Santoku Knives

The santoku is the knife that introduced most Western kitchens to Japanese blade design, and it remains the most approachable place to start. Its name (三徳) means "three virtues", a reference usually given either as the three tasks it handles, slicing, dicing and mincing, or as the three ingredients it was built for, meat, fish and vegetables. Either way the point is the same: this is a genuine all-rounder. Developed in post-war Japan as a home-kitchen answer to the Western chef's knife, the santoku took the length out, kept the sharpness, and produced something shorter, lighter and easier to control on a domestic board. Every santoku we stock is Japanese, from makers including KOTAI, MAC and Suncraft.

What defines the shape is the combination of a tall blade, a mostly flat edge and a downturned tip. Typically 165 to 180 mm, a santoku is noticeably shorter than a gyuto, which makes it more manoeuvrable in a smaller kitchen.
The gentle curve toward the tip suits both push cutting and up-and-down chopping, and many santoku have enough belly to rock chop comfortably too, while the blade height gives useful knuckle clearance as well as a broad face for scooping prepped food off the board. Japanese santoku are typically ground thinner and sharpened more acutely than Western equivalents, often to around 15 degrees per side rather than 20, which is the single biggest reason they feel keener in use.