Shibazi (Shi Ba Zi Zuo)

Shibazi (十八子, also sold internationally as Shi Ba Zi Zuo) is a cutlery manufacturer in Yangjiang, Guangdong — the city whose blade-making tradition dates back roughly 1,400 years to the Tang dynasty and which today produces the large majority of China's knife exports. English-language trade coverage has described the brand as founded in 1889, but that date does not hold up: Chinese-language sources — Baidu Baike, Chinese Wikipedia, and Yangjiang's own municipal government press release naming Shibazi a 'China Time-Honored Brand' — consistently trace the name to a family bladesmithing craft in the 1930s, a formal brand founding around 1950, and the present corporate entity's 1983 establishment (matching the '十八子集团有限公司 1983-2026' copyright line on the company's own site); none mention 1889. It is described in trade press as China's most recognized domestic kitchen-knife brand, with reported 2023 revenue of roughly 620 million RMB.

The company's site lists an English-language mirror domain and maintains active storefronts on major Chinese e-commerce platforms including Tmall, JD.com, and Suning, with company news posts current through 2023 — direct evidence of an actively trading business rather than a legacy name licensed onto unrelated goods. Its core product line is kitchen cleavers, chef's knives, and scissors, sold under the stainless-steel-forward positioning common to modern Yangjiang manufacturers.

Shibazi is listed by industry trade coverage (China Knife Fair, Yangjiang hardware trade press) as one of the city's flagship heritage cutlery brands alongside newer folding-knife exporters, distinguishing it from Yangjiang's large contract-manufacturing base by its own retail-facing brand identity and multi-generational operating history.