What is a Santoku Knife?

By www.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). 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.

Something that should be noted about the Western copies of Santoku's, is that the Western versions are often different than the traditional Japanese Santoku's. As you can see from the image of a Western remake above (Victorinox Santoku), the Western Santoku's often have a feature called Granton Edge, or hollow edge. It's the small semi-circular scallops that are ground into the edge. This is to make cutting easier, because meat and vegetables, for example, will not stick to the blade as much. There are a few other differences between the Western and Japanese style Santoku's, but the Granton Edge is a visible difference that one comes across a lot. The other modifications have been put in place so that a Western chef will not have to get used to a traditional Japanese knife, and all the differences that brings with it in technique etc., but will instead easily use a Western Santoku that has been modified for Western use, but still has the Japanese concept and benefits behind it.

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 is well worth buying.

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