Japanese Blady Types

A very daunting task to say the least, but im sure with a lot of experts on the forum over time we can work through it all, but,....


Man there are a lot of similar looking knives, and I cant even begin to know what each blade is used for. I have come to find there there is almost two names to each blade as the come in single and double bevel and each have their own names. I was hoping to build I gigantic thread of a picture of each blade and what the blade is and formally used for. I would like to try to keep the conversation to a minimum so it could be just a giant index that would be very helpful to new guys, but well, we all know how that works out lol


ill start it off
Gyuto

A Japanese take on the western Chef knife. the blade does have a different profile then a chef knife, although subtle, those difference can make for a very different feel. the knife is a wonder of diversity and will take on almost all tasks you through at it. if you only ever buy one knife a Gyuto would be a great one to buy.

 

Yowza! Gorgeous knife, James! (ha! sorry.)

-Andy

 

Sujihiki




Essentially a Western Slicer. Great for general purpose protein fabrication and carving, as well as larger fruits. Many cooks/chef's prefer this profile over a gyuto for multitasking purposes.

 

Santoku. A general purpose knife with a sheeps foot shaped blade. The name means "three virtues" or "three uses", those being slicing, dicing and mincing. They are usually, but not always, symmetrically ground.

 

Nakiri 菜切り包丁

A semi-specialized vegetable knife with a wide flat blade usually between 165mm and 180mm long. Nakiri come in different geometries that are optimized for different tasks, such as chopping thicker items or push-cutting thin slices. The wide blade allows food to be scooped more easily, and the relatively small size and lack of a sharp point makes the nakiri very efficient in smaller spaces.

 

From a pro skills standpoint, the difference between a "petty" and a regular geometry "paring" knife is length. They actually share the same geometry; and in culinary French share the same name: couteau office, perhaps best translated as "everyday knife."

 

Honesuki - Typically used for poultry butchering but can be used for other tasks. The Garasuki is a larger version of the Honesuki.

These are often highly asymmetrical grinds (90/10 or similar), but can also be symmetrical. Shown here is a symmetrically ground wa-handled Kochi in V2 steel with kurouchi finish (top) and a 90/10 asymmetric western handled Misono in swedish carbon steel (bottom). Both are 150mm.

 

Yanagiba - Japanese single-bevel slicing knife.
Yanagi are fish slicers, used to slice served portions for sushi and sashimi - not for breaking down and filleting larger fish, where a deba or mioroshi would be used. Yanagiba are single bevel, ground on one side (right side of the knife for a right-handed blade) and hollow ground on the back side.

Here are 3 examples - top to bottom:
1) Masamoto Sohonten 210mm hon-kasumi yanagiba in white #2 steel
2) Shigefusa 270mm kasumi yanagiba in high carbon 'spicy' steel
3) Yoshiaki Fujiwara (Kiyoshi Kato) 330mm kasumi yanagiba, secret carbon steel.

 

keeping it going.....

Hankotsu - butchering/boning knife
Many are highly asymmetrically sharpened: 90/10 or similar. Blade is heavy and inflexible, and not typically sharpened down to the bolster - typically only the front 60% or so is sharp, with a dull flat area for the first 1/3 or so from the handle.

This one is a Misono swedish carbon, western handled and beveled ~90/10 for right-hand use. This is a go-to for me when boning larger pieces or dividing slabs of ribs. Only ~1/2 of the blade length is actually sharp, although you can see the bevel going down to ~70% of the blade length from the tip.

 

Nice Boner