The 4 Best Nakiri Knives of 2024, Examined & Reviewed

Conversely, the intensive heavy blade on the Cangshan wedged into devices, resulting in bruised shallots and cracked sweet potatoes. It felt further like a small cleaver than a nakiri.

Balanced, Tapered Handles Have been Additional Cosy

As we’ve well-known in numerous knife opinions, cope with preferences are merely that. I’ve petite fingers and like thinner, shorter handles that are easy to grip and don’t dig into my wrist. This made the transient, straight cope with on the profitable Tojiro a pleasure to utilize; ditto with the thin cope with on the World. Whereas the Messermeister’s olive wood cope with was longer than I favor, the curved kind and buttery clear finish had been comfortable to hold. Bulbous handles, like on the Miyabi Kaizen, had been tiring to grip.  

A balanced cope with, nevertheless, is way much less subjective than kind—if the knife is weighed down on each end, it’s trickier to control and maneuver. This was the case with the Cangshan, which has a thick, weighty blade and a lighter cope with. The Shun, whereas a robust knife, moreover fell prey to this with a slight imbalance between blade and cope with. 

Damascus Steel Blades Appeared Good, Nevertheless Caught to Produce

We’ve written an in-depth piece about Damascus metallic that particulars its historic previous and what it is, nevertheless TLDR: Fashionable Damascus metallic is an aesthetic risk and with it comes lovely, swirled designs or shimmering fish scale-like patterns (see one amongst my favorite petty knives from Shun for an occasion). However, it acquired’t improve the knife’s effectivity and, throughout the case of my testing, it actually proved a hindrance. The Zwilling Bob Kramer and Miyabi Kaizen every had textured metal ripples on their blades which, whereas gorgeous, created some resistance when slicing; the pattern gripped at shallots and sweet potatoes as I launched the blades down. 

The Requirements: What to Seek for in a Nakiri Knife

I hottest nakiri knives with thinner, lighter blades, which had been further versatile and didn’t mash produce. Seek for blades that weigh close to seven ounces and that are about two millimeters thick. This leads to a blade which will readily break down hardy root greens whereas nonetheless being adept at prepping further delicate devices, like herbs or garlic. Sharpness is crucial—you don’t need a knife that struggles to cut by the use of a tomato’s or pepper’s pores and pores and skin—and most of the knives I examined handed this check out. Lastly, seek for a balanced knife with a cope with that’s comfortable to hold.

Our Favorite Nakiri Knives

What we most well-liked: Like our earlier winner from Tojiro, this knife had all of it: It’s sharp, lightweight, and nimble. It precisely minced shallots and slid by the use of tomato pores and pores and skin like a hand sliding proper right into a silk glove. Sweet potatoes had been moreover no match for its keen blade, and the slim, balanced cope with made it easy to control. 

What we didn’t like: Whereas it technically wasn’t as sharp as a result of the Yoshihiro, it was nonetheless very sharp. 

Key Specs

• Weight: 7.1 ounces
• Take care of supplies: Pakkawood (a wood and plastic resin composite)
• Blade supplies: VG-10 stainless-steel core with 3-ply clad improvement
• Blade measurement: 6.5 inches
• Take care of measurement: 4.75 inches
• Spine thickness at widest degree: 2 millimeters
• Complete knife measurement: 9.6 inches
• Out-of-the-box sharpness frequent: 115 (utility razor blade sharp)

What we most well-liked: With a barely curved blade, this knife is further forgiving for any person new to the push-cutting motion. It’s moreover correctly balanced, very sharp, and felt extraordinarily agile, notably when mincing shallots. Whereas nimble, it nonetheless had ample heft to cut by the use of sweet potatoes like butter. 

What we didn’t like: Some will not love World’s signature dimpled metal cope with and the scarcity of a bolster. I found its slim, tapered cope with kind pretty comfortable to hold, though it was slippery when washing it. 

Key Specs

• Weight: 6.8 ounces
• Take care of & blade supplies: Cromova 18 stainless-steel (a mixture of chromium, molybdenum, and vanadium that is distinctive to World)
• Blade measurement: 7 inches
• Take care of measurement: 4.75 inches
• Spine thickness at widest degree: 2 millimeters 
• Complete knife measurement: 12 inches
• Out-of-the-box sharpness frequent: 132 (utility razor blade sharp)

What we most well-liked: This knife was a lesson in “don’t determine a e-book by its cowl.” At first look, I believed the knife appeared cheaply made, nevertheless holy heck, the blade was sharp. It whistled by the use of tomatoes, shallots, sweet potatoes, and bell peppers and never utilizing a hitch. Whereas the cope with was not my favorite looks-wise, it was balanced and curved to go well with my hand correctly. 

What we didn’t like: How do I say this kindly? It’s, properly, not the prettiest. The mahogany cope with has a plastic sheen to it, and the shiny, dimpled blade that fades into Damascus ripples seems to be like tacky. 

Key Specs

• Weight: 6.3 ounces
• Take care of supplies: Mahogany
• Blade supplies: VG-10 stainless-steel
• Blade measurement: 6.5 inches
• Take care of measurement: 4.75 inches
• Spine thickness at widest degree: 2 millimeters
• Complete knife measurement: 11.5 inches
• Out-of-the-box sharpness frequent: 83 (double-edge razor blade sharp)

What we most well-liked: This eye-catching knife was balanced and keen; it swiftly sliced by the use of produce every hardy and tender. The pointed tip was good for making actual cuts when mincing shallots or garlic. I moreover most well-liked the sleek olive wood cope with, which had a pleasing curve to it and felt balanced with the blade. 

What we didn’t like: The blade is barely completely completely different from an ordinary nakiri in that it’s decrease at a excessive angle on the end and has an arc between the bolster and the heel. This didn’t affect effectivity, though the slicing motion did take some getting used to. The cope with was moreover a bit prolonged for me. 

Key Specs

• Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Take care of supplies: Olive wood
• Blade supplies: Stainless carbon alloy
• Blade measurement: 6.5 inches
• Take care of measurement: 4.75 inches
• Spine thickness at widest degree: 2 millimeters
• Complete knife measurement: 13.25 inches
• Out-of-the-box sharpness frequent: 128 (utility razor blade sharp)

The Opponents

Moreover Useful 

• Shun Conventional Blonde Nakiri Knife: Whereas I found the cope with a bit too prolonged and chunky for my liking, this was a wicked sharp knife that sailed by the use of the exams with aplomb. 
• Milk Avenue Nakiri: This knife weighed a mere six ounces and had a thin 1.6-millimeter blade, making it supremely nimble. It was sharp, too—though it struggled barely to dice a sweet potato, probably because of it’s so lightweight. 
• Zwilling Skilled 6.5-inch, Nakiri Knife: This knife was virtually a winner apart from that cheap knives carried out equally, if not larger. Nonetheless, it’s a correctly balanced and keen blade, and I most well-liked the compact, slim cope with, too. 
• Miyabi Evolution Nakiri Knife: Made by Zwilling, this could be a gorgeous—if barely big—nakiri that did properly in all my exams. The blade outweighed the cope with, making it barely imbalanced. The cope with was moreover prolonged, though it was slim and comfortably curved. 
• Zwilling Bob Kramer Damascus Steel Nakiri Knife: It’s an undoubtedly gorgeous, well-performing knife—nevertheless it certainly’s moreover an pricey one. The winner from Tojiro is 1 / 4 of the worth and is solely just about pretty much as good, though a lot much less eye-catching. The cope with was moreover bulbous. 
• WÜSTHOF Conventional 7″ Gap Edge Nakiri Knife: The indents alongside the blade saved tomato slices and shallots from sticking, nevertheless they hitched on sweet potatoes. 

Not Useful 

• MAC Knife Japanese Sequence 6 1/2″ Vegetable Cleaver: Whereas this knife appeared very similar to the profitable Tojiro, it merely wasn’t as sharp. It struggled to cut by the use of rubbery tomato pores and pores and skin and precipitated small cracks when slicing sweet potatoes. 
• Miyabi Kaizen II Nakiri: Whereas this was an exceptional, sharp blade with Damascus metallic ripples, you’ll get an unbelievable knife for a lot much less. The cope with was cumbersome, and the wavy metallic cladding caught to produce when slicing. 
• Cangshan TS Sequence 7-Inch Nakiri Knife: This chunky nakiri spliced in its place of cleanly sliced, though it was sharp. The heavy knife thudded down when slicing, partly because of the blade was quite a bit heavier than the cope with.
• Made In Nakiri Knife: This tastefully branded knife had a cosy cope with, nevertheless the blade’s spherical abdomen made it actually really feel a little bit of an extreme quantity of like a Western-style mashup than an actual nakiri. It was moreover one in all many dullest knives I examined. 
• Zwilling Connoisseur 6.5″ Nakiri Knife: Whereas very similar to the Zwilling Skilled, this knife wasn’t as sharp.
• JIKKO Mille-Feuille Nakiri Knife: A stupendous blade, nevertheless one which didn’t stand out in exams. It moreover felt a little bit of duller than the winners. 
• Kai Wasabi 6.5″ Nakiri Knife: Coping with resistance in all the exams, this knife merely couldn’t decrease it (really). 
• Togiharu Hammered Texture Damascus Nakiri: Virtually an an identical to the JIKKO, the Togiharu was a lot much less sharp and struggled to slice by the use of tomato pores and pores and skin. 
• Masamoto Sohonten White #2 Kasumi Kuro-Nakiri: This appeared (and carried out) further like a cleaver than a nakiri. The blade was thick (a whopping 4 millimeters) and wedged into greens. 
• Mercer Culinary Genesis 7″ Nakiri Vegetable Knife: No one likes slicing with a blunt blade. Sadly, this leaden nakiri was uninteresting correct out of the sphere. 

FAQs

What’s a nakiri knife good for?

Nakiri are vegetable knives, though they are often utilized to slice meat and fish, too. Whereas they may cope with sturdy produce like sweet potatoes and honeynut squash, great thick-skinned produce (lookin’ at you, kabocha) is best averted lest you chip the blade. 

Which dimension nakiri knife is best?

The blades I examined had been between six-and-a-half and seven inches prolonged, though I didn’t uncover a distinction with the half-inch each means. Instead, seek for a blade that is sharp, nimble, and that has a cope with that you simply simply uncover comfortable.

How do you sharpen a nakiri knife? 

We’ve prolonged useful using a whetstone to sharpen knives, and that advice holds with a nakiri. Knife educated Josh Donald suggests starting on a medium grit stone that’s throughout the 800 to 1200 grit differ, then ending on a stone that is between 3000 and 4000 for stainless-steel knives or 4000 to 8000 for carbon metallic knives. A honing rod may be utilized in between sharpenings to keep up the blade’s edge aligned correctly, too. 

Can I exploit a nakiri knife for meat?

For optimistic! Nakiri are good at slicing boneless meats or fish. I’ve even used mine to interrupt down a rooster (not slicing by the use of bone, though). 

How do you utilize a nakiri knife?

Western-style knives sometimes have rounded blades, which makes them apt for a rock-chop slicing motion. Nakiri, nevertheless, have straight-edged blades designed for push-cutting. This motion contains pushing the blade forward by the use of irrespective of you’re slicing, then pulling it up and once more. 

What is the distinction between a nakiri knife and a santoku knife? 

Every are hard-steel blades with straight edges, nevertheless the shapes are pretty completely completely different. A santoku has a sheep’s foot kind (the spine of the blade curves down in direction of the tip) whereas a nakiri is further rectangular. Every may be utilized to prep greens and decrease boneless meats. 

What is the distinction between a nakiri knife and an usuba knife? 

A nakiri has a double beveled edge, which means both facet of the blade are sharpened at an angle; this makes them very versatile. An usuba knife solely has a single bevel and is normally used for carving garnishes for sushi, like tsuma (flossy daikon threads). In the event you want to buy an usuba, make certain that the bevel is on the choice side of the hand you’re using. For example, for many who’re right-handed, the bevel have to be on the left side of the blade. Single-bevel blades like an usuba take a bit of additional observe and expertise to utilize than double-bevel blades, like a nakiri.

What is the best nakiri knife under $160?

All of our favorite nakiri knives are under $160, though we would degree you on to our favorite knife from Tojiro, which was sharp and exacting in our exams.

Why We’re the Consultants

• Grace Kelly is an editor at Extreme Eats, the place she’s been testing gear for better than two years. 
• She’s examined many blades for the placement, along with deba and petty knives, and Chinese language language cleavers.
• For this analysis, Grace examined 12 nakiri knives by using them to mince shallots, slice tomatoes, dice sweet potatoes, and core and decrease bell peppers. She moreover examined the blades’ sharpness sooner than and after testing. 
• This piece was first written in 2022 by Ashlee Redger, who examined 13 blades. Sadly, our winner from that analysis was discontinued, so we examined 12 new knives and added our findings. 
• Ashlee interviewed Josh Donald, proprietor of Bernal Cutlery and author of Sharp, for the distinctive analysis, and we repurposed just a few of his quotes on this current iteration.