How China’s Knife Capital Produces Profitable Knife Niches

World’s Biggest Knife-Making City

Last year, this small city made $611.61 million by making knives and scissors. This is Yangjiang in Guangdong, China’s knife & scissors capital. From kitchen knives to outdoor blades to garden tools, everything can be made here. 85% of its production ships to markets all over the world. Even iconic brands like Zwilling work with suppliers here. The entire supply chain of raw steel, forging, handles, and packaging is packed within miles.

On the “smart knife” production lines, robotic arms handle precision cutting, and AI-guided laser machines automate edge grinding, blanking, and sharpening. Entire production lines now run automated, improving efficiency and making quality far more consistent.

How Knives Are Mass-Produced

If you want to build a kitchenware brand, here’s the simplest way to understand what makes a $15 knife different from a $150 knife. There are two ways to mass-produce knives: stamped and forged.

Stamped = cutting out cookie shapes

Stamped knives are made by cutting the knife shape out of a large sheet of steel, like cutting out cookie shapes, but with lasers or giant presses. Then they’re heat-treated, ground, sharpened, polished, and fitted with a handle. They’re lightweight, not expensive to mass-produce, widely used in home kitchen knives, utility knives, and paring knives.

Forged = compressed into a denser blade

Forged knives start from a heated steel billet. The metal is compressed and die-forged under massive pressure, then CNC-milled, ground, and finished into its final shape. Forged knives are usually heavier, have a thicker spine, feel more balanced, and offer better durability. Commonly used by professional kitchens. They cost more and are commonly used in premium lines like Zwilling Professional S and Wüsthof Classic Ikon.

How to Sell Knives Profitably

Pocket Knives: Yangjiang’s Hidden Advantage

There’s a group of passionate knife buyers who love collecting EDC and outdoor knives. Pocket knives are having a renaissance in this hobby market, and customers happily pay for details. Not just cutting performance, but design, materials, and precision finishing. This is also one of Yangjiang’s most mature export categories. Sellors can deliver high perceived quality with CNC machining, titanium or micarta handles, upgraded blade steels without pushing costs through the roof.

A perfect example is WE Knife, a brand that grew directly out of Yangjiang’s ecosystem. It built a global following with consistent product quality, clean designs, and a premium feel, while staying relatively affordable.

Always Sell Inside a “Scene”

EDC knives sell inside the hobbyist scene. Outdoor knives sell inside the camping/survival scene. And kitchen knives sell inside the cookware setup. One of our European clients orders around 10,000 knives a month, across combinations from 3-piece to 16-piece sets. Sets naturally fit different cooking habits, kitchen sizes, and price tiers, creating new product lines and better AOV.

High-margin Comes From Story

A $15 knife and a $150 knife both cut. The margin comes from the story and added value behind it. Take Allday Goods, founded by chef Hugo. Their kitchen knives sell for $100–$180 each, or $380 for a three-piece set. The hook is simple: recycled-plastic handles as the brand’s identity.

The blades are outsourced to well-known craftsmen, including Japanese bladesmith Yoshikazu and a fourth-generation Sheffield maker from the UK, the historical home of British cutlery. Hugo’s team does the final assembly in-house: drilling handle holes, melting recycled plastic, and fitting each blade. Their first 100-unit test batch sold out in just two minutes.

Since then, they leaned hard into the “eco-handle” idea, releasing collaborations that turn melted baby bottles from grocery partners or crushed sea-salt packaging into knife handles. Waste in, knives out.

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