Xinguo

Xinguo — The Outsiders Making Their Mark

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.

“From hobbyist repairers to rising makers — a small team crafting their own path outside tradition.”

Est. 2022

Known for Started as hobbyist knifemakers and repairers, rapid skill growth

Craft

Known For: Started as hobbyist knifemakers and repairers, rapid skill growth

Location

Region: Other, Japan

Brand

Logo

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 we stock made by Xinguo’s team 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 Japanese knife maker based in Other, Japan , established in 2022. They are known for Started as hobbyist knifemakers and repairers, rapid skill growth. 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 Started as hobbyist knifemakers and repairers, rapid skill growth.

Where is Xinguo located?

Xinguo is located in Other, Japan. Japanese knife-making regions each have distinct traditions.

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 on orders over $99, or visit our stores in St Peters (Sydney), Crows Nest (Sydney) and Braddon (Canberra) to handle the knives before buying.