kako-us started in 2019 on a kitchen table in Portland, Oregon. Our founder, Margaret Ellison, had spent a decade buying and sharpening Japanese knives for a specialty food shop and wanted a place where US cooks could read testing notes that matched what they actually cook. We are a small editorial team of three: an editor-in-chief, a reviews editor, and a research editor. We buy every knife, stone, and care tool at retail, then test them on the same bench. We do not accept free samples for review, and we do not let advertisers see scores before publication. Our office is in Southeast Portland, and our test kitchen doubles as a sharpening station. We publish hands-on scores on a five-point scale, and we retest every 18 months.
Reading our coverage
Sharpening and care guides focus on how a stone behaves with a reference blade, how the edge changes through use, and what the maintenance routine demands of a home cook.
