Santoku Knife Review

By Kitchenware-Extraordinaire.com

Since a few years the Santoku Knife has gained popularity in America, seemingly because Rachael Ray used it as her favorite knife in her show. Many of the well-known Western knife manufacturers started to produce copies of this Japanese knife. Originally, it is used as an all-purpose knife in the Japanese kitchen and functions there in a same way as the 8" Chef's knife does in the Western kitchen. There are several notable differences between the two, however; why would the Western manufacturers start selling Santoku's anyway, if they were exactly the same?

The Santoku has a different shape and requires a different technique than the chef's knife. The traditional chef's knife has a curved blade towards the tip; in this way the knife can be rocked up and down, which makes chopping very easy. The belly and heel are used together for the chopping movement. For the Santoku, however, this does not work.

The blade has a sheepsfoot shape, which curves in an angle of about 60 degrees at the tip of the knife (See image below). Because of this shape, rocking the knife up and down is not possible, and a more vertical chop movement works very well instead. The blade has a flat edge and no bolster. Generally speaking, the Santoku is a bit shorter than Chef's knives. It ranges from 5 to 8 inches. It is therefore well-suited for people with slightly smaller hands-this is of course not necessary: anyone can use a Santoku easily and effectively.

We can safely conclude that Santoku knives are a good choice for a general-purpose kitchen knife, that performs well and has a tested and proven shape and concept. It's usage might need a little getting used to, but it is well worth buying.