Japanophiles: Bjorn Heiberg

Bjorn Heiberg is a connoisseur of the cutting edge of Japanese knives. Japanese swords are famous around the world for their unrivaled quality. These days, smiths use the same techniques that were perfected for sword-making to craft top-quality knives. Heiberg is not a knife maker himself. Rather, he owns cutlery stores where he sells the finest knives made by the most skilled smiths. Many of these smiths can be found in Sakai, Osaka, one of the centers of the Japanese knife-making tradition.