All Japanese Kitchen Knives

The tradition of forging Japanese kitchen knives emerged from the history of Japanese swordsmithing. Japanese swords were made as early as the 15th century and the influences from this tradition can still be sensed in the work of some Japanese knifemakers today. From this centuries-old connection one can derive the skill and care that our blacksmiths continue to bring to the making of Japanese kitchen knives. The Japanese kitchen knife can be considered a cultural asset that has been preserved to this day. The traditional Japanese kitchen knife has a 3-layered structure, with a few exceptions. For example, Honyaki knives consist of only one layer of carbon steel. These kitchen knives are made by very few blacksmiths, are very complex to produce and therefore very expensive.

With a little practice, you can easily tell if it is an original hand-forged Japanese kitchen knife or not. There are many manufacturers who claim to produce Japanese kitchen knives. On closer inspection, however, one often finds that only Japanese steel is used. Apart from that, these kitchen knives often have nothing to do with original Japanese kitchen knives as far as the forging process is concerned. If you take a closer look at the grind of an authentic Japanese kitchen knife, you will see that there is a transition from the clad steel to the core steel at the cutting edge itself.

In our store we only offer Japanese kitchen knives that are traditionally made by Japanese blacksmiths.

Japanese kitchen knives come in many varieties for a reason - each blade shape, blade length and steel grade has specific characteristics. Thus, each kitchen knife is best suited for a very specific purpose and an example is the Japanese vegetable knife Nakiri. It doesn't matter whether you are an amateur or professional chef, everyone should have a certain basic assortment of kitchen knives in order to be equipped for the various cutting tool requirements. We represent such a basic assortment with the offered Japanese kitchen knife sets. The kitchen knife sets at Silverback Knives are always designed to cover as wide a range as possible and still save some money on the purchase.

Which kitchen knife set is the right one depends largely on what is cooked or cut the most. Basically, however, it should always include a medium-sized all-purpose knife (e.g. Gyuto, Santoku knife, Bunka), a smaller all-purpose knife (e.g. Petty) and, if necessary, a more specialized variant (e.g. a Nakiri knife).

Not to forget: If you are looking for a high-quality gift that anyone who loves to cook will surely be happy about, one of our Japanese kitchen knife sets is the best choice.

In our online store, we offer high-quality kitchen knives that are hand-forged in Japan. Often the term kitchen knife is also used to describe an all-purpose knife for cutting meat, fish and vegetables. Suitable for this purpose are the Japanese knife types Santoku knife, Gyuto and Bunka knife. But also Nakiri knives, a Petty knife or a Kiritsuke knife can be used for different foods. Most Japanese knives are sharpened on both sides and are therefore suitable for right- and left-handed people. However, some more specialized versions are single-edged and thus not suitable for ambidextrous use. In this case, this is always clearly stated in our product descriptions.

Often, all-purpose kitchen knives have a tapered blade that has a radius on the cutting edge. With these features, the chef's knife can be used to best perform the frequently used cradle cut. In our opinion, the blade length of all-purpose kitchen knives is about 15 to 24 cm. Of course, there are shorter and smaller blades, but these kitchen knives then represent rather special forms.

Please always pay attention to the proper care of high-quality Japanese kitchen knives. This includes: Always rinse Japanese kitchen knives by hand after use, safe storage, use of appropriate cutting pads and proper sharpening of the blades. For more information, please visit our care instructions for a long kitchen knife life.

It is not without reason that many star chefs all over the world choose Japanese kitchen knives as their preferred tools when it comes to knife selection. From all over the world chefs travel to Japan to buy professional Japanese kitchen knives. These kitchen knives of exceptional quality and durability are able to last the entire career of a professional chef and function reliably. Therefore, when deciding to buy a Japanese kitchen knife, one should not only consider the price, but have clarity about their own requirements. Thus, it can be well worth investing in a few Japanese kitchen knives once in a lifetime instead of spending smaller sums on mediocre kitchen knives over and over again and even paying significantly more for them in the end.