Xinguo

Name: Xinguo
Address: Shanghai

Xinguo, a knife workshop team near Shanghai

Shop Xinguo knives

Xinguo (新國) is a small Chinese knife workshop team based near Shanghai, not a single maker. Xinguo says it founded the brand in 2016 and that a master craftsman leads its team of partners and apprentices. It says it forges water-quenched honyaki by the clay method (tsuchioki) as well as Western-style chef knives, and works with Shirogami, Aogami and Ginsan from Japan, MagnaCut and ApexUltra from the US, and RWL34 from Sweden. The team says it is still new to making knives and that support from knife enthusiasts motivates it to keep improving.

Xinguo began as a small group of hobbyist knifemakers who also repaired high-end Japanese knives, and in 2022 it set up its factory and moved into full-scale production. In that factory we saw a large contact wheel, custom-made to match a Japanese grinding stone, that the team uses to repair the hollow of single-bevel knives. The team also makes its own abrasives to give its knives a consistent finish, and its own diamond stone for the high-alloy powder steels it grinds.

Because Kisuke Manaka works alone and his output is limited, we asked Xinguo to sharpen and polish his blades. That arrangement produced the Kisuke x Xinguo line, which carries both names.

We list the Kisuke x Xinguo Blue 1 Damascus gyuto, the Aogami Super honyaki gyuto, the ApexUltra honyaki gyuto, and the Ginsan tsuchime honesuki with a guard.

“A Chinese knife workshop team near Shanghai.”

Est. 2016

Known for Xinguo says it forges water-quenched honyaki. We list the Kisuke x Xinguo line.

Craft

Known For: Xinguo says it forges water-quenched honyaki. We list the Kisuke x Xinguo line.

Location

Region: Shanghai
Coordinates: 31.230416, 121.473701

Brand

Logo

Native Name

新国

Does Xinguo Allow Unsolicited Visits?

Not open to public visits.

Knives by Xinguo

Xinguo Blue Super Mizu Honyaki

Xinguo’s Honyaki are special items in many ways, the look, the steel and even the maker and region of production. These blades are truly remarkable to look a... Read more

Xinguo’s Honyaki are special items in many ways, the look, the steel and even the maker and region of production. These blades are truly remarkable to look at, and I don’t want that statement to overshadow the performance of them. It is the first item from Xinguo’s team that we have brought in and I think as a complete package, this Blue Super Honyaki really stands up to this studio’s motto: Pursuit beyond high proficiency in forging and polishing, but seek strong expression in different products. The elephant in the room is, these are Mizu Honyaki Blue Super blades. The Blue Super Honyaki are already pretty hard to find due to the difficulty and high failure rate, but Xinguo pushes this even further by performing a water quench rather than a safer and perfectly viable oil quench. This brings the steel to its highest achievable hardness of 64-65 HRC, and allows a very thin and fine edge to be put onto them. Combining with a quite well controlled convex grind, the cutting performance can go toe to toe with some of the Japanese counterparts that produce similar knives. The appearance would be a totally different story, and I think Xinguo has achieved their goal of seeking strong expression with this knife. This surface of the knife is entirely covered by very strong alloy banding, and the fine glitter-like patterns has such a strong texture that makes me think of the legendary Wooz steel. This alloy banding is a phenomenon commonly found on alloy carbon steel especially those with a lot of Tungsten, but this is not common especially like this one with strong contrast. To intensify this look, the blade is etched to increase the contrast. The harmon turns to a light grey colour with brighter banding over it, but the hardened steel shows a mesmerising blue sheen, which looks breathtaking when paired with the mirror polishing and the white banding floating over it. When having a single light source shined onto the blade, it can present different look at different angles, in some angle, the blade would appears as a typical Honyaki with hazy hamon and dark polished hardened steel, i you keep turning it, the hamon will start to pick up a golden sheen and reveal its second layer, then at certain angle, the allow banding will suddenly show up, drizzle the entire blade with texture. This is a very complicated knife that you can spend hours looking at it, and it just feels more impressive when you realise all of these are achieved by specific techniques applied to a monosteel blade. The knife takes a more Sakai style profile, but made a bit wider than typical, although Honyaki tend to be some of the more “collector items” this board blade with a pretty thin edge would still be happy to chop through whatever you feed to it. For head chefs and collectors, this line offers a reasonable option for you to experience Honyaki Ownership, but I say the price speaks very little about how well these blades are made, whether in terms of fit and finish, craftsmanship or overall design and aesthetics. Read less

Pros

Excellent performance
Great artistic
Excellent fit and finish

Cons

High budget
Prone to rust

Honyaki Mirror Polish

Xinguo ApexUltra Mizu Honyaki

Xinguo’s Honyaki are special items in many ways, the look, the steel and even the maker and region of production. These blades are truly remarkable to look a... Read more

Xinguo’s Honyaki are special items in many ways, the look, the steel and even the maker and region of production. These blades are truly remarkable to look at, and I don’t want that statement to overshadow the performance of them. This ApexUltra Honyaki really stands up to this studio’s motto: Pursuit beyond high proficiency in forging and polishing, but seek strong expression in different products. You might think the name ApexUltra doesn’t sound very Japanese, and it is indeed not. This is an alloy carbon steel developed by European and American metallurgists based on 52100 and Blue Super that aims to be the best available culinary carbon steel. It behaves like those two steel but has a much better performance in working hardness, edge retention and toughness at high hardness. It really makes Xinguo’s knives stand out as I don’t expect Japanese makers to pick up this new foreign steel any time soon. ApexUltra is excellent in its hardness, with regular oil quench, it can reach 65 HRC easily, which you would have to push for with Blue Super, but Xinguo pushes this even further by performing a water quench rather than a safer and perfectly viable oil quench, because this steel need quicker quench to produce hamon. This brings the steel to its highest achievable hardness of 67-68 HRC, which is unheard of in the world of Honyaki. I’m not sure how they manage the failure rate but it is impressive to know something like this can be done. This hardness allows a very thin and fine edge to be put onto these Honyaki knives, combining with a quite well controlled convex grind, the cutting performance can go toe to toe with some of the Japanese counterparts that produce similar knives. The appearance would be a totally different story, and I think Xinguo has achieved their goal of seeking strong expression with this knife. This surface of the knife is entirely covered by very strong alloy banding, and the fine glitter-like pattern has such a strong texture that makes me think of the legendary Wooz steel. This alloy banding is a phenomenon commonly found on alloy carbon steel especially those with a lot of Tungsten, but this is not common especially like this one with strong contrast. To intensify this look, the blade is etched to increase the contrast. The harmon turns to a light grey colour with brighter banding over it, but the hardened steel shows a light blue sheen, which looks breathtaking when paired with the mirror polishing and the white banding floating over it. The knife takes a more Sakai style profile, but made a bit wider than typical, although Honyaki tend to be some of the more “collector items” this board blade with a pretty thin edge would still be happy to chop through whatever you feed to it. For head chefs and collectors, this line offers a reasonable option for you to experience a premium Hoyaki Ownership, but I say the price speaks very little about how well these blades are made, whether in terms of fit and finish, craftsmanship or overall design and aesthetics. Read less

Pros

Excellent performance
Great artistic
Excellent fit and finish

Cons

High budget
Prone to rust

Honyaki Mirror Polish

Frequently Asked Questions about Xinguo

Who is Xinguo?

Xinguo is a knife maker based in Shanghai, established in 2016. They are known for Xinguo says it forges water-quenched honyaki. We list the Kisuke x Xinguo line.. Available at Knives and Stones Australia.

What knives does Xinguo make?

Xinguo produces the following knife lines: Xinguo Blue Super Mizu Honyaki , Xinguo ApexUltra Mizu Honyaki. We currently carry 4 products from Xinguo at Knives and Stones. They specialise in Xinguo says it forges water-quenched honyaki. We list the Kisuke x Xinguo line..

Where is Xinguo located?

Xinguo is located in Shanghai.

Where can I buy Xinguo knives in Australia?

Knives and Stones is an authorised Australian stockist of Xinguo. You can shop online at knivesandstones.com.au, with free shipping for knives over AU$200 Australia wide, or visit our stores in St Peters (Sydney), Crows Nest (Sydney), Braddon (Canberra) and Prahran (Melbourne) to handle the knives before buying.

Is Xinguo a Japanese knife brand?

No. Xinguo (新國) is a knife workshop based near Shanghai, China, so it is not Japanese.

The line we stock carries both names, Kisuke Manaka and Xinguo.

Xinguo

Craft

Location

Brand

Does Xinguo Allow Unsolicited Visits?

Knives by Xinguo

Xinguo Blue Super Mizu Honyaki

Xinguo ApexUltra Mizu Honyaki

Shop Xinguo Knives

Visit Us In Person

St Peters

Crows Nest

Canberra

Prahran

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