How Majime Knives Are Made
Three countries, one standard, finished by hand in my shop.
I’m a chef first. I spent more than a decade in professional kitchens and seven years learning to make knives. The Meraki series and the limited-edition Opus come from one goal: a high-performing knife that holds its own against custom work, without the custom price.
Where it started
My first run of larger-scale production was with a company here in the States. It was a great way into offering a Majime knife, and I learned a lot from it. I also learned that making everything in America, at the price I wanted, couldn’t give me the performance and tolerances I was after.
So I worked with several companies, hoping a one-person shop with a dream could make it work. I’m very meticulous about design, and my tolerances are strict. Every company I prototyped with did some things really well. None of them could deliver the whole knife I had in my head.
Why it spans three countries
I stopped looking for one maker and built a process instead. The Meraki series and the Opus move between the United States, China, and Japan, and each partner does the job they do best. The steel is sourced in America, for example, and the handles are machined to my own design, not picked from a catalogue. They’re made for Majime.
Every step is where it is for one reason: to build a knife that meets the standard I’d hold as a chef. Coordinating all of it has been some of the hardest, most demanding work I’ve done.
Testing it properly
I don’t take heat treatment on faith. Every small batch gets tested here in Atlanta, with pull tests, tensile strength testing, and a close look at the carbide structure under magnification. It’s the kind of checking you’d normally only see in an industrial setting. I’m lucky to have family with a company that has a dedicated metallurgy lab.
Finished by hand, in my shop
The last step is the one a machine can’t do, and it happens here. Every knife gets my quality control, final touch-ups, hand sharpening, and packaging. Nothing ships until I’ve checked it myself and it meets my standard.
This isn’t a knife picked out of a catalogue. It’s seven years of learning, put into a design.
I’m so grateful and proud that so many people have shared their experiences with the production series. It has become a global thing, with owners all around the world, and I never dreamed of that. Even in my first year of making knives, I couldn’t have imagined it. It’s been years in the making, and the journey has taught me more than I expected.