Hocho Knife Japanese kitchen knives, shipped from Japan

What Hocho Knife sells

Hocho Knife is a specialist retailer of Japanese kitchen knives, covering sashimi and sushi knives such as Yanagiba, Takohiki and Fuguhiki, plus Gyuto, Santoku, Sujihiki, Deba, Usuba, Nakiri, Petty, paring, boning and cleaver styles. Blade materials include Damascus, Honyaki, Kurouchi and Nashiji steel, and the catalog lists named makers including Sakai Takayuki, Takeshi Saji, Yu Kurosaki, Kanetsune, Yoshihiro, Masamoto and Tojiro. It also sells accessories such as camellia cutlery oil for blade care.

Pricing

On 30 Oct 2026, prices on hocho-knife.com ranged from about $20 for a bottle of cutlery oil to roughly $4,350 for a Sakai Takayuki Honyaki yanagiba, a hand-forged collector-grade blade. Most everyday knives we saw sat between about $70 and a few hundred dollars, with some items shown at a discounted sale price. Prices vary a great deal by maker, steel type and blade length, so compare the specific model rather than a brand-wide average.

Shipping and customs

Hocho Knife ships internationally from Japan using Japan Post, FedEx and DHL, and says it can reach virtually any address worldwide, though some products cannot ship internationally. Shipping fees are weight-based and shown on each product page, and handling takes 3 to 5 business days before a package ships, not counting weekends and Japanese holidays. The page we read states two different free-shipping thresholds, USD300 and USD250, without explaining the difference, so check the figure shown in your own cart rather than relying on either number.

For most destinations, the buyer is responsible for customs duties on arrival, and an unpaid, returned parcel is treated as a cancelled order. The policy says the seller advances import duties for some eligible US orders, with customers paying part of the cost at checkout, and couriers may add a small administration fee for customs and VAT handling. Check your own country's import rules before ordering a knife, since some countries restrict blade imports.

Returns, refunds and cancellation

Returns are accepted within 14 days of delivery if the item is unused, unopened and includes all original packaging and parts, and any problem must be reported within 7 days with clear photos. The buyer pays return shipping unless the fault was the seller's error, and refunds are usually issued within four weeks of the return being shipped, sometimes sooner; used or incomplete returns may be refunded for less.

Cancelling an order is free within 1 hour of placing it. After that, the policy charges 3% of the order if cancelled within the first hour for a PayPal processing fee, 10% after 1 hour, 20% after 24 hours and 30% after 48 hours. That structure makes an ordinary change of mind progressively expensive, so confirm the knife style, size and maker before you check out. Outlet items are final sale with no claims for cosmetic flaws, and ordinary scratches or dents from the forging process on traditional knives are not treated as defects.

Buying advice

Decide on blade style, length and steel type before ordering, since cancelling after the first hour costs money. Check the free-shipping figure and the exact duties you will owe at checkout rather than trusting either number on the policy page, and confirm your country allows the import of kitchen knives. Photograph the package the moment it arrives in case you need to file a transit-damage claim.