Santoku as primary knife?

[Alpncook]

I like my 180 santoku. For me, it's more of a wide petty than a replacement for my gyutos. Handy for smaller prep jobs and nice to have the width for scooping. But like most everyone else a 240 gyuto would be my desert island tool. Though I might reconsider that once I find a good cleaver.

 

[Keith Sinclair]

I know it's not the popular opinion around here, but I don't mind using a santoku. I really like a lot more blade height when I'm chopping up veggies, and if you're in a smaller space, santokus usually run much taller for a given length. I also tend to use santokus that have a bit more of a tip to them, but every knife has it's limits.

For me santoku is good in small spaces, nice knuckle clearance, and decent utility over a nakiri with a pointy tip. I still like gyuto better, but I started out with a little santoku and that thing still kicks ass.

Yep we are in the minority here,thats OK,You can use forward push cut,chop,draw slicing cuts, the compact santoku is user friendly & can tackle many cutting duties.It does have a tip,not a upward sweeping blade edge as in western style knives.For it's short length there is more blade on the board,that's why it cuts as well as it does.

How can you call a blade that kicks ass,versitility in a small package a poor design?To me those European heavy knives wt. thick bolisters(what are they good for,punching holes in cans?)running the length of the heel,making correct heel sharpening impossible,now that is poor design!

I am not saying that a Santoku is better than a Gyuto,I have worn down a few Gyuto's over the yrs.I will say that when I first started using Cleavers they did not feel as natural at first comming fr. a Gyuto background.As my cleaver skills increased(thanks to my buddy Tin Fu)I begain to appreciate what a great tool the cleaver is.It's not that the cleaver did not have alot of capabilities,My skills were not developed to push it to it's potential.

:aloha: