A nakiri story

From time to time I see postings regarding advice about Nakiris and dialog back and forth about the use or even the wisdom of getting one. My first Japanese knife was given to me almost two decades ago. It was a nakiri, although at that time I had no clue what it was, how to sharpen it or use it. It was beautiful and I admired it since I knew its story and provenance from a master blacksmith in Japan. For the longest time I did not really know how to use it and it ended well kept in storage for years. When I finally begun to learn about Japanese knives I took it out again and re-appreciated what it was and eventually I gave it as a present for a close friend in Spain who uses it very often.

After experimenting with other Japanese knives and understand more I became curious about tracking the maker of a knife and came across the name of Murray Carter in this forum. Understanding what it is to train in a Japanese art for years I decided to purchase one of his knives and at that time there were not many knives available but luckily for me I saw one being posted for sale in his website and I jumped to the opportunity. It was a 5.2 sun Kuro-uchi Nakiri, White Steel core laminated with Gokunan-tetsu 159 mm, 160 grams, with an Ironwood/Cocobolo handle. To me it is beautiful. It is well balanced and it feels significant in my hand. I purchased it at the end of 2014 and more than a year later I use it a few times a week and it is one of my default knives that I pick most often. It glides through vegetables and although it has a very good edge retention, I really like the way it feels and sharpens in my stones. When I was learning, my friend chinacats guided me through many aspects of this peculiar hobby and its community. He told me to try different knives and steels to learn what I liked. So far, Hitachi white steel is my favorite steel to sharpen. I find it easy to do to an edge that makes me feel proud even with my novice skills.

Reading about how some cooks learn to love chinese cleavers and some of them having different uses, I imagine that the very thin ones for vegetables might be larger versions of my nakiri although I confess that I am happier with the smaller, nimble size I have, So here are a few pictures for those of you curious about Nakiris or Carter knives. I love this one so much that eventually I added a few more Carters to my set. I absolutely love them all.

If you are inclined to do so I would be very curious to read and see your thoughts on Nakiris in general, yours in particular or pictures you would like to add too this thread.

I have purchased and sold two nakiris, a Shigefusa kurouchi 165 and a Takeda AS 180. Nakiris are indeed fun like many suggest, and have a cool look to them, nothing you'd normally see in your everyday cookware shop. I also owned a Chinese cleaver, which really is like a super nakiri and offers a whole host of feel and functionality separate from any other knife. The cleaver I miss from time to time.
I ultimately decided to replace my nakiris with a Shigefusa kurouchi Santoku, and am happy I did. For me, it was a no brainer because it's practically the same knife with a much more useful tip. This particular Santoku is nice and flat which accommodates push cutting large pieces of vegetables just as easily as a nakiri of the same length. The Santoku knife bears an unfortunate stigma which I believe many should get over. Dollar for dollar it's a sensible buy for someone who wants tip function and heel height, yet you often see those folks buy mini gyutos even though they have a crippling amount of belly. The price of staying cool I guess...
There is something irresistibly cool, though that may be silly to admit, about a great nakiri. To me it's like an in crowd knife. Outside of Japan, only dedicated knife nuts are likely to seek out and purchase a high end nakiri.
If I ever spring for one again it would probably be a kurouchi Kato....
Thanks for sharing,
Cheers
Matteo

i love santokus mostly because they generally have flatter profiles. i've lobbied for 240 length santokus before.

Thank you for your post Matteo, i loved it. I concur with your words and when i think about a santoku i would love to have a kurouchi shig like yours or chinacats'. I do not go for a coolness factor and instead love different aspects of different knives.

Panda's post is interesting, i wonder what a 240 santoku would be like...

240 santoku would probably look like Takeda Shosui's gyuto if tall, or Bryan Raquin's gyuto if not so tall.

I think your Carter is a very appealing knife, and your photographs of it remind me strongly of my "better" knife from him, so I'm sure it cuts wonderfully.

I have tried to like nakiri and have never really felt that I was missing anything with the tip. Tip work is easier for me with a parer or a petty than with a gyuto, with the exception maybe of scoring, which I don't do often because I'm a dirty pleb with no cooking skills.

Still, it's been difficult to stay monogamous with my nakiri. Bunka or other shapes give me just a little more tip which is easier to control in rare situations where I want to do something delicate (or sometimes just peace of mind), and small Chinese-style cleavers also provide a somewhat more pointy tip, while being taller, scooping food easier and being easier to guide along knuckles on some things...and the extra weight for even a thin cleaver helps with establishing rhythm for my cutting...but that's just a personal thing.

Still...if I had to simplify to a 165/180 nakiri and a petty, I wouldn't have any major trouble with it. A 210mm would be a "safer" bet for me, but even with the bigger gyuto, the nakiri is sometimes more enjoyable to wield in my small kitchen. No tip to jab into or smack against anything, easy to swing under the tap when washing. Most importantly, you just feel like you're using the whole knife all the time and not leaving any of it neglected.

Casaluz said:

i wonder what a 240 santoku would be like...

Click to expand...

Takedas old old gyutos looked like huge santokus to me. super tall near 60mm and very flat with a roundish tip.

and it seems toyama noborikoi makes something of a super nakiri, i think the 210 is like 64mm tall or something crazy like that.

while i love my kurouchi shig santoku, it's cutting performance is not the best you can get, same with the shig nakiri i had. I haven't used a kasumi model so can't say on those..

The only 240mm santoku I remember seeing was the Aritsugu 240mm santoku. Looks like Takeshi is out of stock, but they're out there somewhere if you don't mind the damascus

http://yhst-27988581933240.stores.y...knife-240mm-damascus-blue-ii-steel-bl240.html