Masakage Knives visiting Vancouver and Calgary

Each summer we invite some of our Japanese blacksmith partners to visit Canada. Blacksmithing and engraving demos are fun and educational, but that’s not the only reason we love hosting them. These visits also allow Knifewear — and you, our customers — let these artisans know just how much we admire and appreciate the work they do.

The first of this year’s visits is nothing short of EPIC. Five craftsmen from Masakage Knives will be visiting both the Vancouver store on August 10 and the Calgary Japanese Festival “Omatsuri” on August 13. Both visits will have knifemaking demos, with an extra-special blacksmithing demo at the Omatsuri festival.

Kurosaki-san (Maker of Shimo and Zero), Nomura-san (Crafts the beautiful Zero handles) Kato-san Jr. (Helps make Hikari, Kiri, Koishi, and Yuki lines), Yamamoto-san (Handle maker), and Shibata-san (Masakage President, master knife sharpener) will all be on hand to demonstrate and teach us about their work. 

To get yourself as pumped for this visit as we are, we have interviews with Shibata-san and Kurosaki-san from Springhammer. (Which is still 50% off on Vimeo until the end of July) 

Also, last year, Fujiwara-san also did demos at the Omatsuri festival. There’s nothing like watching a master blacksmith create something right before your eyes.

Finally, we just wanted to let you know that this isn't all we have in store for you this August. A Moritaka Hamono blacksmith will be visiting Vancouver (Aug 20) and Calgary (Aug 21). What did I tell you? EPIC.