Hot Take: Does anyone actually use a Nakiri?

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Michael.ju.5889

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Don’t get me wrong - I have several nakiris. But how many actually notice a truly functional difference vs. a gyuto / chef’s knife, particularly one with a flat spot in the blade? Sure there is less knife and no tip, and there is the joy of using a different knife, but how many truly find using a Nakiri so much better that it justifies swapping out the knife? To me the lack of tip is actually a very minor annoyance.

Sure, if your only choices are traditional blades like a yanigaba to Deba, then a usaba makes sense. But for double bevels why a nakiri?
 
It makes perfect sense if you live in Japan. Meats usually come pre-sliced and portioned. I know a couple of obaachans who basically only have an ancient ajikiri and a nakiri in their kitchen. It’s cuz their diet is a lot of fish, veg, sozai from the local supermarket, and the occasional bit of animal meat (which again, is pre-portioned).

For example if you’re having nabe, literally just chop a few veggies,
slide whatever meat or fish you bought in to the pot and you’re done.
 
I find it very useful when I'm cutting veggies only. You're essentially maximizing the flat spot while minimizing the entire footprint of the knife. Like a 180 mm nakiri may have a flat spot on par or maybe even longer than a 240 mm gyuto. At least based on the profiles I have. In the end, whether this justifies a nakiri purchase...well not sure we can justify 99% of the purchases we make here lol.
 
I actually use mine. See, 99% of prep is vegetables, and the nakiri excels at them. For what little meat we eat the suji or gyuto comes out on a different cutting board. For fish, I use single bevel knives because they work better for most fish things.

My nakiri doesn’t touch meat. I think it believes itself to be vegan. It also makes cleaning easier.

Also a “comparable size gyuto” is a petty.
 
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I am also biased towards gyutos, but I do use my nakiri occasionally, it's fun. It especially comes out for scallions for some reason. It doesn't hurt that my Takada nakiri is one of the best crafted knives I own, best F&F I have used.
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I’ve been using mine a lot more in the past few months because I asked myself the same question.

Then I came to realize it was heavy, durable and really efficient at what it does.

Bonus points for being safer and harder to tip in the sink when I’ve had one too many beer.
 
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Nakiris are fun. Best knife for fast chopping. Also practical for small spaces.

But the only size that works well for me is 165-170. Even though I’m used to 240 gyutos. Just feel better in hand / more nimble.
 
mengwong said:
stabbing the sink
Click to expand...
... has never happened to me, but many times it was close, and that is stressful enough.

Apart from that, yes, I use 3 Nakiris quite often. I mean, I don't eat meat except fish a few times a year, so I can go all veggieknife usually. But I have not kept any of the gyutos without a flat or almost flat spot in the back, since I don't have use for those. So I have many integrated Nakiris :D

Speaking of "true" Nakiris:

4H2A1026.jpg



- The Denka 195 is just a lot of fun because it is quite chunky at 260g and falls through stuff by it's own weight. Plus it has enough size to handle medium-sized things like smaller cabbages.

- The Moritaka 180 (normal height) is a bit more special. It is less practical than the other knives, but I like it the most and use it a lot.
It has the Moritaka house style with a completely flat profile. I never understood why people would do rocking cuts with such knives - in my eyes, you ruin your cutting board and might break of that tip as well. So it is not great for herbs, but if I have time to cook mindfully, such a single-use knife that basically only can do push cuts can be nice in that it is a bit more challenging. And it does excel at those push cuts, plus almost has a tip for off-board use. Soon the Moritaka chukabocho will arrive, that should be interesting.

- The Denka 165 is the knife with the least advantages except that it is very fun to use. Especially if more people are cooking in our kitchen, it's very relaxed not to worry about stabbing things or people by accident. And It is thin and nimble, that's just fun from time to time.

- The Kurosaki 165 is well-made and has no flaws whatsoever. I just keep reaching for the Denka instead... can't say why. So this one is a bit neglected. But it's stainless, so it won't decompose, which is good. But it was kind of a completionist purchase to at least have one fully stainless one.
 
I love Nakiri's and get a ton of use from mine. I prefer a really light 165 though. Once I get over 180mm then I would typically just grab a Nakiri.
Same for a Petty 165 great other wise not really interested.
 
I own one and I find that I rarely pull it out. If I want to slice veggies with rectangle, I'm much more likely to reach for my CCK cleaver or even a santoku (gasp!). I just don't find the nakiri that handy or useful. Maybe I just need a better nakiri, but I don't think that's the case.
 
I have always considered mine ( I keep two in my blocks) the go to curry paste making blades. Chopping a few cloves of garlic, ginger, red peppers, lemon grass etc., all in small quantities. They tend to see use anytime I only need a small amount of something diced and minced. Maybe its because I live in the Northwest but the spine of my Wat 180 is also used to crack Dungeness crab legs. The boats are running right now so I made crab cakes out of a fresh one just last weekend.
 
I also own one but I find that it comes out more often when there is a lot of fine chopping of vegetables or when prepping in a smaller space. I do notice a difference using the nakiri. It may also be my cutting technique. Ultimately, I do enjoy using it though it gets used less. I also find that my wife is more comfortable using it. Maybe because she is less likely to stab me while we are navigating around each other in a smaller kitchen.
 
I use mine several times a week, and I grab it the same as I'd grab a petty, cck, or gyuto: because that's the one I wanted to use for that prep. I think very few of us are trying to slim down to complete streamlined efficiency with the tools we spend so much time on. That said, yes there are differences in the grind, geometry, and balance in comparison to whatever hypothetical gyuto you alluded to swapping out. Whether that's significant (enough) to own/use one is up to the individual.
 
Haha to be fair I use my nakiris a lot. Like 50/50 with my Gyutos. But I came to the realization that 95% of the reason I do so is because it’s fun, and only 5% for performance benefits (and even those may just be perceived or retroactively rationalized). Seems to be the case that the primary reason is fun, which I guess is the main reason we collect so many knives in the first place.
 
I've only owned one and I sold it. Cutting space in my kitchen isn't really a problem and I've found I prefer longer knives generally if I'm going to be actually chopping things like greens or cabbage. If a nakiri is literally a knife for cutting greens or leaves, it'd be nice if it was long enough to cut a bunch of collards or kale or mustard greens into an even chiffonade without using weirdo techniques. As straight up choppers, they'd benefit from some length. Which is why I still have a CCK cleaver, which is my nakiri of preference.

I also have a k-tip Yoshihiro 240 with a super dupes flat profile and a 11" vintage K Sab that has a humongous flat spot. And a k-tip Sukenari that's around 230. These are all much better/fun choices to use than a nakiri for chopping greens.

I'd love to try a Wat 180 sometime, since that's kind of the community benchmark. But I don't feel like I'm missing out.
 
Very often. Agreed about a dedicated flat area. Doing things like batons and their smaller compatriots to dices/brunoise is where they excel but I use them heavily for thin push cutting and chopping as well. They’re also great for bulk prep due to the flat. I used a 210 a ton prepping negi and leeks as a ramen chef. My favorite size is in the 180-190 range and I don’t like too much height. My favorite gyutos are 260-280 for reference.
 
I use a nakiri several times a week at work for bulk veg prep--frenching onions, pickles, stock mise, etc.

It goes back in the roll and gets replaced with a gyuto as soon as prep is over though; I don't find it very useful as a line knife
 
Michael.ju.5889 said:
Don’t get me wrong - I have several nakiris. But how many actually notice a truly functional difference vs. a gyuto / chef’s knife, particularly one with a flat spot in the blade? Sure there is less knife and no tip, and there is the joy of using a different knife, but how many truly find using a Nakiri so much better that it justifies swapping out the knife? To me the lack of tip is actually a very minor annoyance.

Sure, if your only choices are traditional blades like a yanigaba to Deba, then a usaba makes sense. But for double bevels why a nakiri?
Click to expand...

I love using a nakiri—compact, nimble, versatile—will also slice meats with it occasionally. A very useful knife to have in addition to a gyuto, offering options.
9741A504-AFC4-4353-8445-7D60241199E6.jpg

8749A4DE-8EC6-479D-8C60-610D82CA8061.jpg

B7D633ED-B381-4518-9F28-04EAF21D9186.jpg
 
I actually use a nakiri probably 90% of the times that I cook. One of my main sources of protein is fish, so I'm often using debas and yanagiba to prep my protein, and then all that's left is veggies which I will just grab a nakiri for. In my mind a gyuto is sort of a do it all knife, but when I'm cooking at home and i don't need to worry about speed or space I prefer to just grab the specialty knife for each task. Plus, I get to use my knives more often
 
Out of my 10 general purpose Japanese knives (i.e. not petty, honesuki, yanagiba, etc) I'd say I use the Nakiri about 1/10 of the time. And every time I use it (Wat Pro 180) I'm reminded, "holy crap, this knife is awesome. I should use it more." But I might actually say that about most of them.
 
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