Whenever I bought myself new stuff for my kitchen, euphoria will be in the air! Yes, excited and all. I can’t wait to unwrap my Global’s knives as if Santa had just dropped them through the chimney. I know, its KNIVES that I’m dealing with not some Lego toys.

The kitchen can be a minefield if you’re not careful enough with how you store and handle your kitchen items, what more with Japanese Kitchen Knives. There are things that you should bear in mind to avoid having those dreaded cuts on your fingers or worse. The following are some of them:

Get them really sharp
The wise man advises us to keep our sexy steels sharp, he means really sharp. You might wonder, wouldn’t it be more dangerous if it’s sharper? On the contrary. It’s logic defying for this one. Apparently you need less effort to slide through the meat or the raw material you’re working on if your knife is really sharp. Otherwise, you need to exert more force hence exposes you to real danger of getting yourself cut.

Point the Steely Steve away
Whenever you’re handling any sharp gadgets or materials, always bear in mind to angle the sharp part away from your fingers and your body. The same goes with your knives, always remember to angle the blades away from you when you do your cutting.

Never do your cutting on surfaces other than a board
I’m sure you had those times when your cutting boards just don’t want to stay put. They just seem to move all over the place and more so if your countertop is wet. To avoid this, all you got to do is place a damp towel or a paper towel under your cutting board. This would prevent it from moving.

Wash and Store
For protection, make sure to store them away in a knife block. Not only do you save your fingers from unnecessary cuts, you also prevent damages to the blades of the knives.

Related Posts:

• Japanese Kitchen Knives – Main
• How to choose the best Japanese kitchen knives
• Types of Japanese Kitchen Knives
• Masahiro Knives – Japanese Knives with Durable Handles

Back in the day, Japanese knives weren’t made from stainless steel. At that time, they were made of the same material as the famous Japanese sword, the katana. They used carbon steel to emulate the quality of the sword in which it is well known for. These knives have hard steel as inner core. You can only see the cutting edge of the hard steel as it is wrapped by thick layers of soft steel.

There are many types of kitchen knives on the market each with its own shape and function. These types of Japanese kitchen knives can be made into categories according to their usage. The categorization is such as the following:

Cutting fish, chicken and meat
Usually, deba bochos are used to cut fish. They are also used to cut chicken and meat.

Cutting Veggies
The two types of knives that are used to cut veggies are the nakiri bocho and usuba bocho. Among their characteristics are:

• You don’t need to give it a push or pull it horizontally as they have a straight blade edge suitable for cutting all the way to the cutting board.
• These knives have much thinner blades in comparison with the deba bochos.
• Thinner blades would mean they are not suitable for cutting small bones in fish or meat. However, they do an excellent job in cutting vegetables.
• Nakiri bocho has a black blade.
• Depending on the origin of the knives, they will have a rectangular shape if they’re from Tokyo and have a rounded corner on the far blunt side if they are from Osaka. They’ve got cutting edge that is called the ryoba, which means angled from both sides. Therefore, giving you the impeccable straight slices.
• Both knives are lighter than the deba bochos but the usuba is slightly heavier than the nakiri.

Seafood Slicer
The type of knives that are used to slice raw fish and seafood are the tako hikis, yanagi bas and the fugu hikis. The following are some of their characteristics:

• The tako hikis are usually used to prepare octopus.
• You might not notice the differences between the fugu hiki and the yanagi ba at a first glance. A fugu hiki has a thinner blade and it is also more flexible. They’ve been traditionally used to slice very thin fugu sashimis.

Filleting eel
To fillet an eel, a specialized knife known as unagisaki hocho is used. It has a sharp pointy tip. This pointy tip is used to push the knife through the eel’s head. And then to open its flesh, it is slid through body of the eel towards the tail. However, their shape might differ depending on the place of origin.

Making Japanese noodles
To make Japanese noodles, whether soba or udon, the udon kiri or the soba kiri are used. You may find others refer it as menkiri bocho, its other name. These knives are used to cut flattened and folded dough to make long rectangular noodles.

Filleting the big catch
Oroshi hocho and the hancho hocho are used to fillet large fish such as tuna. The hancho hocho is shorter than the orosi hocho. Typical length would be 150 cm for the oroshi hocho while the hancho hocho is 100 cm long. You might find others refer the hancho hocho as maguro kiri.

Related Posts:

• Japanese Kitchen Knives – Main
• How to choose the best Japanese kitchen knives
• Japanese Kitchen Knives – Introduction
• Global 3-piece Santoku Knives Set – Best Japanese Knives Set

Great kitchen knives are made for great investment. I don’t know of anything else, the things in my kitchen that matter most other than an impeccable functioning shining knives. It may not matter to you but if you’re passionate about cooking or aspire to be a professional in the industry, they make a difference between a cut above or under.

Besides, how else are you going to make that perfect slices of sashimi without great Japanese kitchen knives. To me, if you want to invest in something you might as well get the best. It depends on your requirements and preferences though. Personally I’d choose them according to the most important features followed by the others. The following is such a list:

Edge retention ability
The knives that would get the coveted place in my kitchen will be those which after years when I bought them would be as sharp as ever. This is known as the edge retention ability of these knives. No matter how often you sharpen them, they cut through the meat like the first day you use them.

Made from the finest material
If you ever have doubts on the quality of the materials of the knives that you are about to buy, abort the mission. It’s just not worth the big bucks you spend. The most important feature of the material would be that it must be corrosion resistant. If you would like your knives to last longer then take heed of this advice. Not only that, it would make them look forever young i.e. pleasant to look at after years of use.

• Best Quality Japanese Knives – Misono Knives

Comfort
If you’re not comfortable with using a knife no matter how expensive they are, little use it will be to you. A good knife should be comfortable enough for you to handle. When it is otherwise, it will affect the quality of your cuts and slices which translates to poor food, sushi wise.

• Best Kitchen Knives with Comfortable Handles – Shun Knives
• Best Kitchen Knives with Durable Handles – Masahiro Knives

Strength
The point of having good quality knives are so that you can perform difficult tasks while in the kitchen with as little effort as possible. Say, you’re having your having your other half to come over to your place and help you cook. You don’t want to be embarrassed when you can’t chop the trout head off with the so called expensive Japanese knife. So, get yourself knives that offer you the best of strength.

Make sure they look cool
You can’t discount this one. It’s a no-no. An expensive ensemble shouldn’t come with an ugly face. Not only would they look unattractive, they make you less professional as well.

• Professional-Looking Knives – Shun Knives

These are just the list of things that definitely I’d look for when buying kitchen knives, especially Japanese kitchen knives. However, you might be of a different opinion. The first thing I’d look for might be the last one in your list. So, do your research. You might unearth the perfect knife for your kitchen with just a few clicks away.

Related Posts:

• Japanese Kitchen Knives – Main
• Types of Japanese Kitchen Knives
• Safety Tips for Japanese Kitchen Knives
• Japanese Kitchen Knives – Introduction

Hi, welcome to my Japanese Kitchen Knives blog! First, I’d like to introduce the different types of Japanese kitchen knives.

Deba Bocho (Cleaver)

Japanese Kitchen Knives - Deba Bocho

The deba bocho is designed to behead and fillet fish. It can also be used to cut meat and chicken. There are different sizes up to 12 inches long. Though named the cleaver, this blade is not meant to chop big bones!

Santoku Hocho (All-Purpose Knife)

Japanese Kitchen Knives - Santoku Hocho

Usually five to eight inches long, this kind of general purpose blade is often used for slicing, dicing and mincing. A santoku knife is designed specially with a “sheep’s foot” tip to provide a linear cutting edge. It is also very efficient with vegetables.

Nakiri Bocho and Usuba Bocho (Vegetable Knife)

Japanese Kitchen Knives - Nakiri Bocho

Nakiri Bocho literally means knife for cutting greens. The edge of the blade is straight to enable a clean cut directly to the board. The blades of nakiri bocho and usuba bocho are thin and useful for slicing vegetables. The angled edge on both sides make it easier for straight slicing.

Sashimi Hocho (Seafood Knives)
Tako Hiki (Octopus Knife)

Japanese Kitchen Knives - Tako Hiki

Tako Hiki is a very special knife for preparing octopus. The blade is thin and long, with a rectangular end. A similar knife in western Japan is the yanagi ba.
Yanagi Ba (Willow Knife)

Japanese Kitchen Knives - Yanagi Ba

The Yanagi Ba, used for slicing raw fish and seafood, is one of the sashimi hocho knives. It has a pointed tip instead of the rectangular end like the Tako Hiki.

Ok, this is just a brief introduction. Remember to check out my blog again for more posts about the best Japanese kitchen knives, including Japanese kitchen knives reviews and recommendations for awesome Japanese chef knives sets!