This is a great example of mass production combined with manual production. The knives in this video start off as strips of rolled steel that are cut into blanks, precision-honed by a grinding machine and shaken around in a huge bowl of polishing stones. Then it travels down the assembly line to a bunch of men and women who sharpen, buff, polish and de-burr the knives multiple times; we expected them to have band-aids all over their fingers, but they're consummate pros.

What we've described above are just the production methods used for the blade; the video also covers how the bone handles are made and how the whole kit 'n caboodle goes together at the end. All told, these simple-looking knives go through at least a dozen stages of production.

(Load the video and you can skip the first 22 seconds, which is an idiotic logo screen and techno music lite.)

via nat'l association of manufacturers blog