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Who makes it, and where
Most of what we sell is made by people who have been making the same thing for a very long time.
Often in the same town. Often by the same family. These are their stories, and what they make.
Sweden. The Assistent since 1940
Launched in 1940, the Assistent was the first stand mixer made in Sweden, and it still works the way Alvar Lenning drew it. The bowl sits on top of the gearbox and turns, while a roller and a scraper do the work instead of an orbiting beater.
Breda, Netherlands. Since 2015
Combekk casts its casseroles in the Netherlands from a hundred per cent recycled cast iron, remelted from old European railway track. High carbon steel, rolled to carry a train and lifted on a schedule, given a second life as the pot you braise in. Several carry a thermometer set into the lid.
Le Val d’Ajol, France. Ironwork since 1830
de Buyer have worked metal at Le Val d’Ajol in the Vosges for close to two hundred years, on the same ground and beside the same river. Twenty trades are still practised in the fabrication shops, from blacksmith and hammerer to riveter and boilermaker, and the French state lists the company as a Living Heritage Company.
Marcigny, Burgundy. Since 1850
Emile Henry has fired cookware from Burgundy clay in the village of Marcigny since 1850. Six generations of the same family, father to son, and every piece still made in France.
Vancouver, Canada. Est. 2002
Espro was started by two Vancouver engineers on a dare. First a better espresso tamper, then a press that filters coffee up to twelve times finer than an ordinary French press. Coffee, with the guesswork engineered out.
Niigata, Japan. One piece steel since 1983
Yoshida Metal Industry were already making hollow handled stainless flatware in Niigata when they asked the designer Komin Yamada for a knife. What came back had no wood, no bolster and no join. A seamless piece of steel with a sand filled handle.
Effingham, Illinois. Boards since 1887
It began as a blacksmith’s anvil block: a round slab of sycamore on three legs, one of them cut short so juices ran off. A butcher asked for one, Conrad Boos’s son John filled the order, and the company has been making wood work surfaces in the same Illinois town ever since.
Nara, Japan. Since 1870
A shop at the foot of Wakakusayama that dealt in swords until the Meiji edict made that impossible, then turned to kitchen knives and razors in 1889. The chrysanthemum mark is still stamped on every blade, and the technique is inherited from the Tegai school of Yamato swordsmiths.
Tokyo, Japan. Fragrance since 2016
Shiono Koryo has blended fragrance in Japan since 1808. In 2016 it set up Kitchibe in Tokyo for room scent alone, with ceramics from a Mino kiln in Gifu and design by the studio behind the monacca cedar bag. Nine oils, and several of them finish on a base note that is a place rather than an ingredient.
Motomiya, Japan. Hinoki since 1972
Kodai have worked Japanese cypress in a river valley below Mount Adatara since 1972, when a carpenter named Shoji Nemoto opened the workshop. The Nemoto family still run it, and still mill, finish and pack every board under one roof.
Itter, Tyrol. Grain mills since 1985
Peter Koidl built his first grain mill in 1985 and his son runs the company now. Everything is made in their own workshop in Tyrol, in wooden housings from certified forest, and every machine is hand tested in more than seventy steps before it leaves.
Kyoto, Japan. Incense since 1994
Kousaido blends incense in Kyoto, inside a tradition that treats fragrance as something to live alongside rather than something to mask a room. The name means fragrance and colour, and everything the house makes follows from that, down to the woodblock prints on the boxes.
Padua, Italy. Since 1930
Otello Marcato built his first pasta rollers in a workshop behind his house in 1930 and sold them around the villages from a bicycle. The Atlas arrived in 1965 and has barely changed since, which is the entire reason people still buy it.
Arkansas, USA. Kitchen tools since 1994
Grace Manufacturing made photo etched woodworking rasps until 1994, when a Canadian cook took one out of her husband’s workshop to zest an orange. Every tooth is chemically etched rather than punched, which is why it cuts rather than tears.
Tsubame, Japan. Since 1960
A Tsubame press shop that kept everything under one roof, from die design through pressing and polishing to packing. Geo Product is their seven layer stainless line, with a lid that seals tightly enough to cook without adding water.
Osaka, Japan. Abrasives since 1941
Naniwa Abrasive has made sharpening stones in Osaka since 1941. Not a knife company that also sells stones, but an abrasives firm whose whole business is the controlled removal of material, with a catalogue laid out as a ladder from a first combination stone up to the magnesia bonded Chocera Pro.
Tsubame, Japan. Since 2015
A young Tsubame maker with one good idea. Blade and handle are built as a single sealed shell with a hollow core, so there is no welded joint to fail, no seam to clean, and the balance sits forward where you want it.
Bristol, Wisconsin. Abrasives since 1978
Pride Abrasive is a small family owned shop in Bristol, Wisconsin that has made abrasive stones since 1978. Most of what it makes is industrial, honing stones for hydraulic cylinders and aerospace and the tool and die trade. The water stones are one line out of that same shop.
Sakai, Osaka. Forged blades since the 14th century
Sakai Takayuki knives are forged in Sakai, Osaka by Aoki Hamono, a family workshop making professional blades since 1950, in a city that has been forging them for six hundred years.
Lurgan, Northern Ireland. Since 1835
A Lurgan linen house, still owned by the Lamont family, that moved into terry towel weaving in the 1950s. Forty years on, the Poli-Dri is still widely regarded as the best tea towel you can buy: a looped terry weave that takes water up instead of pushing it around the plate.
Ryomgård, Denmark. Cast since 1956
Scanpan is short for Scandinavian Pan, and the first ones were cast from metal scrap left over from the war. Seventy years on, the nonstick is still poured by hand in Ryomgård from recycled aluminium and pressed at 250 tonnes.
Seki, Gifu. Since 1918
Kanetsugu is a swordsmith’s name from the fourteenth century. The company was opened in 1918 by a descendant of his, is on its fourth Kawamura, and still employs nineteen people. Every blade is quenched and then taken below minus seventy.
Sanjo, Japan. Since 1874
A Sanjo bladesmith from 1874 that incorporated in 1957 and started making stainless knives the same year. What they put at the centre of their own story is not the steel but the edge: wet stone sharpening, and the convex clamshell bevel it leaves.
Kyoto, Japan. Incense since 1705
Shoyeido has blended incense in Kyoto since 1705, when Rokubei Moritsune Hata brought the craft he learned at the Imperial Palace to everyone outside its walls. Twelve generations of his family have kept the recipes.
Seki City, Japan. Since 1908
Named for the Japanese word for peak seasonal ripeness, Shun makes some of the world's finest kitchen knives, hand-finished in Seki City by the Kai Group, blade-makers since 1908.
Sanjo, Japan. Since 1926
Suwada started in 1926 making end cut pliers for carpenters rebuilding after the Kanto earthquake. The nail clipper came in 1950 and is the same tool scaled down. Only the middle third of each forged bar is used, and the two blades are aligned by hand with a diamond file.
Tsubame, Japan. Since 1963
A Tsubame wire mesh works that spent twenty years making other companies’ products, then lost that trade to the yen and started making its own. The rugged strainers are moulded in one piece, so there is no welded leg to work loose and no seam to trap starch.
Kamakura, Japan. First shoes you sew yourself
Umeloihc make kits for a baby's first shoes, but they don't make the shoes. You do. Pre-cut vegetable-tanned leather, needle, thread and an evening's work, from a small workshop in the temple quarter of Kamakura.
Medellin, Colombia. Since 1939
Raul Mejia was sixteen when he entered the foundry trade in Medellin in 1939, making iron soldiers by hand. Three generations on the family still pours its own iron in the same neighbourhood, and every pan leaves seasoned with flaxseed oil.
Solingen, Germany. Blades since 1814
Johann Abraham Wusthof started out making scissors in a Solingen cellar in 1814. Seven generations later the family still owns the company, and every forged knife is still made in the one city on earth whose name is a registered trademark.
Yangjiang, China. Damascus blades
A blade maker in the Chinese city that makes knives the way Solingen and Seki do. No heritage story, because Xinzuo does not publish one. What they do publish is the process, and the vacuum hardening followed by a deep freeze is the part worth knowing.
Solingen, Germany. Since 1731
Peter Henckels registered a twin as his mark with the Solingen cutlers’ guild on 13 June 1731, and it has been in use ever since. What we carry is the professional and Japanese end of the range: the Bob Kramer collaborations, the hundred layer Seki knives, Twin Master and Kolor ID.
More makers to come. In the meantime, every brand we carry is listed on All Brands A to Z.
Email Us
sales@kitchenvirtue.com
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