Welcome to the forum.
For whatever reason or reasons, there seems to be a bias against any knife on the forum that isn't a gyuto. The typical question asked by the gyuto fan boys is why do you want that knife? They also will follow up with a statement, that the gyuto can do everything that knife can, plus more.
A vegetable cleaver, does a better job of chopping, then a gyuto. A sujihiki is a better slicer then a gyuto. So why doesn't everybody drop their gyutos and pick a vegetable cleaver and a sujihiki? The gyuto is an all around knife that can do 90 percent of the cuts, more or less needed in a kitchen. Of all the Asain knives, the gyuto is one of the easiest knives for westerners to use.
How much cutting is needed i.e. production, plus the type of cuts, are the key factors in deciding what type of knife to pick up. If you are cooking for yourself or your family and hardly ever cook for a party or function, then any type of knife from a nakiri to a santoku, to a gyuto will work.
Most of us on the forums, are serious home cooks, besides cooking for ourselves, we volunteer dishes or our time to help out various functions from family to work. This brings up the issue of production. A longer knife will be more productive then a shorter one. Santokus in general are short knifes, usually 165mm-190mm. Gyutos come in various lengths but the popular sizes are 210mm, 240mm, and 270mm.
The rest of the forum members work in the food industry, so their main criteria is going to be production.
My first Japanese knife was a santoku. I think its most peoples gateway into Japanese knives. I really liked the santoku, it did all the cuts I wanted on small to medium fruits and vegetables, and smaller cuts of meat, such as chicken breast. The wide blade of a Santoku is a nice feature. It's like a built in edge guard, because its harder to inadvertently cut yourself with a wide blade, then a skinny one. The wide blade makes for easy garlic peeling, clearing the board is a snap. The main drawback of a santoku is lack of production.
A santoku paired up with a sujihiki would make a nice combination for a home cook who occasionally has a party. Hmm this also might be a good travel option. This combination would probably satisfy 80 percent of my needs. I'm appreciating more and more the speed and convenience of smaller knives. When it comes to making a large batch of salsa, I reach for a vegetable cleaver, but for most everything else a santoku would be fine.
Another knife that is often over looked is the nakiri. With its relatively flat edge, and thin blade, it is probably the top choice for a dedicated vegetable knife. It can easily do all the cuts from fine dice to brunoise. The flat edge of a 180mm nakiri, can be just as long, if not longer then a 240mm gyuto. Plus it is one of the easiest knives to sharpen. While its strength is vegetables, its weakness would be proteins. People do use it on meat, but the lack of a pointed tip is a drawback.
A nice kit would be a nakiri, petty, and sujihiki, for the home cook.
If you are like most of us, a home cook, who loves to cook, then a gyuto will probably end up being the right choice for you.
Jay
although some stuff like cleaning 100 pounds of brussel sprouts gets annoying with cleaver, so I use gyuoto. Love all my Takeda products. Slowly gifting away all of my Wustholfs to my dishwashers and teaching them the basics.
