Oishya

Oishya Oishya kitchenware. Made to last. Used to create joy. Timeless and unique Japanese knives. Shop handmade Japanese kitchen knives & Home Accessories.

Designer products made of Metal, Wood and Stone. Our mission is to bring beautiful, raw and unique Japanese inspired products to European homes.

Every brand has a first. Ours was the Sakai Kyuba KYU Gyuto.We found our blacksmith in Sakai, Osaka. His family has been...
06/06/2026

Every brand has a first. Ours was the Sakai Kyuba KYU Gyuto.

We found our blacksmith in Sakai, Osaka. His family has been forging steel since 1927. Three generations of hands shaping the same kind of blade. AUS10 stainless steel. 62 Rockwell hardness. Forty six layers of Damascus folded around a hard core.

We couldn't put his name on the blade. Geolocation exclusivity. So we built a name together. Sakai Kyuba. 堺久馬. Kyū (久) meaning long lasting. Ba (馬) meaning horse. Endurance. Longevity.

The handle came from craftsmen in Poland. Stabilised maple burl dried for two years, dyed Mediterranean Blue, set around a collar of bog oak that is thousands of years old. No two handles look the same.

Japanese steel. European craft. Three months from forge to box. The knife that proved the idea could work. More than 10 years later, we're still here thanks to your love for our products.

We're forever grateful 🙏.

Two words people use as if they mean the same thing. They don't.Honing realigns the edge. The microscopic teeth of the b...
28/05/2026

Two words people use as if they mean the same thing. They don't.
Honing realigns the edge. The microscopic teeth of the blade bend with use, and a honing rod straightens them back. It takes thirty seconds. For soft Western steel, it's the single best daily habit you can build.

But Japanese knives are different. The steel is harder. Much harder. Most Japanese blades sit around 60 to 63 on the Rockwell hardness scale. Western knives are closer to 54 to 58. That extra hardness is what gives Japanese knives their sharper edge and longer edge retention. It's also what makes honing rods dangerous for them.
Hard steel doesn't bend. It chips. Run a Japanese knife along a honing rod and you risk micro-fractures along the entire edge. Tiny chips you can't see but you'll feel every time you cut. The edge gets worse, not better. A honing rod assumes the steel is soft enough to flex back into place. Japanese steel doesn't flex. It breaks.
Sharpening is the other word. Sharpening removes metal. It rebuilds the edge entirely. You do this much less often. A few times a year for most home cooks. Whenever the knife stops cutting cleanly through a tomato skin.

For Japanese knives, a whetstone is both your honing and your sharpening. A quick session on a high grit stone does what a honing rod does for Western blades. It realigns and polishes the edge without the impact force that causes chipping. A lower grit stone reshapes the edge when it's truly dull.
One tool. Two jobs. No honing rod in sight.

Most people sharpen too often and maintain too rarely. Flip that. A few minutes on a whetstone every couple of weeks. A proper sharpening session a few times a year. Your knives will last decades longer.

When your new blade is SO sharp it humbles you on day one :)We got this message from a lovely customer this week (finger...
26/05/2026

When your new blade is SO sharp it humbles you on day one :)
We got this message from a lovely customer this week (finger now recovering, we're told!) and honestly... it's the most relatable thing ever.
Here's the truth nobody warns you about: a properly sharp Japanese knife doesn't need force. The moment you stop pushing and start letting the blade glide, everything changes. Finer slices, less effort, and a lot more respect for that edge.

Two things that'll save your fingertips:

1. The claw grip. Tuck your fingertips under, knuckles guiding the blade. Your nails should never be in the firing line.
2. Match the knife to the job. Petty for the small, fiddly stuff (garlic, shallots, peeling). Gyuto for the bigger cuts where you want length and control. Santoku for your everyday all-rounder. Nakiri for powering through cabbage, carrots and stacks of veg. And Bunka when you want that all-purpose feel with a sharper tip for precision work.

And remember, the sharper the knife, the safer it actually is... once your hands learn to trust it. Pinky promise. And if you keep that claw grip, you'll still have the pinky to make good on it :)

Heal up, friend. The finer slices are just the beginning.

08/05/2026

The joy of trying your new premium knife.

Every Oishya handle starts as a raw piece of wood. Maple burl or ancient bog oak. And from that moment, it takes weeks, ...
06/05/2026

Every Oishya handle starts as a raw piece of wood. Maple burl or ancient bog oak. And from that moment, it takes weeks, sometimes months, sometimes years before it's ready to hold a blade.

Maple burl is one of the most unpredictable woods to work with. It grows in tight, knotted formations inside the tree. Beautiful to look at. Difficult to source well. Our craftsman selects each piece by hand. Healthy grain, minimal ingrowths, the right moisture content. Out of a full harvest, only a portion meets the standard.

The wood is cut into small blocks. Then it has to dry. If you rush this, the wood cracks. No shortcuts. Some batches need two weeks. Some need months. Bog oak, which has already spent thousands of years transforming underground, still needs careful drying and stabilisation before anyone can shape it.

Once dry, each block is stabilised. Infused under pressure with resin that penetrates deep into the grain. This makes the handle waterproof and resistant to everything a kitchen throws at it. Hot water. Cold water. Oil. Citrus. A stabilised handle can take all of it without swelling, warping, or cracking.

Then the dyeing. Each block coloured individually. The wood from different parts of the tree behaves differently. Lower trunk polishes beautifully but needs 72 hours to set. Every piece has its own character.

From there the blocks go to our second craftsman. He shapes each one into a handle. Sands it. Fits it. Glues and mounts it onto the tang of a blade that was forged thousands of kilometres away in Japan.

There is no assembly line. One person sources the wood. One person dries it, stabilises it, dyes it, cuts it. Another shapes it and mounts it. Each handle passes through multiple hands and months of patience before it reaches yours.

This is the part of the knife you touch every day. We think it deserves the same care as the steel.

Last week our Japanese agent Shuhei visited Izumo Taisha. One of the oldest and most sacred Shinto shrines in all of Jap...
20/04/2026

Last week our Japanese agent Shuhei visited Izumo Taisha. One of the oldest and most sacred Shinto shrines in all of Japan. It sits in Shimane Prefecture, facing the Sea of Japan, and has been a place of worship for longer than most countries have existed. The shrine is dedicated to Okuninushi, the deity of relationships and human connection. Every year in October, according to Japanese mythology, all eight million gods gather at this exact shrine. The rest of Japan calls that month Kannazuki, the month without gods. In Shimane they call it Kamiarizuki. The month with gods. Because that's where they all go. Even in April, the weight of that place is something you feel the moment you walk in.
Shuhei brought our knives with him.

He wanted to have them blessed at the shrine. Official prayers for products weren't permitted inside the grounds, so he photographed the box just outside the entrance, with the great torii gate behind it. Then he walked in, knives inside, to let them absorb the atmosphere of a place that has stood there for centuries.
This morning we woke up to his message. He is sending us a kifuda, a wooden prayer plaque from the shrine. He prayed for two things on our behalf. Kanai Anzen. Safety and well-being for your family. And Shogan Joju. The fulfilment of all your wishes.

He told us to place it somewhere important in our office. No need for anything complicated. Just offer a prayer for Shobai Hanjo, business prosperity, from time to time. And express gratitude.
He did this on his own family holiday. Nobody asked him to bring the knives. Nobody asked him to pray. He just thought of us.

This is what our relationships look like. With our blacksmiths. With our partners. With the people who help bring these knives from Japan to your kitchens. We don't talk about this side of Oishya very often. The quiet things. The prayers. The messages at seven in the morning. The plaques sent across the world.

But this is what holds it all together.

In 2015, Kamila couldn't find a Japanese knife worth giving as a gift. Every shop in London, every kanji-filled website,...
17/04/2026

In 2015, Kamila couldn't find a Japanese knife worth giving as a gift. Every shop in London, every kanji-filled website, nothing felt right. So she found a blacksmith online and asked him to make one. Custom. Engraved. The real thing.
When she saw what that knife did to a room full of dinner guests, she called her high school friend Anna. They started Oishya together. Then spent a year preparing for something much bigger.

Winter 2017. Kamila flew to Japan with her partner. Two young women running a company that barely existed, knocking on the doors of a blacksmithing community that doesn't open easily for anyone. Especially not for someone young, female, and foreign.
The doors opened. Slowly. And what happened inside those workshops changed everything.

Swipe through for the full story. The bladesmiths. The freezing houses. The knife we made with our own hands. And how it all led to what Oishya is today.

We're quiet in here. We know.You won't see us paying chefs to hold our knives on camera or sponsoring food creators to m...
12/04/2026

We're quiet in here. We know.

You won't see us paying chefs to hold our knives on camera or sponsoring food creators to mention us in their reels. That's not who we are. While other knife companies spend their budgets on influencer partnerships and paid promotions, we've chosen a different path entirely.

We work behind the scenes - alongside our craftsmen in Japan and Europe, perfecting every blade, every handle, every detail. And we spend our time where it matters most: one-on-one with you, helping you understand the differences between knife types, advising on what suits your cooking style, and making sure you walk away with exactly the right tool for your kitchen.

We believe great products defend themselves. Word of mouth will always outperform a paid post. And the notes you send us prove that every single day.
These screenshots are just a fraction of the messages our customers have taken time out of their busy lives to write. People telling us about the first meal they made. Ordering a second set in a different colour. Asking us to pass their thanks to the blacksmith. Buying knives as gifts for the people they love most.
In a world where nobody has time for anything, the fact that you sit down and write to us - that's not something we take for granted. Not even close.
For those of you still deciding: we put our money where our mouth is. Every Oishya knife comes with a 100-day return policy, no questions asked, and a lifetime warranty. We don't offer that because it sounds good in a caption. We offer it because we've never had to worry about it.
That's what happens when the product is real.
Thank you for choosing craft over convenience. For trusting a small team over a big marketing budget. For caring about where your tools come from and who made them.

We're here because you are.

Steel talk. Sounds dry but if you're spending real money on a knife you should know why one costs £190 and another £425....
10/02/2026

Steel talk. Sounds dry but if you're spending real money on a knife you should know why one costs £190 and another £425. It's about what's inside the blade.

Quick basics; HRC is the hardness rating - how hard the steel is. Higher number = edge stays sharp longer. But harder also means more brittle. Think of a pencil: hard one keeps its point but the tip can snap. Softer one dulls faster but it's tougher. Knife steel works exactly like that.

Then there's carbon; more carbon = harder blade, sharper edge. "High-carbon stainless" like VG10 or SG2 gives you sharpness plus rust resistance. Pure high-carbon steel like Aogami Super skips that protection - incredible edge but it'll patina and needs drying after use. Some cooks love that ritual. It's like cast iron vs non-stick - different relationship with your tool.

We make seven lines and each uses different steel for a reason. Swipe through to see the full breakdown of every line - what steel, what hardness, what it actually means for your cooking.

The short version? Don't overthink it. If you want easy and excellent -> KYU or KATA. Best performance we can offer -> SHIN. A knife people can't stop staring at -> NIJI. Something that ages with you and gets better over time, keep an eye on AO, coming later this year. And if bread is your thing, PAN exists specifically for you.

Still lost? Message us, we'll sort you out :) Full steel breakdown on each slide 👉

06/02/2026

The counterintuitive truth: sharp knives are safer than dull ones. A dull blade requires pressure, resists cutting, and slips unpredictably – especially dangerous when you're tired or distracted. A sharp knife responds to light touch and goes exactly where you intend.
This matters even more when cooking with kids around or after a long day. Control equals safety.

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