i'd recommend inquiring and shopping here: www.epicedge.com/. the owner, daniel, is very engaged with japanese knife manufacturers and trained in knife sharpening in japan. he's fond of bu rei zen knives, as am i. i own a 3" paring and an 8" nakiri from them. when i can afford it i'll replace my 8" german chef knife with one of theirs. the blades are so sharp you bleed just looking at them, and they're tough. another source is http://korin.com/. they are very much "to-the"trade". i haven't purchased knives from them but have bought quite a few other items.
