A Japanese Knife Expert Trusted by Some of Melbourne’s Best Chefs Opens a New Shop in the City

Kazuki “Kaz” Hanzawa likens helping a customer choose a knife to Harry Potter finding his wand – the right one feels almost magical.

Hanzawa moved to Australia from Japan in 2010 on a working holiday visa – a 21-year-old with no English. He started sharpening knives for locals in Inverloch in Victoria while working as a chef at Tomos Japanese. He realised there were almost no knife shops in Melbourne, which led to him launching an online store in 2017. He followed it up with a bricks-and-mortar Prahran shop called Kaz’s Knife and Kitchenware in 2023.

Since starting his knife business, Hanzawa has worked with chefs from top Melbourne restaurants, including Vue de Monde (where he supplies cutting boards) and Attica.

Now, Hanzawa has brought his wares to the city, opening new store Zan Shin Japanese Knife at the top end of Little Collins Street in July.

Here, he stocks over 150 stainless and carbon steel blades alongside accessories including cutting boards and pruning shears. “These knives are fun to use and push you to cook and not order Uber Eats,” Hanzawa says.

At one end of the spectrum, there’s a sashimi knife made with an ebony and marble handle that retails for $2000. At the other, a $220 stainless steel utility knife that’s versatile, light, rustproof and, according to Hanzawa, a purchase that will last a lifetime. The shop stocks Hanzawa’s own brand, Zan Shin (made in Japan), alongside options from heritage labels like Jikko, a century-old brand from Osaka, which accounts for almost 50 per cent of his range.

But Hanzawa goes beyond helping people find their perfect match. Both the Prahran and city stores offer knife sharpening services and workshops. Intimate sharpening classes are run four times a week by chefs-turned-store-managers Fin Le and Stefano Finardi. “Sharpening-stone culture [using whetstones to sharpen blades] has been missing in Melbourne,” Hanzawa adds. That’s not to say nobody is doing it, but it’s certainly not as commonplace as it is in Japan.

For Hanzawa, using sharp knives isn’t just about precision – he says a properly sharpened knife can also change how food tastes by leaving more of an ingredient’s cells intact when cutting. “I don’t want to say something aggressive, but sharpened knives make tastier food.”

Zan Shin Japanese Knife
181 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
03 6159 2111

Hours:
Mon to Sat 10am–6pm
Sun 11am–4pm

kazsknifeonline.com.au