Heat treating sword blade. The moment of the steel coming alive.

The Seki-City, Gifu-Prefecture is a small town located in the middle of Japan, and is famous worldwide for its production of fine knives like Solingen in Germany. The history (about 780 years) of Seki cutlery industry dates back to the 13th century, when master swordsmith, Motoshige moved from Kyushu district to Seki and began making his swords here. He chose Seki for its rich natural as well as material conditions. Seki offered, at the top of the list, good quality iron sand, charcoal and water. During the Muromachi Era (1338-1573), which began just a century later, there were over 300 swordsmiths working in Seki. Kanemoto Magoroku and Saburo Shizu were two of the most famous. The superior quality of Seki swords and the name of Seki were quickly recognized throughout Japan and its solid reputation as a swordmaking center was established. The techniques and skills and the ancient attitudes of traditional Japanese swordmaking has been passed down across the centuries and are still alive in today's modern cutlery industry. And Seki City remains a vibrant center of Japanese cutlery manufacture.

Seki Cutlery Association With a proud tradition of 780 years, Seki produces all types of cutlery and edged tools from Razors, Scissors, Kitchen Knives to Sports Knives and Samurai Swords to meet with very demands for both domestic and overseas markets. There are now six separate organizations belong to the Association with about 60 members of individual knife manufacturer and related company.

Outdoor Knife Section In 1992, twenty outdoor knife manufacturers formed an Outdoor Knife Section of the Seki Cutlery Association to promote their outdoor knife products. The group has its own "Seki Outdoor Knife Show" every October in Seki, Japan. Two years ago, this group of 20 separate knife makers decided to work more closely together to develop and sell selected products under the brand of "Seki-Cut". The current members are: Name Type of Products 1) G.Sakai Folding knives, Fixed blade knives, Tools 2) Kinryu Fixed blade knives, Survival knives 3) Hiro Folding knives, Fixed blade knives 4) Hattori Fixed blade knives, Damascus blades 5) Moki Folding knives, Fixed blade knives 6) Fukuta Folding knives, Fixed blade knives 7) Seto Folding knives, Fixed blade knives 8) Suetake Folding knives 9) Ishikawa Folding knives, Fixed blade knives, Machete 10) Kikusui Divers knives, Fixed blade knives 11) Fukuyama Folding knives 12) Houwa Folding knives, Sommelier Knives 13) Seki Knife Folding knives 14) Ryuhei Folding knives 15) Koji Hara Handmade Custom Art Knives 16) Sanetsu Professional Chef knives 17) Katoh Gentleman knives, Miniature knives 18) Kiku Tactical Custom Knives 19) Inagaki Custom Knives 20) Nakamura Miniature Knives *Click names for their websites. Although the sites are in Japanese, you will see what they offer from the picture contents.