Nakiri Knives

The nakiri is the vegetable specialist of the Japanese kitchen, and it does that one job better than anything else on the board. Its name (菜切) translates as vegetable cutter, sometimes given as leaf cutter, and the design is built entirely around that purpose: a genuinely flat edge, a tall rectangular blade and a squared-off end with no real tip. That flat profile is the whole idea. Because the edge makes full contact with the board along its entire length, every cut goes cleanly through in one motion, with none of the uncut tails a curved blade leaves behind. For anyone who prepares a lot of vegetables, it is the most efficient shape there is. Every nakiri we stock is Japanese, from makers including KOTAI, MAC and Suncraft.

What defines a nakiri is the combination of that flat edge with a thin, tall blade. Typically 165 to 180 mm long, the blade is noticeably taller than most knives, which gives generous knuckle clearance and a broad face for sweeping chopped vegetables off the board. Nakiri are double bevelled, usually ground to around 15 degrees per side, so they suit left and right handed cooks equally and stay straightforward to sharpen. The blade is ground thin to part vegetables cleanly rather than crush them, which is what makes the difference on delicate work like thin cucumber slices or fine julienne. The squared-off end is not an oversight: it is the trade you make for a fully flat edge, and it means a nakiri is a chopping and slicing tool rather than a piercing one.