Knifewear has rolled into town for a 6-day pop-up at the Chinatown Experiment pop-up retail space. Knifewear specializes in high-end Japanese knives. Too rich for my blood at the moment, but it was really fun and tempting to just look.

Read this great interview with Knifewear owner Kevin Kent, courtesy of Vancouver is Awesome.

They had a Tuesday-night grand opening party with FREE BEER courtesy of Central City Brewing. I was there at 6:00pm SHARP!

They actually don’t have a permanent location in Vancouver (yet). They have two stores in Calgary! The pop-up runs July 22 to 27.

It was pretty busy! Mostly industry people and foodies.

That whets my appetite…

…for whetstones!

Incredible that these whetstones go up to 12,000 and beyond! Most people will just use up to 1000 maybe 2000 for their non-Japanese knives.

The people there will tell you all you need to know.

Droooool.

Eeek! And this is on the lower end 😛

Superstars of the knife scene.

BEAUTIFUL craftsmanship.

A cut above.

Maybe these will send you over the edge.

Get the point?

They also have steels, sleeves and roll-up bags.

Hahaha, oh cut it out!

Pop-up shop means handwritten carboard signs! They have Lucky Peach if you’re missing the newer issues and don’t have time to go to Barbara-Jo’s.

Yesssss.

I better leave soon before I spend all my money.

Uh oh.

Sweet-looking cutting board.

I’ll think about it 🙂

All your hipster shaving supplies too.

Old school leather strops for straight razors.

Kent?

Ah ok, this is what a Kent comb looks like.

Creams.

Hardware.

These do appeal to a certain niche market. I’d probably hurt myself badly if I tried to use one of these. I’d need to hone my skill, for sure.

Trading cards too?

I guess you’ll see these guys in Victoria next!

FREE BEER: Central City’s new Red Racer Copper Ale (which is actually their old ESB in a new package).

For me, this beer didn’t cut it. I like ESBs but Driftwood’s Naughty Hildegaard will forever be my ultimate ESB, followed by R&B Eastside Bitter. This one gave me that “why am I drinking this” feeling 1/4 of the way through…

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So if you’ve got a heart-on for knives, get down to the Chinatown Experiment before Sunday, July 27! If you miss this pop-up, there’s always Santoku Equipment Office in Yaletown for your Japanese knife needs!