Xinguo is a brand that is truly unique, as a small group that started their business as hobbyist knifemakers and knife repairers, they gained their skills and reputations rapidly. They started their knifemaking journey back in 2015, crafting American/European high alloy steel kitchen knives while taking repair of some high end Japanese knives. By 2022, they finally set up their factory in Shanghai and went into full scale production.Their approach is almost a hybrid between western and Japanese knifemakers, often use modern powder steel from Crucible or Bohler but finish their blade with profile and geometry you’d only found on Japanese makers.
This team is not bound by any tradition and rules, and constantly seeks better solutions for a certain product. You can see knives in their catalogue with steel like RWL34, M390, Magnacut, Swedish Damateel or even their own forged dual core stainless damascus. The execution on some of the complicated details can easily match some highly skillful custom knife makers, whether its integral damascus bolster, multi-directional taper and detachable nine-piece handle. At the same time, Xinguo’s team is very familiar with common finishing methods used on kitchen knives with different origins. They produce many of their monosteel knives with very clean brushed finish and their Damascus often has a mirror finish with very high contrast. But when it comes to Japanese Kasumi or even Mirror polished Honyaki, years of experience in repairing allow them to bring out a finish that matches their Japanese counterparts.
They are also great solutionmakers that fully leverage the industry that China has to offer. You could see in their factory the gigantic contact wheel that is made to match the Japanese grinding stone, which they made custom order for to repair the concavity of the single bevel knives. They would also develop their own abrasive solutions just to finish their knife with a certain look with better consistency and speed. Due to their need to deal with high alloy powder steel all the time, they even made their own diamond stone. This is a group that has ambition in their product and a skill set to match it. Their motto says it pretty well: Don’t just be content with high proficiency in foreign and polishing, but seek the expression of different products.
