It’s easy to ignore new ideas. I walked past Kiwi fruit in the grocery for fifteen years before I tried one, and if someone hadn’t pushed a santoku into my hands I’d still be using a chef’s knife for everything. The santoku isn’t new in Japan, but it took the world by storm only recently here in the West. If you don’t have one, you should get one.
You’ll still need your chef’s knife for heavy work, but for slicing vegetables you’ll never use another kind of blade once the santoku is on hand. The thin blade and delicate edge make a difference you really can feel — less friction, less work, less fatigue, and more accuracy. The characteristic that’s most noticeable is the granton, that row of small hollows ground in the sides of the blade just above the edge. Many higher grades of santoku don’t include it — it’s the thinner steel and the acute edge that are most important.
What happens when the santoku slides through a veggie is that less blade actually contacts the work. It’s easier to slice things because you’re not forcing a thick piece of steel through them. Pieces do still stick to the blade regularly — even though many swear the hollows magically release slices, that doesn’t always happen. What matters to me is that the work goes faster and easier with this knife. It’ll make you wonder why nobody on this side of the Pacific figured it out on their own.
Our pick for the Best Santoku Knife is Kershaw’s Shun Classic. Made in Damascus steel, it offers the reduced friction of the granton without the reduction in strength. Traditional looks disguise innovative improvements in an already excellent design.
Yoshikin Global’s all-steel santoku comes with granton or in the older traditional smooth blade. Either way, you get perfect balance and a better edge than the European standard.
At the low end of the price range but still high in quality, the R.H. Forschner Santoku gives western chefs a familiar knife style with efficient Japanese improvements.
Made for precise and efficient slicing of meats, vegetables, and fruit, the santoku design developed in Japan but quickly became a Western favorite when introduced to chefs in American and Europe. Master blade smith Bob Kramer improved the classic design, introducing features with American techniques in mind.
Bob Kramer's knives ...
Now one of the most popular kitchen knife styles in America as well as Japan, the Japanese santoku stepped up several notches in quality with the distinctively beautiful Premier series from KAI Shun Cutlery. From the line that won the Blade Magazine 2010 Kitchen Knife of the Year Award, the ...
Use the Miyabi Morimoto Edition 7-Inch Santoku for accurate slicing of fish, meat, and vegetables. The "three virtues" blade designed by Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto slices, dices, and minces with a design that has roots in both European and Asian cultures.
From Miyabi's 600-S Functional series, this santoku has an edge more ...
Mundial's Olivier Anquier Santoku with seven-inch hollow edge blade makes a few concessions to Asian styles, but it's very much an Old World knife. The wide drop-point blade still does a good job of slicing vegetables, fruit and meat.
The forged high carbon stainless steel design of this santoku gives ...
The Miyabi division of J.A. Henckels came about when the company decided to team up with Iron Chef Rokusaburo Michiba. Combining German materials and German standards with Japanese styling and Japanese craftsmanship produced the 5000S series of hybrid cutlery. The 7000D series, including the Miyabi 7000D Santoku, comes closer to ...
One of three new ceramic knives from Victorinox, this 7-inch santoku's improved design gives the knife three times the flexibility and five times the edge-holding compared to a selection of other modern ceramic blades. Independent testing by the Cutlery Allied Trade Research Association confirms these claims.
The thicker blade of ...
Messermeister's Meridian Elite Kullenschliff Santoku combines good features of the popular Asian slicing knife with German hot-forged construction and no-stain molybdenum vanadium steel.
Messermeister isn't the best known German cutlery manufacturer, but it's definitely one of the best. This Santoku with seven inches of cutting edge, forged bolster, and full tang handle ...
The Miyabi 5000 series -- including the 5000S Three Virtues Santoku with 7-inch blade -- uses the same high carbon stainless steel as the J.A. Henckels Twin knives. Japanese craftsmen produce and finish these fine knives in Seki, Japan, where Japanese techniques are applied to meet strict German production standards.
The ...
This Asian santoku and paring knife set comes from the Wusthof Classic series of hand-forged cutlery. The Classic Santoku combines traditional German craftsmanship with the light and efficient santoku pattern from Japan. Use the seven-inch santoku for fine slicing of vegetables and meats and the three-inch paring ...
This Wusthof Classic Santoku 6-Piece Block Set switches the classic European chef's knife for the classic Japanese santoku -- which more and more of us are discovering to be the real workhorse of the modern kitchen. More specialized than the versatile cook's or chef's knife, the slimmer and more efficient ...
Though this isn't the forged pattern many expect from the established German knife makers like Wusthof, there's quality here of a different kind. Streamlined methods and improved steel alloys create knives which are lighter and thinner than the old builds. One piece of chrome molybdenum vanadium steel makes both blade ...
This Henckels Twin Select Santoku with a granton blade shows the company's idea of what a good knife should be, and does not exactly copy the familiar Japanese design. Some of the good ideas from both cultures are expressed in this high quality knife.
With a heavier forged blade ...
Global's 7-inch Santoku brings modern one-piece forged design to an old Japanese pattern, and is closer in appearance to the original santoku knives than the more familiar hollow ground versions most of us now own. Global knives are the favorites of many top chefs including Anthony Bourdain, and depend ...
One might take a look at these knives with their buoyant colors and whimsical flourishes and assume these knives are children's toys. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
KAI, makers of the well regarded Shun knives, have produced a knife which performs quite well, despite the unusual appearance. ...
The Japanese translation of Santoku means "three virtues". The name refers to the idea that the santoku is meant for cutting meat, fish, and vegetables. While true that the santoku is the Japanese equivalent of a utility infielder, it's not as well suited to any of these purposes ...
If you hang around Williams-Sonoma, you're sure to know about the Shun Classic Santoku knife. If you hang around professional kitchens for a while, you'll get to know some lesser-known Japanese brands that are just as good.
Kanetsune makes their knives with similar materials as the Shun -- it's got a 33-layer Damascus-patterned blade ...
While most other knife makers are watching and mimicking each other, Global stands by its unique design.
They were the first to introduce razor-sharp, lightweight Chef's knives to Western kitchens nearly twenty years ago. In doing so, they've gained something of a cult following.
Couple that with design features you won't find on ...
You'll see some great reviews of this knife out there. Ignore them.
There's nothing inherently wrong with it -- it's made of decent high-carbon stainless steel and a black polypropylene non-slip grip. The blade has granton edges which help -- a little -- in keeping food from sticking.
There's no heavy bolster in ...
Santokus have become wildly popular over the past several years. Perhaps it's the novelty of using an Asian-style blade. Or perhaps it's the celebrity chefs that push them at every turn.
Truth is, they are versatile knives that belong in every kitchen. What they're not is an all-purpose knife that should ...
We named Shun Classic Knives our best $500 kitchen knives a while back, and for good reason.
Shun took kitchen cutlery to the next level when they introduced their Classic series a few years back. The Classics feature a VG-10 Japanese "super steel" that is incredibly hard and, as a result, ...
My, how far Wusthof has come. Once wedded to the idea of creating full-bolster, thick-bladed, somewhat-dull kitchen knives, they've now come full circle.
Take this Classic Ikon Santoku. Years ago, Wusthof would not have dreamed of making a thin, sharp, light knife in a traditional Japanese form.
But this Santoku is exactly that.
It's ...
Hang around OnlyKnives for a while and you'll start to get to know MAC knives. They're fantastic knives and they tend to be about 20% less than other "big name" knives.
We recently reviewed the Mac Superior Santoku knife and gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
This Santoku is part of the ...
These Forschner knives really are exceptional. OnlyKnives named them the Best $50 Kitchen Knife Set a while back, and Cook's Illustrated has lauded them many times as well.
The Santoku fits right in. For thirty bucks, you get a very sharp blade, a non-slip fibrox handle and a dimpled granton ...
A lot of Westerners have fallen in love with the idea of the Santoku.
It's a nice idea -- you've heard about high-end Japanese knife brands and maybe you've even heard about razor-sharp Japanese steel. Why not try a Japanese style blade as well?
There's only one problem with that -- the Santoku was ...
If you spend much time on OnlyKnives, you'll know that we love MAC Knives. We raved about both the Superior and Professional series earlier.
But today, we're going to focus on a single knife -- the Superior Santoku.
It's an amazing value -- you will not be able to find another knife ...
Wusthof making Japanese-style knives? Alert the media!
Actually, Wusthof has come a long way recently in redesigning its knives to meet needs of today's chef.
This knife is a good example. The full bolster that prevented re-sharpening is gone. The shape is a departure from the traditional German styling and the ...
Warning: I'm about to say something bad about Rachael Ray. If this review ends abruptly, you'll know that the lawyers got to me!
Okay, here goes: You can (and should) get better knives than these for the same money. Regular readers of this blog know that our favorite inexpensive knife set ...
This Santoku is a seven-inch Japanese style chef's knife. Chicago Cutlery specializes in delivering high value knives. When I say value, I mean that you get more than what you pay for, not that this is the highest-end knife out there. I'll link to a slightly higher-grade knife below as well so you ...
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