Japanese Knife Guide

Hello fellow knife fiends,

Longtime lurker and silently envious observer here. I'm using a new account, as I'm not trying to karma farm.

I've been collecting and using Japanese knives for several years, starting with a 180mm Aogami #2 nashiji bunka I imported from a small shop in Ōita in 2019, which I still use almost weekly.

When I got into this, I wanted one reference I could check for makers, steels, construction, and grinds without going down the Google rabbit hole. I eventually found u/ole_gizzard_neck's amazing community wiki, which ended up being a major source for a lot of what I built (credited throughout), but I personally wanted something a little different.

What I wanted was something structured, searchable, and nice to look at. So I built a free site: 15 sections covering smiths, steels, grinds, heat treatment, finishes, handle shapes, blade shapes, natural stones, and retailers. The content of the entire site is also printable as a single pdf using a link at the bottom of every page.

Of course, the only realistic way for me to personally take on something of this scope was using AI. Yes, yes, I know. AI can suck. I tried to leverage its research and data-handling capabilities rather than its "creativity."

However, I chose the makers to include, wrote some entries myself, drew the original diagrams, and set the format and sourcing standards. I used ChatGPT for graphic refinement, had Claude do a lot of the larger research work, and then used a coding/coordinator AI that incorporated several other models to check things and build the site. I think the version that's currently live, hosted through Cloudflare, is something like the 8th or 9th iteration. I've been making small grammar and formatting corrections since.

I've made an effort to appropriately credit the sources and material used throughout the site. It isn't meant to be an opinion piece, and it's completely non-commercial. There's no monetization, no advertising, and no affiliate links of any kind.

So, if anyone here is willing to check it out, provide feedback, point out mistakes or corrections, or suggest anything else that could make it better, I would genuinely appreciate it.

My hope is that it can become a useful community resource, both inside and outside of Reddit, for people looking for information about Japanese knives. I'm certainly not claiming that everything is perfect, and I'd much rather have knowledgeable people point out errors than leave bad information sitting there.

If you're interested in checking it out, you can find it at: hamonoguide.com or Hamono.guide

URLs like "Japanese knife guide" were take so if you have any suggestions for better ones, let me know.

Thanks friends and I appreciate any feedback you can provide.

Stay sharp,

Jake

TLDR: I built a Japanese knife guide website, fully non-commercial, and would appreciate feedback. hamonoguide.com