I need a yanagiba recommendation

[Stephen Hawk]

Greetings, all. I've just signed up here, and would like a recommendation for a single bevel yanagiba. I am an accomplished home cook, not a professional. I prepare a fair amount of fish, and enjoy Japanese cuisine. Most of my knives are Yaxell Gou, having transitioned from Henckel 4-Star. I have a yanagiba now that I paid about $50 for, but I'm ready for an upgrade. My budget is $200 to $300. (And how the heck is it that a yanagiba can sell for $25 to $1500?! I've never seen such a price range for a knife seemingly in the same category.) And, I have read through a number of posts here talking about how sub $200 yanagibas are prone to "severe problems," but no details are ever offered to describe what those are.

 

[Nemo]

Welcome to the forums

 

[Dan-]

Why they’re so expensive?

 

[Nemo]

I'm not a yanagiba expert but I'll have a go at your Qn.

As you are probably aware, yanagi are single bevel knives. In order to function properly, they have a hollow on the back (usually left) side of the blade that assists with food release. Super important with delicate fish flesh. This only works well if the hollow ("ura") is well ground (not too deep and not too shallow) AND the edge and spine of the blade are perfectly straight. The latter is not as common as you think in kitchen knives.

In addition, the food relese relies on the convexity of the right side of the blade face.

The maintenance of the ura relies on a good ura grind and the absolute straightness of the blade. If you don't have these, your ura side will be very difficult to sharpen. Note that ura sharpening should be absolutely minimal push sharpening on a fine stone ("uraushi" , which translates roughly to "pushing the ura" IIRC).

The maintenanceof the convex (right) side will be easier if there are no low spots in the convex grind.

Getting the knife perfectly straight and the grind spot-on requires expertise and labour. This is what you are paying for. You won't find these in a cheap yanagiba. My impression is that decent grinds start to appear at the 300ish USD mark. Could be wrong about that though.

Beyond that, you are paying for:
Steel quality.
Special steel treatments such as honyaki (you are paying big bucks here).
Extra fit and finish of the knife, especially mirror polishes (which take a lot of skill and time).
Fancy handles and sayas.
Some smiths' knives are highly collectible and command a big price premium.

 

[Nemo]

How do you keep your yanagiba sharp?

I will reiterate that Single bevel sharpening is not the same as double bevel sharpening and shouldn't be attempted until you have a decent idea of what needs to be accomplished. Take a look at JKIs excellent sharpening series for an explanation.

A blunt yanagiba is much worse than a sharp sujihiki (which is the double bevel vesion of a slicing knife).

If you are not familiar with sharpening, it may be better off learning on a sujihiki before venturing in to single bevel sharpening. A yanagiba has benefits (over a suji) in cutting fine slices of delicate raw fish but outside of restaurant grade sushi and sashimi, it's probably more trouble than it's worth. Just putting it out there. Single bevel knives are good for those who have a good use case (lots of sashimi) AND know how to sharpen and maintain them (or are keen to invest the effort and time required to learn).