Lark Crafts

Wearable, functional, sculptural…we love metal in all its forms!

My newest object of desire is a soba kiri, a Japanese kitchen knife specifically designed for cutting handmade soba, buckwheat noodles.

Japanese blade craftsmanship is well known and deeply admired. Their traditional kitchen tools are forged into very purposeful shapes. A knife for cod. One for octopus. Different knives for carrots, long onions, watermelon, and cabbage. One for removing chestnut skin.

The design also varies by task. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of knives for slicing sashimi, cutting fillets, peeling fruits, chopping vegetables, carving garnishes.

Is your head starting to spin? Well, how about this – designs also vary from region to region. The unagisaki, a knife for filleting eel, has a distinct Kyoto style, Tokyo style, Kanto style, Kyoto style, Osaka style, Edo style, and Nagoya style.

But back to the noodle knife. (And yes, there’s an udon kiri, too.)

For me, seeing this extraordinary object being handled by a soba master is a profound piece of performance art. The skill, the grace, the tradition, the mindfulness that is present with each cut embodies the virtue of the handmade. The bladesmith’s craft enables the soba maker’s craft and our world is richer for it.

Video: Cutting Soba

Many individual talents work together at Lark – designers, wordsmiths, curators, stylists, printers, and photographers. Like the soba kiri bladesmith, our goal is to provide purposeful and beautiful tools that enable, advance, and inspire your creative life and showcase your artistic excellence in whatever shape it takes.

Congratulations to all involved in crafting this new website. We hope you all enjoy this new tool!