These samurai-quality blades are ready to help defeat your paper foes.

Japanese kitchenware maker Nikken Cutlery, based in the city of Seki, which is famous for its long history of swordsmithing, has found a modern use for their traditional sword-making techniques: cutlery. They make stylish, samurai-inspired blades that we can use in our every day lives in the form of kitchen knives and kitchen scissors.

But did you know they’ve also expanded their expertise to creating office tools as well? Yes, they also make amazing katana-shaped letter openers. Their latest line-up has been introduced in a new crowdfunding campaign, with the added bonus of personalized engravements!

There are three varieties of letter openers to choose from, and though these are not inspired by real-life samurai, as Nikken’s other products have been, they are still really awesome. Each one comes with a stand, so you can display your katana letter opener proudly for all to see!

The first is called “Iron Cloud”. Its hilt is black and gold, and its sheath looks like it’s coated in lacquer, as it’s a shiny black with gold sparkles.

The second is “Scarlet Gold Cloud”, which has a stylish black and red hilt, and a red sheath with gold splatters.

And the last is “Black Grains of Rock”, which has a purple and black hilt and a black sheath with a rough texture that looks like it’s been crudely carved out of a lava rock. By the way, each of the sheaths are hand-painted by craftsmen, so each and every one will be unique.

The engravings are done on the blade near the hilt, and can be anything from names, to messages, to dates. It’s limited to eight kanji, hiragana, and katakana characters, or 15 Roman letters and numbers (including spaces).

Of course, the letter openers are hand crafted by Seki craftsmen, so each one is going to have a sharply tapered edge, but don’t worry, they’re specially designed not to be able to cut human skin. Each one is also carefully tempered with a heat treatment that uses techniques of traditional sworsdsmithing, so they’re durable as well as beautiful.

The letter openers are currently offered through a crowdfunding campaign on Makuake here, and the goal of 500,000 yen has been met almost three-fold. If you want to get some of these letter openers and contribute to the campaign, there are several options: buying them individually (3,500-4,000 yen), with a special paulownia wood box (5,000 yen), or as a set of 10 (30,000 yen), 30 (80,000 yen), or 50 (100,000 yen). The campaign will be open until May 22, or as the limited quantities last, and after that the letter openers will be shipped out by the end of June or July, depending on order size.

So if you’ve got a someone in mind who would love one of these, you’ll want to act fast before they’re bought out! And don’t forget to get one for yourself. You’ll be sure to impress your coworkers with one of these after we all go back to work.

Source: Makuake via Japaaaan
Images: Makuake
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