Ask Representative Director Nobuo Hanaki what the name means, and it comes back to the hand. The two characters behind Sukenari — 佑 and 成 — speak to supporting someone and helping them achieve something, and there's a nice detail buried in the first one: split it apart and you'll find a person standing beside the character for "right." The whole idea is a knife that belongs in your right hand like it was always meant to be there.
That thinking has been in the workshop since 1933. From the start, Sukenari made its name with Honyaki, the toughest and least forgiving way there is to forge a Japanese blade — but they were never precious about keeping it locked to tradition. Carbon steel, sure, but also modern stainless alloys and powder-metallurgy steels most makers wouldn't dare take near a Honyaki fire. If there's a new steel worth trying, chances are Sukenari got there first. Plenty of their blades have been forged from steels no one had ever put into a kitchen knife before, and that appetite for the unknown is exactly what makes them one of Japan's most fearless knifemakers.
