Japanese kitchen knives

Japanese knives have become among the most iconic and desired objects by a cooking enthusiast all over the world, from Europe to the United States, so not only in the eastern geographical area where it is the knives used in all home kitchens and restaurants.

They have become for many the kitchen knives used instead of the European kitchen knives and I personally use them for several years in my kitchen using a fairly complete set for use in an Italian/Cuban kitchen.

Attention! If you are a catering professional you should know that a traditional Japanese knife is not up to standard in European countries.

The steel with which it is made, precisely because it can rust easily,
is not certified for food use
.

So be careful to keep it in the kitchens of your premises because you could incur high fines.

In Japan the problem does not arise because it is assumed that a professional cook knows how to use and do the correct maintenance to his work tool.

Currently stainless steel is generally used for knives.

Traditionally, however, these knives were made of the same carbon steel as katanas, and the most expensive knives have a similar quality to these, containing an inner core of hard and crumbly steel, covered with a thick layer of softer and more ductile steel (sometimes stainless), so that the hard steel is exposed only on the cutting edge.

Now it is something iconic and legendary the sharpening of Japanese swords and knives!

In this post you will discover the various types of Japanese kitchen knives, their correct use and maintenance, and how to choose them consciously and who knows if you request a custom version of your Japanese knife.

Often even among insiders, there is always a lot of confusion and lack of accurate information on which Japanese blade to choose and use perhaps to combine it with a European knife.

When it comes to kitchen knives, Japan is immediately mentioned.

The blades manufactured in the land of the rising sun are known worldwide as the sharpest and sharpest, praised by the best chefs for their quality and often seen as real jewels because of their price.

Japanese metallurgy

It may seem like a hackneyed story, almost a way to give a more exotic look to Japanese knives or make it legendary by association with the katana but it is not rhetorical, Japanese kitchen knives have a link with the katana and samurai.

The mastery of Japanese blacksmiths has its roots in the deep Japanese Middle Ages.

At that time, the continuous wars between feudal lords required a constant production of swords and the artisans thus developed extremely refined metallurgical techniques also linked to the type of fighting arts and methodologies of use of weapons that was in sharp contrast with the fighting method that existed in those same eras in Europe where the use of thick armor required sharp and heavy weapons, used as clubs to stun the opponent or awls to pierce their defenses.

In Japan, however, the fighting technique was faster and more agile, with lighter armor, and favored the use of the cutting sword.

However, this involved a series of technical problems of the weapons because with a heavy sword like the European ones, the movement would be slower, making the attacker vulnerable.

Although light to allow the samurai to maintain agility and speed, the armor still provided some protection.

The Japanese sword therefore had to be thin to be light but reducing the thickness reduced its resistance and with a too strong blow it would have broken but thanks to this need that Japanese blacksmiths have developed technical construction solutions developed to find a fair compromise between all these complex needs that led to ingenious technical solutions of hardening the blades and construction that have crossed time and made legendary the Japanese katana.

Assembled steels and various assembly techniques of different steels

The Japanese blacksmiths of the past used ferrous sands as a raw material which, thanks to the very low sulfur content, gave a more resistant steel.

They then devised the assembly technique (tsukurikomi – 作り込み).

To make the blade, Japanese blacksmiths welded together two or more types of iron with different carbon content and therefore different mechanical characteristics.

• The supporting structure of the sword was made of a relatively soft and flexible iron, therefore able to absorb the stresses of the blows.
• The cutting edge, on the other hand, was made of a harder and sharper steel.

The tip of a santoku kitchen knife. The seam between the two different types of steel (in this case damask) is clearly visible.

The differentiated hardening on knives

Even on knives, with the same purpose as the sword makers (Japanese gunsmiths) developed the sophisticated differentiated temper.

Swords in Japan are an element of prestige that also represents the status symbol of those who own them, they are real works of art exhibited as a symbol of power and not used in battle.

A sword is an object of value not only for its technical and functional qualities, but also for the elegance of its lines.

It is worn as a symbol of belonging.

Hardening is the operation in which the blacksmith makes the iron incandescent at a precise temperature and then quickly immerses it in oil or water.

For a physical process, sudden cooling hardens the metal.

In differentiated tempering Japanese blacksmiths covered the blade with clay.

The thickness of the clay was greater on the ‘back’ or ‘back’ of the sword, and thinned as one approached the thread.

When they immersed the glowing blade in water, they did not use oil, the exposed wire cooled immediately, thus becoming harder but also more fragile.

The sides of the sword insulated from heat thanks to the thicker layer of clay cool more slowly, thus being more flexible and resistant.

Today this method known as Hamon It is used to give an aesthetic reason to the blade that surely being shorter than a sword, the flexibility function is somehow lost but it is not said that in some types of knife this method is important to give flexibility to the blade and keep the cutting edge with a higher Rockwell hardness .

Modern Japanese cutlers

Building a knife is not like building a katana, there is a big difference, but the story serves to understand how the Japanese take steel and “sharp things” very seriously, and that is why even kitchen knives carry in themselves the millennial experience and the Japanese tradition and this tradition, cutting research and method has been strongly transmitted all over the world making not only the katanas iconic but also kitchen knives, as well as The cheapest knife in the world.

The long metallurgical tradition of master katana blacksmiths has merged into the creation of handmade Japanese knives.

In the production of quality knives, identical forging techniques developed for traditional swords are used.

The most obvious is the assembly of different steels so as to have greater or lesser flexibility and hardness depending on the points of the knife which is harder for the blade that must be sharpened, more flexible for the main body that must absorb vibrations and torsions.

The most expensive knives (even thousands of euros) are still made from ferrous sands.

Yes, you got it right, thousands of € because there are people who understand the uniqueness of owning a unique blade tailor-made for you.

The “spirit” of Japanese knives

The animism of which Shinto spirituality is imbued, makes us think that in everything, especially in an object we use daily, such spiritual energy accumulates that it almost takes on a soul.

The knives long used by simple cooking enthusiasts or real professionals, at the end of their career, when they are now reduced to stumps with frequent sharpening, are brought to the temple where a kind of real funeral rite takes place.

The way in which many of these knives cut is something sometimes suggests that they have a will of their own, which can be quite sadistic for how they treacherously attack the fingers of those who use them without due attention.

It is impressive the fear that Japanese unaccustomed to cooking have knives.

That’s The site of one of Japan’s oldest knife shops (link: www.aritsugu.jp) and is located in Kyoto and seems to have been founded more than 400 years ago by a blacksmith master of swords, it is only in Japanese, but with a translator and images you can enjoy the images and find inspiration if you are a maker.

Stainless steel knife VS carbon steel

Stainless steel is a great material for making pots, baking trays and containers, a little less for making super sharp blades.

In fact, stainless steel does not reach the sharpening levels of other types of carbon steel.

A traditional Japanese knife left dirty with onion and fish entrails in the sink, already after half an hour could present spots of
rust
here and there.

You need to know that a traditional Japanese knife is made of rusty steel.

This aspect is not a sign of poor quality, but rather in this case and specific context the knife has been built thinking about what it must do and the blade is made having as a priority the cut, not the comfort of maintenance of the blade.

The maintenance of the blade in this case is taken for granted because those who use a knife of this type know how it should be used also from the point of view of maintenance.

This is why a real Japanese knife goes always cleaned already while using it and washed as soon as possible When you finish using it, possibly with a rough sponge, with the knife resting on a flat surface, and with movement perpendicular to the wire and towards the blade, not against it.

Never in the opposite direction! In addition to ruining the thread, you risk cutting your fingers.

Once cleaned, the knife should be dried well with a cloth (eye on the fingers) and stored in a safe place.

No knives in the dishwasher.

Is it a hassle to do this? I can’t tell you but slicing vegetables and food in general with a homemade Japanese knife is an experience that, for a true cooking enthusiast, must be tried at least once in a lifetime.

If you take a trip to Japan, go eat sushi in a traditional restaurant, observe how every cook always has at hand a dishcloth that passes continuously on his knife.

It is not only to clean it from fish and rice residues between cuts, but also to keep it as dry as possible.

Sharpening a Japanese knife

As you can guess such an efficient cutting capacity on Japanese kitchen knives comes from a culture of sharpening brought to the highest level.

Like all knives that are used, Japanese knives must also be sharpened and that it is important to know before making a purchase of an important knife as cost as custom Japanese knives.

Why do I tell you this, simply because talking to friends many times they tell me that they have kitchen knives at home that they have never sharpened, and you bring to sharpen knives?

Of course even the cheapest of knives if sharpened will cut, I did several tests with knives from a few euros to practice sharpening But the level of sharpening that can be achieved with a Japanese blade or in any case with a quality steel and tempered correctly is another thing.

With daily use of the knife you should refresh the thread at least once a week, then resorting to a professional sharpening every six months or once a year.

And here I want to immediately alert you because most of the local and European grinders, now accustomed to common stainless steel knives, have mostly water motor wheels.

After a passage under a water grinding wheel, a Japanese knife is to be restored, it must be taken to a maker to rearrange it, you ruined it.

Even to make a correct sharpening it is necessary to know the construction technique and the type of sharpening that must be performed.

The different types of knife must be sharpened differently, there is not only one type of sharpening, as there is not only one angle of sharpening.

The sharpening of a Japanese kitchen knife must be done strictly by hand with
water stone
.

You must have at least a couple of different grains:

• 800/1000 for bulk work and
• 1500/2000 for finishing.

Japan is among the leading producers of sharpening stones.

The stones must always be perfectly flat to ensure optimal sharpening.

With continuous use, sharpening stones develop a depression in the center where passes are more frequent.

It is therefore important to rectify them regularly with appropriate tools.

If you bought a knife in Japan, or a Japanese custom knife made by a serious maker and that you certainly paid well, to avoid unpleasant surprises, check very well how your grinder works before taking him to sharpen, asking how he will sharpen and if he knows this type of knives.

Handcrafted

One thing you need to know about Japanese kitchen knives is that they are quite expensive.

An artisan knife precisely for the particular treatments to which the steel must be subjected to acquire certain characteristics, for sharpening and for certain finishes undergoes a good part of its hand processing, in a whole series of obligatory steps.

The prices are therefore consistent, you are not paying for an industrial knife.

For a medium-sized knife it is difficult to go below 8000 yen, between 60 and 80 euros depending on the euro/yen exchange level.

Considering transport, taxes, top-ups, when it arrives in the window of a European store you can expect to pay it between 150 and 200 euros.

In the windows and displays of many knife shops in Japan are often shown the various stages of making a knife from raw iron. A further proof of the craftsmanship of the products they sell and also to make it clear to those who do not know the art of cutlery why certain types of knives are expensive.

As for the maximum prices, as always in Japan, there is practically no limit upwards.

You can safely find knives of several thousand euros.

The conclusion is that it is not enough that it has a Japanese shape and some ideogram printed on the blade to have a knife that cuts properly.

So pay attention to what you find in household stores, even of a certain level, or online in our area.

Types of Japanese knives

The main types of knives that can be found in a blade shop in Japan.

There are almost infinite varieties, one of a special shape, established and codified over centuries of use, for every human activity, not just the kitchen.

For a knife enthusiast, certain craft shops in some districts of Kyoto or Osaka can become traps from which you can not get out without lightening the bank account.

There are knives for meat, fish, vegetables, to cut chestnuts or to peel eels, to quarter or fillet large fish or small fish, oysters, and so on and so forth.

Fascinating for lovers of Japanese cuisine are those to cut the soba (buckwheat noodles) from rolled dough, which I would see very well to be used by us to make handmade noodles.