How to carry sharp knives without the risk of cutting both yourself and everything else around? And, most importantly, how to keep the delicate sharp edge of your knife from unnecessary damage?
Professional cooks use special knife bags to carry their knives and protect them from damage. Some other alternatives have surfaced in the recent years, like plastic blade guards. Plastic blade guards are, unfortunately, seldom a good fit for a Japanese single bevel knife, because of the different blade geometry.
In Japan the problem of protecting a knife from damage was solved long ago. The Japanese have invented a “saya” – a wooden sheath used for protecting the knife’s blade.
We at hawatari had the privilege of learning how to manufacture Japanese saya wooden blade guards. And now we want to offer our customers the opportunity to order a completely unique handcrafted saya blade guard for their knives. Sayas that we manufacture can be made for any kind of blade profile, both single bevel and double bevel.
Our sayas are handcrafted manually with traditional Japanese woodworking tools according to the traditional Japanese methods. The inside of a saya is treated with food safe oil, to provide the blade with a better protection against possible rust. The outside of a saya is specially grain-treated to make it more durable and more water resistant.
Below can be seen just a few of the many saya wooden blade guards manufactured by us, at hawatari.
| Saya for a yanagiba sashimi slicer | |
 |
 |
| Saya for a nakiri knife | |
 |
 |
| Saya for a bigger knife. Treated with Japanese red urushi lacquer | |
 |
 |
Sayas that are manufactured at hawatari are branded with our own 當 brand. Japanese kanji letter 當 stands for “ataru” and is translated as “well fitting“.
How to order?
Do you want to order a saya for your knife? Just write us a free formed letter at woodwork@hawatari.com and we will get in touch with you to discuss your saya project.
We prioritize highest quality and do all the work “in house” manually to ensure that sayas that we manufacture will be great looking and at the same time durable. It takes about 4-5 days to make a saya.
Please understand that the final price for a saya depends on the size and profile of the knife, customer’s preferences and materials used. Therefore the final price is determined on “case by case” principles and in close negotiations between hawatari and the customer.
The basic starting price for a saya is in any case a fee of 75 euro.
hawatari 