All-Rounder
The santoku is Japan’s most popular all-purpose kitchen knife. Its name means “three virtues,” referring to its ability to handle meat, fish, and vegetables with equal ease. With a shorter, taller profile than a Western chef’s knife, the santoku offers precision, control, and versatility in everyday cooking. Its flat edge excels at push-cutting and chopping, while the wide blade makes it easy to scoop and transfer ingredients.
🔪 Kurouchi – Rustic Blacksmith’s Finish
Kurouchi is the dark, rustic finish left on the blade from the forging process. It helps protect the steel from oxidation while giving each knife a unique, textured appearance. We love the kurouchi finish — it’s one of our favourites for its raw, honest look and connection to traditional forging.
🔪 San Mai – Three-Layer Construction
San mai means “three layers.” It describes the traditional Japanese method of sandwiching a hard steel core between two softer layers of protective cladding. The hard core provides razor-sharp cutting performance, while the outer layers add toughness and make the knife easier to maintain. This combination gives the best of both worlds: sharpness and durability. This particular range features a White (Shirogami #2) core steel with soft-iron cladding.
🔪 Yosimitu Kajiya – Traditional Craft from Nagasaki
Yosimitu Kajiya is a family-run forge founded in 1937 on the Shimabara Peninsula in Nagasaki Prefecture, now led by third-generation blacksmith Junichi Ide. Known for their rustic kurouchi finishes and precise hand-forging, Yosimitu Kajiya knives combine the warmth of traditional craftsmanship with everyday cutting performance — a perfect balance of character, sharpness, and utility.
🔪 Carbon Steel Knives – Care & Use
At Community Cutlery we love carbon steel for its ability to take a keener edge and hold it for longer than stainless steel. With that privilege comes a little extra care:
Wash immediately after use and dry thoroughly. If left wet, carbon steel will rust surprisingly quickly.
Should rust appear, a light rub with a dry scourer followed by a rinse and dry will usually remove it with ease.
Over time, your blade will develop a patina — a natural change in colour that protects the steel and tells the story of your knife’s use.
Never put your knife in the dishwasher.
Use only for food preparation — avoid cutting bones, frozen food, or opening tins, as misuse can lead to chips or broken tips.
Age restriction: Knives are only available to persons over 18 years of age. By law, we require all customers to provide proof of age at checkout and at the time of delivery.
We ship Tuesday to Saturday using Royal Mail Tracked 24.
All knives ship via an age verified service in accordance with The Offensive Weapons Act 2019, which will mean the postie will need you to be in to receive the delivery & to check your ID if you look under 25.
The law also requires us to carry out a soft age check of the purchaser after checkout, this is done by an automated system that usually doesn't require your input, although we will need to contact you for proof of age if you fail, which can sometimes happen if you use a work address.
of Community Cutlery as a home for enthusiasts, for people who love the ritual of food preparation and who have realised the charm in doing it with quality tools, with items that are as pleasing on the eye as they are practical in the hand.
