Buying Guide
This is the guide to help you select the best Japanese knives.
* Are you able to sharpen the knife at home? * Are you willing to learn how to sharpen the knife at home?
* What is a comfortable length for you? Or how big the food you cook? It's depends how big the food cook, when you decide the knife length.
* Are there any specific reason you want the knife? There are right type of knife if you have a specific reason.
* Multipurpose(Santoku) The Santoku knife is the most popular, regular knife type you need at home. You can use for vegetable, meat, fish etc. Santoku knife is definitely needed for your cooking at home
* Stainless steel The stainless steel knives are most popular for rust resistance and ease of maintenance. If you don't know how sharpen the knife, this types knife you need to chose.
In European or Western tradition, knives are beveled on both sided of the blade. However in Japanese tradition the bevel is only formed on one side. Japanese knives like Deba are single sided to slice and light the slice off the food being cut. Usually Japanese knives(single sided) are right-hand side. You need to order left-hand side, id you needed.
At Jikko, we have many types of Japanese and western types of knives. Sometimes it's hard for you to chose. Here are some tips for you to chose the best knife suitable for your needs.br>
1. These are some important informationbr>
* Do you prefer stainless or carbon steel? stainless is easy to maintenance and carbon steel is needed to sharpen at home.
* Are you able to sharpen the knife at home? * Are you willing to learn how to sharpen the knife at home?
* What is a comfortable length for you? Or how big the food you cook? It's depends how big the food cook, when you decide the knife length.
* Are there any specific reason you want the knife? There are right type of knife if you have a specific reason.
2. Types of knife
* Multipurpose(Santoku) The Santoku knife is the most popular, regular knife type you need at home. You can use for vegetable, meat, fish etc. Santoku knife is definitely needed for your cooking at home
* Fillet knife (Deba) The Deba knife is typically thick and used for cutting and filleting fish. If you want to cut fish bone, you need to use this type of knife.
* Chef knife(Gyuto) The Guto is the most common western knife used throughout the world. You can use it to cut vegetable, meat, fish. It can be chosen more length than Santoku
For more types of knives, please check Japanese knife types page
3. Stainless or Carbon steel
* Stainless steel The stainless steel knives are most popular for rust resistance and ease of maintenance. If you don't know how sharpen the knife, this types knife you need to chose.
* Carbon steel Carbon steel knives stay sharper and longer. We prefer carbon steel knives for professional chef. Despite being much harder than stainless so that carbon steel is much easier to sharpen.
For more information about carbon steel, please check Japanese knife Materials page
4.Single sided or double sided
In European or Western tradition, knives are beveled on both sided of the blade. However in Japanese tradition the bevel is only formed on one side. Japanese knives like Deba are single sided to slice and light the slice off the food being cut. Usually Japanese knives(single sided) are right-hand side. You need to order left-hand side, id you needed.