Take a look behind the scenes of the making of a Zen-Wu Chinese Plane.
Always sharp but sharpenable
Lightweight yet shock absorbent
Mountains of Central China
Photo taken on the founding trip of Zen-Wu. Read more about how we work →
As I see the mountains,
so the mountains see me.
我见山青
青山见我
理
Zen-Wu of principle
We embrace time-tested designs if and only if we understand them deeply: why they work, why they endure, and whether the preconditions carry over to the modern age. Otherwise, we design from first principles.
术
Zen-Wu of means
We are neither ashamed of nor proud of any choice of techniques we use: whether hand forging, hand stitching, programmatic temperature control and machining, or AI-aided design. All are means to an end.
道
Zen-Wu of pursuit
We constantly develop new steels and novel metalworking processes. It's painstaking work, and we've chosen to do it. Real research for real innovation, not incremental tweaks repackaged as breakthroughs.
On-Sale
The legendary
ZW-C1 Carbon Steel
The carbon steel at the heart of the Y-1 Chisel.
Discount
Blems and odd batches
Design prototypes, limited runs and manufacturing blems at a discount.