8 best santoku knives: The Japanese tool you need in your kitchen
Most of us are familiar with the traditional chef’s knife, with its piercingly sharp tip, straight spine and a distinctly curved cutting edge. Its shape makes it incredibly versatile in the kitchen and you can use it for everything from carving meat to finely slicing herbs in that classic rocking motion chefs love to demonstrate.
But hot on its heels in recent years has been the santoku knife – a style of chef’s knife that has its roots in Japan, although many models you get now are made in other parts of the world.
What is a santoku knife?
Santoku translates to “three virtues” in Japanese, which signify the three uses this style of blade is best known for: slicing, dicing and mincing. Visually, it looks just like a reflection of the traditional chef’s knife – the spine curves downwards into a point resembling a sheep’s foot while the cutting edge of the blade is almost completely straight.
Its shape means you have to use it slightly differently, too. Instead of the rocking motion where you leave the tip of the blade on the chopping board, when using a santoku, you have to move the knife up and down, lifting the blade completely off the board each time.
Chef’s knives are much better at quickly chopping up some herbs, but santoku knives really come into their own when you need precision – like when you’re finely slicing potatoes for a gratin or cutting thin slivers of onions for a tart – and this is all thanks to its much thinner blade. Essentially, when presentation matters, santoku is your friend.
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We tested a whole range of different santoku knives on the market, using them in everyday cooking, which included everything from cutting raw and cooked meat and fish, to preparing vegetables and chopping herbs. Here are our favourites.
These are the best santoku knives for 2021:
Best overall – Judge sabatier IC santoku knife: £18.99, Horwood.co.uk
Best for those with bigger hands – Opinel intempora No.219 santoku knife: £53.95, Whitbyandco.co.uk
Best lightweight knife – Kuhn Rikon colori titanium santoku knife: £24.95, Kuhnrikon.co.uk
Best non-slip handle – Lakeland select-grip Japanese steel santoku knife: £25.99, Lakeland.co.uk
Best for classic santoku shape – ProCook Nihon X50 santoku knife: £26, Procook.co.uk
Best for precision cutting – Zwilling pro 18cm hollow edge santoku knife: £109, Zwilling-shop.com
Best for small cutting tasks – Stellar James Martin IJ santoku knife: £9.45, Amazon.co.uk
Best for gifting – Tog santoku multipurpose knife: £230, Togknives.com
Judge sabatier IC santoku knife
Best: Overall
When we tried the Judge sabatier IC santoku knife, we immediately liked the handle. Moulded and smooth, it felt really good in our hands. It doesn’t have the non-slip surface found on some of the other knives, so you will definitely want to wash your hands first if they’re greasy. The 18cm blade is made from X46 CroMov13 steel, a mix of chromium, molybdenum and vanadium that helps the steel to resist tarnishes and stains and become more durable. To that end, Judge offers a 25-year guarantee on the knife.
During testing, the knife did a remarkably good job at most tasks, with the scalloped kullen (indents on the sides of the blade) helping to release the food with each cut. The shape of the blade was also closer to a chef’s knife compared to the other santokus we tried, which would make it easier for those trying this knife style for the first time. But the knife feels quite big, perhaps because of its weight, which might be quite off-putting for those who prefer smaller knives.
Buy now £18.99, Horwood.co.uk
Opinel intempora No.219 santoku knife
Best: For those with bigger hands
Opinel’s intempora no.219 santoku knife was one of the biggest we tried. The modified stainless steel blade comes in at 17cm while the tang, running the length of the handle, takes the whole knife to 30cm. We particularly liked the 3mm thick blades, which are sharpened down to a 30 degree angle on the cutting edge. This, along with the extra weight, made it feel quite sturdy during use. There is also a row of long scalloped kullen on the blade that helps to release any food and makes cutting much easier.
The handle is made from a water, shock and wear-resistant polymer. It’s very comfortable to hold, but we were concerned by how smooth it felt. Given the way the blade cuts abruptly to the handle – there’s no bolster on this one – it’s harder to grip onto this knife when our hands are greasy. It’s an easy fix obviously, but worth bearing in mind. We do however appreciate that the knife comes with a lifetime warranty and free sharpening.
Buy now £53.95, Whitbyandco.co.uk
Kuhn Rikon colori titanium santoku knife
Best: Lightweight knife
Made from ice-hardened Japanese stainless steel, this santoku knife from Kuhn Rikon’s colori range stands out against the other knives we tried. It’s coated with titanium to give it extra durability, with the coating also changing the blade to a dark nickel colour, rather than the usual silver we expect to see in stainless steel. This, coupled with the ergonomic black handles, created a very distinctive and sleek design.
The blade itself is 15cm long and razor sharp, but we found during testing that certain foods – like potatoes – don’t release as easily from its surface because it doesn’t have scalloped kullen like some of the other knives we tested. That said, its thinner blade made it excellent for thinly slicing things like onions and shallots. We also liked that it’s incredibly lightweight, which made it easier to hold and to control. And for storage, there’s a dedicated sheath so you’ll never accidentally cut your hands.
Buy now £24.95, Kuhnrikon.co.uk
Lakeland select-grip Japanese steel santoku knife
Best: Non-slip handle
With the ice-hardened stainless steel blade coming in at just 12.5cm, this own-brand offering from Lakeland is one of the smaller santoku knives we’ve tried. Because of that, we’ve found that it’s best for cutting tasks where you don’t need an enormous amount of knife edge, like slicing onions or cutting tomatoes. It’s razor sharp though – the knife comes with a sheath that covers the full length of the blade for safe storage – while the scalloped kullen helps any food to peel away with ease.
One of the best features we found was the soft-grip handle. It’s a rubbery plastic that’s highly tactile and made the knife really easy to hold on to, even when wet or when our hands were greasy. The gently curved shape also added to its ergonomic design. Another great feature was its excellent weight balance, which made it feel really satisfying to use.
Buy now £25.99, Lakeland.co.uk
ProCook Nihon X50 santoku knife
Best: For classic santoku shape
When you see ProCook’s Nihon X50 santoku knife, its shape is immediately familiar as being Japanese. The difference is mainly in the handle, which is set further from the blade. It’s also an oval shape along its length rather than the angular and moulded styles you see in chef’s knives. But because of that, it can take a little longer to get used to.
The handle on this one is made from European beech wood, which gives it a really nice tactile feel. The blade itself is 18cm long and made from a stainless steel known as X50CrMoV15, with the chromium, molybdenum and vanadium mix helping to reduce tarnish and strengthen the steel.
In use, we found it sliced through most things with ease, with the scalloped kullen helping the food to release, while the pointed tip was especially good for filleting. The shape did take a while to get used to though, so it’s best for those who are already familiar with the santoku.
Buy now £26.00, Procook.co.uk
Zwilling pro 18cm hollow edge santoku knife
Best: For precision cutting
This santoku knife from Zwilling’s pro range is designed for those who like a bit more control in the kitchen. The blade is officially 18cm, although by our measurement it’s 19cm. This is because the knife bolster – the transition segment between the handle of the knife and the blade – is angled so that it’s longer at the top and shorter towards the cutting edge. This naturally encourages a pinch grip, where your thumb and index finger are resting on the blade itself, which gives you better control of the knife. At 13cm, the length of the handle is also roomy enough for those with bigger hands.
In use, we found the knife great at producing super fine slices. The blunt end of the blade is thin enough that we could see what we’re doing without it feeling flimsy, and of course the grip helped with the precision. The scalloped kullen – the hollow edge mentioned in the name – helped to release any food from the blade but compared to some of the other knives, it’s very low on the blade. Over years of use, this might be an issue as the blade wears down through use and sharpening – and this wouldn’t be covered under the lifetime warranty that comes with the knife.
Buy now £109.00, Zwilling-shop.com
Stellar James Martin IJ santoku knife
Best: For small cutting tasks
With just a 9cm blade, this santoku knife from Stellar is the smallest of the knives we tested. It’s created in collaboration with celebrity chef James Martin, and is designed with smaller hands in mind. The short blade means it’s best for small cutting tasks, such as chopping garlic or cutting fruit as there isn’t an enormous amount of blade edge to work with. But the knife is extremely sharp, and it features even, scalloped kullen to help the food release easily.
The handle, at just over 12cm, is actually longer than the blade itself, which looks unbalanced but doesn’t affect the use. Actually, the non-slip material on the handle makes it really easy to grip. But we would love to see a deeper blade on this knife.
The blade has a depth of just 2.5cm and when your knuckles are resting on the chopping board, the knife edge is hovering just above the board, which means you have to tilt the knife forward to make the cut, rather than just push it down. This can make the cutting process quite awkward. The same design is available in bigger sizes though, which might change the balance.
Buy now £9.45, Amazon.co.uk
Tog santoku multipurpose knife
Best: For gifting
The beauty of Tog’s knives is all in the details. The 17cm blade is made of 21 layers of metal, including a hard stainless steel at the core for precision cutting, softer steel around it for durability and alternating layers of copper that are naturally antimicrobial and give the blades their distinct pattern.
The handle, at around 12cm, is made from sustainably sourced Kebony maple that’s etched with a traditional Japanese wave pattern that not only makes it more elegant but also improves the grip. Each of these knives are crafted in Seki, Japan, and are individually numbered.
We tested knife number 283 of 500. It’s fairly lightweight and the shape of the handle made it equally easy to grip onto just the handle or part of the blade for greater control. As you might expect, it did a great job of cutting through most things we tried it on. As an added bonus, the tip of the knife is pointed, which makes filleting a fish really easy. Save for the price, it’s hard to fault this one.
Buy now £230.00, Togknives.com
The verdict: Santoku knives
It was really neck-to-neck when it came to picking the best buy for this set of santoku knives but in the end it was hard to beat Judge sabatier IC santoku knife in terms of quality and value for money. If money was no object though, we’d go for Tog’s santoku multipurpose knife, which if nothing else, is a beauty to show off.
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