I have purchased four different knives from Tosho in the last eight years in varying price categories. Every single one has been of extremely high quality. The cheapest one I’ve purchased was for my partner who uses it every single day as a prep chef and it still looks brand new and holds an edge with no issue. There is nowhere else in the city that provides this standard of service and quality for cookware.
I took a freehand knife sharpening class at Tosho Knife Arts on November 23, 2025 and the instructor was Olivia, the beautiful and knowledgeable co-owner of the store. We were so lucky! We were given new stainless steel santoku (KAI Seki MagoRoku line) knives and were taught how to evaluate their blades and sharpen them by hand on 2 Naniwa Chosera Pro sharpening stones, #400 and #1000 grit supported and anchored on the NanoHone stand inside the NanoHone sharpening pond, followed by deburring the edge on rock hard felt and cleaning it up on unloaded leather strop. The resulting knife sharpness was tested on a piece of white printer paper and by doing the three fingers test and carrot cutting. There were 4 students in class, so there was plenty of time for the instructor to pay attention to each one of us and what I learned in this class was priceless. I have nothing to compare it to, but I left super satisfied with the knowledge gained. It demystified the sharpening process, laid the foundation for the future skills, and it was exceptionally useful in practical terms. We were taught both how to sharpen our knives and how to maintain that sharpness on a daily basis. That was so great! Now I truly believe that one needs a class, at least one class with a teacher in order to learn how to pay attention to things as one sharpens and hones their knife. I am now both able to sharpen my knives and to understand when master sharpeners speak or teach in videos or books to gain more knowledge. This class eliminated several blind spots that I had when I looked at the knife blade and its edge before and it taught me how to sharpen evenly, including the very tip of the knife. I do not know how sharp those made in Japan santoku knives were right out of the box, but they effortlessly cut carrots into shiny paper thin slices by the end of sharpening them on each stone and by the end of the class. At home I measured my santoku's sharpness on PT50A BESS certified scale and it turned out to be in the working sharpness range, about 320BESS measured in different points of the blade. In other words, it would pass the newspaper cutting test and the fingernail test, and it did pass the printer paper test and carrot cutting test, but the cutting edge strongly reflects bright light, so it is not arm hair shaving sharp, and it still has a burr and needs a bit more work. We were invited to come to the store with questions and with our knives at any time afterwards, or even stay after class and practice for as long as we wished, but I was too tired to stand on my feet any longer. I do not know anything about Japanese knives, so I cannot comment on the store inventory, but they do carry everything necessary for sharpening knives by hand and the service is great. They do both educate you and they let you test their knives on carrots when you shop for the one that you fancy to see how it performs and how it feels in your hand. Thank you, Olivia, you are my teacher, my kind sensei now! Thank you Ivan for your videos that got me interested in the freehand sharpening and led me to your Toronto store. And thank you both for the Tosho Knife Arts store that made us feel welcomed and relaxed. It's a great place to learn and to shop for everything that has to do with knives.
had called over the phone to ask about some japanese knives and the man who was on the line was super nice and notified me i should come maybe some time near the end of this week as they dont have many knives in stock at the moment. big ups to them i hope business is going well.
Had a great time perusing the knives on display! Joey (or J-Money as we like to call him) was vey friendly and knowledgeable, even going as far as to explain how moisture may affect the metal. He helped me pick out a beginner friendly knife and I hope I’ll be able to make the time to come back for another! I highly recommend going here, if not for the knives I believe it is worth the pilgrimage just to see Joey and his cool hat.
Top notch customer service and extremely knowledgeable. Overall I had an awesome experience buying my first Japanese knife and they gladly answered any questions that I had. Highly recommend anyone looking for a high quality knife to visit!
Helpful people there both knowledgeable and enthusiastic about knives. I was recommended a knife I hadn’t looked into that was cheaper and performed better with some drawbacks in other aspects that they estimated I could accept in the long run. That resulted in me getting a carbon rather than a stainless steel knife. Been happy with it!
Ordered a knife for my Dad as a Christmas gift. Tosho’s communication was amazing regarding shipping the knife and they even wrapped it up for me! 10/10 would recommend and I will definitely be back to purchase more!
Tosho Knife Arts is a Canadian Knife store based in Toronto, Ontario. Tosho Knife Arts is located at 913 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5R 3G4, Canada.
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