Curved blade, knife sellers enjoying heydays

Curved blades, locally known as boti, and knife sellers are enjoying their heydays as their business made a turnaround with the improving situation of coronavirus situation.

With the reopening of restaurants and other eateries and many who left the capital during the pandemic spread returning to Dhaka, the demand for the kitchen essentials have risen, traders said.

Curved blade or boti is the traditional kitchen knife used in Bangladesh and the Indian subcontinent which is used to cut vegetables, meat and other kinds of stuff sitting comfortably.

With the change in lifestyle, handheld straight knives became popular among urban people for their easiness while working on chopping boards.

The largest market of curved blades and knives in the capital is at Kawranbazar. Similar markets are also at New Market, Gulshan-1, Nakhalpara, Chawkbazar, Khilgaon and Mirpur-1.

The blacksmiths and sellers said usually their sales peak ahead of Eid-ul-Azha and their profit also shoots up and during the remaining months, the sales go average. With the ease of Covid restrictions, sales are almost touching the Eid-season sales.

While having a conversation with The Business Post, Mobarak Hossain, a boti and knife seller at Kawranbazar said, “After the downtrend in the business for the past one year, Alhamdulillah, I am doing well in recent times and the old charms of my business have returned. Last year, I sold around 2,500 botis and knives and this year and I have already sold more than 3,000 pieces of botis and knives and still, two more months are left to end the year.’

Like Mobarak Hossain, Rasel Ahmed, Salauddin Ali, Emon Rahman, Robiul Alam, Mahfuzur Rahman and other traders are happy with their present business compared to the last year.

Himel Ahmed, another seller at Nakhalpara said, “My family is running this business from generation to generation. My grandfather started this, then my father took over and now I am running it along with my elder brother Pavel Ahmed. Our family runs well through this.”

“Every day we can make more 20 pieces of curved blades and orders for customised blades has also increased. Sometimes we also bring these items from local blacksmiths at low prices and sell them in city market with some profit,” he said.

Another blacksmith Karim said with the ease of Covid-induced restrictions, and people are returning to Dhaka, many restaurants and other eateries are now in need of curved blades and knives.

“Our business slump is gone, we are doing now good business as demands surge,” Karim said.

Nurul Huda, 68, a blacksmith and wholesaler at Mirpur-1, said, “For the past 30 years, I’ve been making and selling dao, hashia and boti. I supply these stuff to different traders in Dhaka markets and elsewhere. People nowadays are interested to buy knives imported from China and other modern cutting stuffs from crockery shops at low prices but they are very poor in quality. I have more than 100 regular customers and most of them are slaughter-house or restaurant owners.”

Prices of curved blades and knives range between Tk 250 and Tk 2,000 depending on the size, shape, sharpness, and quality of metal.

Housewife Salma Haque was buying a boti at Nakhalpara. She said her family had to leave Dhaka after her husband lost his job immediately after the pandemic began. After one year, they returned to Dhaka and found the kitchen tools out of order. So, she is buying the boti.