Can someone link to or post names, descriptions, and uses for the Japanese kitchen blades? I have a knife I think is a Deba, that I like to use for everything. It has a 5" blade, shaped similar to a wharncliffe, but the edge has a little upsweep to the tip. I also have a Santoku. What are all the different ones used for, and how does their shape help them do their specific tasks?
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Japanese Kitchen Knives Summary
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There are knives for everything, big fish, little fish, medium fish, tuna fish, fish filleting, fish slicing, eel, freshwater eel, ocean eel, cutting bones of eel, eel pike, eel whale, fugu fish, octopus, watermelon, pumpkin, cabbage, vegetables, home vegetable knife, pro vegetable knife, etc etc.
In general though, there are 3 main chisel ground patterns.
These are the slicer, either the takobiki, rectangular in shape with a flat edge and square tip, or the yanagi shaped like a willow leaf commonly found in sushi bars. Their most famous use if for slicing fish into sashimi, and there are many variations on these slicers.
There is the butchering knife, the deba, which comes in all shapes and sizes, from the size of a paring knife to over a foot long, and variations for different fish or purposes. It is used to fillet and behead fish, and also used for other butchering tasks. Some are thick, some are thin, some are long and some are wide.
There is the usuba, one has a square tip, and the other has a sheepsfoot tip. Both are dead flat, and are used for the intricate cutting of vegetables, such as the peeling of daikon into a long thin sheet. It is taller at about 50mm to give knuckle clearance, and generally shorter than the slicer.
Then you have your typical western patterns, a few other Japanese patterns you might find though are the gyuto, which is synonymous with a chef knife. The sujihiki which is the same as a slicer. A petty which is also known as a utility. The honesuki, or garasuki, a stiff triangular general purpose boning knife. The nakiri, which looks like a small cleaver, but it meant to cut vegetables, and not bones. Then there is also the santoku, a combination of the gyuto and the nakiri to form a short knife that has a useful tip and a bit of belly to accommodate meat.
There are tons of knives, and its hard to describe them all.
In general though, there are 3 main chisel ground patterns.
These are the slicer, either the takobiki, rectangular in shape with a flat edge and square tip, or the yanagi shaped like a willow leaf commonly found in sushi bars. Their most famous use if for slicing fish into sashimi, and there are many variations on these slicers.
There is the butchering knife, the deba, which comes in all shapes and sizes, from the size of a paring knife to over a foot long, and variations for different fish or purposes. It is used to fillet and behead fish, and also used for other butchering tasks. Some are thick, some are thin, some are long and some are wide.
There is the usuba, one has a square tip, and the other has a sheepsfoot tip. Both are dead flat, and are used for the intricate cutting of vegetables, such as the peeling of daikon into a long thin sheet. It is taller at about 50mm to give knuckle clearance, and generally shorter than the slicer.
Then you have your typical western patterns, a few other Japanese patterns you might find though are the gyuto, which is synonymous with a chef knife. The sujihiki which is the same as a slicer. A petty which is also known as a utility. The honesuki, or garasuki, a stiff triangular general purpose boning knife. The nakiri, which looks like a small cleaver, but it meant to cut vegetables, and not bones. Then there is also the santoku, a combination of the gyuto and the nakiri to form a short knife that has a useful tip and a bit of belly to accommodate meat.
There are tons of knives, and its hard to describe them all.
There are thin deba, sure they won't cut as well as other knives, but aren't unusable either. At the size of 120mm/5" there are lots of cheap $30 ko-deba that are only around 3mm thick, a far cry from the full size deba nearly a cm thick.
My favorite must be a small Gyuto. It has a deba style silhouette, but the blade is only 1/16" thick, about 1.5" wide, with a full flat grind in 33 layer damascus. The Santoku is the same grind, but about 2 inches wide with grantons along the edge. It's also 33 layer damascus.
There appears to be a bewildering array of knives of every shape and size. Are Santoku's chisel ground or double ground? How about Nakiri? I have a Santoku blade blank ground from A2, and was going to convex it, but maybe a chisel grind would be more traditional.
There appears to be a bewildering array of knives of every shape and size. Are Santoku's chisel ground or double ground? How about Nakiri? I have a Santoku blade blank ground from A2, and was going to convex it, but maybe a chisel grind would be more traditional.
chisel ground edges are found on knives like yanagiba, deba, usuba, etc. Not santoku, nakiri, gyuto, etc. You will see that chisel ground knives are thicker and have a slightly hollow ground backside. For knives that are not designed this way, the chisel grind doesnt work so well.
???
If you look at the cross section of a Japanese chisel, and a Japanese chisel ground knife, they bear a striking resemblance. Or do you mean an American chisel grind? They work best when used like a chisel, removing small pieces off of a large piece, because the small piece offers little resistance to deforming on the bevel side, but the large piece is not deformed or displaced at all by the "flat" side. Its not as effective for splitting things in half, but for shaving paper thin sheets of stuff and providing a smooth cut, having a flat side to the piece you are cutting off of has its advantages.
when people typically refer to a chisel its not necessarily a japanese chisel
they think one flat plane intersecting a a straight plane at a 15 to 20 or more degree angle
where the system of japanese traditional knives come into play is having a hollow back and in some cases a flat blade road or or a hamaguriba edge which is fairly common and in most cases preferable.
they think one flat plane intersecting a a straight plane at a 15 to 20 or more degree angle
where the system of japanese traditional knives come into play is having a hollow back and in some cases a flat blade road or or a hamaguriba edge which is fairly common and in most cases preferable.
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i ll have ot find the sketch i made of the cross section of some ggrinds it might be helpfull
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My suggestion for folks that do Western style cooking like me and most of us would be to steer clear of the single bevel traditional Japanese knives and stick with the double bevel models.
The gyuto is as close as you will get to a standard Western chef knife. In the 240mm and 270mm sizes, this is the knife I use 90% of the time. I own about 15 of them.
The suji is the double bevel slicer. My 300mm model is the one I use most often. It is long enough to slice melons, pizza and things of that nature.
The petty, which is based on the French term petit are the small knives like parers and utility knives.
These are the basics of Japanese cutlery for Western cooks and are what I use almost all the time. The traditional japanese single bevel patterns are very specific to japanes style cooking and foods. Most of us Westerners will find them less useful than the double bevel products.
The gyuto is as close as you will get to a standard Western chef knife. In the 240mm and 270mm sizes, this is the knife I use 90% of the time. I own about 15 of them.
The suji is the double bevel slicer. My 300mm model is the one I use most often. It is long enough to slice melons, pizza and things of that nature.
The petty, which is based on the French term petit are the small knives like parers and utility knives.
These are the basics of Japanese cutlery for Western cooks and are what I use almost all the time. The traditional japanese single bevel patterns are very specific to japanes style cooking and foods. Most of us Westerners will find them less useful than the double bevel products.
The back of the knife is not entirely hollow though. The outer edges are flattened which maybe doesn't make the knife a 'chisel grind' persay but maybe call it a 'chisel edge'?
Been a dead thread for a while, but I came back to it to do more research on the different types of Japanese kitchen knives. I'm contemplating making a matching Kiritsuke and Mukimono set. From what I understand this would be a general use large knife and paring type knife, both chisel ground. My family doesn't use or really need knives with a 9" blade in the kitchen. If I made it shorter, say 6.5", would it still be called a Kiritsuke? I was thinking about a 15 degree chisel bevel. Will this be thin enough, or should I go to 10 or less? The steel for these is already hardened, so much less than 12 to 15 isn't very appealing, unless 15 just won't work.
Also, it's difficult to tell from the pictures in the above link, but are the Gyuto and Santoku full flat grinds, or partial height grinds? I have a short Santoku profiled from A2, and just need to grind the bevels and send it off for HT. A 3 degree/side flat primary double bevel will only have the bevels going up 5/8" from the edge, on a 1/16" x 2" wide blade.
Also, it's difficult to tell from the pictures in the above link, but are the Gyuto and Santoku full flat grinds, or partial height grinds? I have a short Santoku profiled from A2, and just need to grind the bevels and send it off for HT. A 3 degree/side flat primary double bevel will only have the bevels going up 5/8" from the edge, on a 1/16" x 2" wide blade.
Hi.
A Gyuto and Santoku have double beveled edges, the actually type of grind (full flat, half height) and blade thickness (mighty, thin, anemic) varies per maker. I believe a Mukimono is single bevel pairing knife / decorative carving knife. A Kiritsuke with a traditional single bevel edge is a yanagiba & usuba combination. A double bevel Kiritsuke as far as I can tell, is gyuto with a flat edge and a reversed tanto tip.
If I made it shorter, say 6.5", would it still be called a Kiritsuke? I was thinking about a 15 degree chisel bevel. Will this be thin enough, or should I go to 10 or less?
I think you can call it whatever you want to
. I dont know what the exact angles are, but something like a usuba (veggie knife) has a much more acute angled edge than a yanagiba (slicer) or deba (fish butchering). You should probably choose whatever angle is best suited for what you planning to do with it. What are you planning to do with it?
A Gyuto and Santoku have double beveled edges, the actually type of grind (full flat, half height) and blade thickness (mighty, thin, anemic) varies per maker. I believe a Mukimono is single bevel pairing knife / decorative carving knife. A Kiritsuke with a traditional single bevel edge is a yanagiba & usuba combination. A double bevel Kiritsuke as far as I can tell, is gyuto with a flat edge and a reversed tanto tip.
If I made it shorter, say 6.5", would it still be called a Kiritsuke? I was thinking about a 15 degree chisel bevel. Will this be thin enough, or should I go to 10 or less?
I think you can call it whatever you want to
. I dont know what the exact angles are, but something like a usuba (veggie knife) has a much more acute angled edge than a yanagiba (slicer) or deba (fish butchering). You should probably choose whatever angle is best suited for what you planning to do with it. What are you planning to do with it?My understanding, after some research, is that the kiritsuki is a general purpose home kitchen knife, which is why the blades are so big. With all due respect to Knife Outlet, I just want to try a chisel ground knife. My intent is a general purpose set, hence the mukimono and kiritsuki, similar to a chef/paring knife combo. As much as I think it will be handier with the short blade, I think I'm going to go with the full 9" blade, and about a 10 degree bevel. My stock steel is thinner than I thought and I should be able to handle it. A 10 degree bevel will only be about 0.55 inches wide. The stock for the mukimono is only 0.055" thick, so the bevel will only be about 0.25 inches wide. Got some cherry and mahogany for the handles. We'll see how it goes.