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KAI: The Endo Family and the Growth of a Cutting-Tool Business
A long pair of sewing shears and a small folding knife look like distant relatives. In KAI’s history, they belong to branches of the same cutting-tool business. Follow the company back through its archive and the story begins in Seki, with Saijiro Endo in 1908.
1. Two generations named Saijiro Endo
The archive distinguishes the founder from Saijiro Endo II. The second generation established a postwar razor and cutlery wholesaling company in Nagoya in 1947. The history subsequently follows lightweight razors, factory expansion and the start of kitchen-knife production in 1971. KAI’s historical exhibition.
The early knife and the company-building image give the chronology two different scales. One shows the object the business made; the other gives that work a setting. Following the archive forward reveals a growing range of cutting tasks, rather than one unchanging product handed down through time.
2. A wider cutting-tool business
KAI established its US operation in Portland in 1977 and began making surgical knives in 1984. These milestones explain why a company encountered through sewing scissors also has a history in other kinds of blades. They do not mean that every product uses the same steel or manufacturing route. The company chronology.
3. A pair of shears is a moving relationship
For garment making, it is useful to look at the whole pair: the handle openings, the pivot, the blade length and the way the lower blade sits beside the fabric. A long straight cut and a short close cut ask for different movements. That helps explain why a cutting-tool company can offer several forms for sewing without treating them as interchangeable.
Our KAI categories separate long tailor’s shears from bent and double-curved scissors. The shapes are easier to compare when you imagine the job first. Are you following a long cutting line, reaching close to a surface or working around a small area? The answer helps narrow the choice before the steel specification becomes the deciding detail.
4. The part of the range on our sewing table
Eight Needles lists 25cm, 28cm and 30cm tailor’s shears, plus bent and double-curved scissors. The 25cm N7250 is identified in our listing as a 7000 Series model using AUS8A stainless steel. The model-specific information remains attached to that pair.
The categories below separate the long fabric-cutting shears from the bent and double-curved shapes. Together they show the sewing side of KAI’s much broader cutting-tool history.
Explore this part of the story: Kai – Tailors Shears 30cm.
KAI’s company history is shared across the range; individual specifications are not. The N7250 listing identifies a particular 7000 Series model, while other sizes and shapes keep their own product descriptions. The collection below retains those distinctions. The story explains where the tools come from, and the model pages explain which tool you are looking at.
5. Explore the collection by category
Explore by category
Tailor’s shears
Kai – Tailors Shears 30cmView details & options →
Browse 2 more in this category
Bent and double-curved scissors
Kai Bent scissorsView details & options →
Browse 1 more in this category
Words: Eight Needles. Historical, workshop and product images are credited in their captions. Company and manufacturing sources are linked beside the relevant passages. Historical and manufacturing sources are linked beside the relevant passages. Product links open the live Eight Needles shop.
