Shigefusa Fakes 2.0

Back in 2018, I wrote this article about Shigefusa fakes and documented two cases of such fakes. [Article Link] Recently, posts were made on Instagram and Reddit highlighting two new examples of fake Shigefusa knives.

100% Fake

Reddit Case

A Reddit post was made early agust by u/moutainofmoo in the r/chefknives community asking for a knife identification. Subsequent comments showed that the knife was bought off eBay for fun.

Regardless, the knife bares kanji resembling that of Shigefusa, ableit difficult to intepret. Nonetheless, this remains a fake Shigefusa.

Why this is a fake?

  • Missing "Sanjo Made" stamp. Only in very rare cases this stamp is missing.
  • Damascus pattern. Shigefusa has never made a overly tight, swirly pattern as displayed on this knife.
  • Finish. Shigefusa does not do Uchidashi finishes. Period.
Link to the original Reddit Post.

Instagram Case

This post comes from James' Knives & Stones Instagram account. The video displays a kasumi deba performing a sharpness test. In the comments, James notes that "Single bevel kasimi shigs should have a stamped kanji, rather than engraved. This shigs are largely unbranded single bevels (possible made in Japan, but rather low grade), and have the kanji engraved. The Kanji quality is very high."

I would add to these comments that several other attributes are missing or off:

  • Missing "Sanjo Made" stamp. Only in very rare cases this stamp is missing. And it does, it is only observed on kitaeji knives.
  • 3rd Kanji. The third kanji is only seen on single bevel kitaeji knives, not kasumi.
  • Choil. Looking frame-by-frame to the video, around 1sec into the video, the choil looks uncharacteristically flat with a sharp edge. Shigefusa knives are known for the F&F and the knife in the video does not display this.


For more information on Kanji and the variations seen, check out this this article.