Nakiri Knives

Nakiri knife. Cliff Hutson / flickr / 2007 / CC BY 2.0

A nakiri knife (Japanese: 菜切, also nakkiri) is used in Japan for slicing, dicing and mincing vegetables in homes. It is not considered good for meat or fish.

The knife is usually available with both Western and Japanese-style handles. The handles are typically made of wood.

The blade

The blade is very thin, about 2 mm.

It is long enough to cut through vegetables with a single motion.

It is traditionally usually made of Dasmascus steel, and therefore black, but manufacturers are always innovating of course with blade materials.

The blade will be sharpened on both sides.

Osaka-style nakiri knives have a rounded nose; Tokyo-style ones have a blunt nose. Though the Tokyo-style one looks somewhat like a cleaver, it shouldn’t be used as a cleaver.

Nakiri knives, comparing Oksaka-style (left) to Tokyo-style (right). Chris 73 / wikimedia / 2004 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Reviews

Chris Lehrer, a Japanese knife enthusiast and frequent writer on the topic, gives his take on the pros and cons of nakiri knives:

“The nakiri is the old-fashioned Japanese home vegetable knife. It’s better than a santoku for vegetables, but not as good as the French chef’s knife or Chinese cleaver…

“Pros: In rural Japan, you can pick up a decent one for a few dollars. Pretty easy to hand-sharpen if you understand its weird rules.

Cons: Everything else.” ^[1]Lehrer, Chris. The Best Kitchen Knives: A Complete Guide to Creating Your Perfect Set. Knifeplanet.com. 4 April 2017. Accessed October 2019 at https://www.knifeplanet.net/best-kitchen-knives/

Videos

Sources

Lehrer, Chris. Some basics on Japanese knife history. Cheftalk.com. 24 October 2009. Accessed October 2019 at https://cheftalk.com/threads/some-basics-on-japanese-knife-history-long.56934/

Japanese Kitchen Knife Types And Styles. Accessed October 2019 at http://zknives.com/knives/kitchen/misc/usetype/all/index.shtml