Wa-Santoku Knives

A santoku knife with a Japanese-style handle, the wa-santoku is light and easy to use, making it a perfect choice for someone's first high-end knife that cooks a lot! Invented and made in Japan, get yours from Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide, shipped directly to your door.

What is a Wa-Santoku Knife?

Despite being invented in Japan, the santoku knife adheres more to how Western-style knives like the gyuto are made, so it's sorted as such. Adding a Japanese-style handle to it changes the knife to a wa-santoku, with wa meaning "traditional Japanese-style". Santoku knives are the most popular knife used in Japanese homes, with wa-santoku being used by those who prefer the lighter weight a Japanese-style handle provides. Used for cutting fish, meat, and vegetables, they have blade lengths from 165-180mm.

How to Choose the Blade Materials - Carbon Steel vs Stainless Steel

The advantages of carbon steels (e.g. White Steel, Blue Steel) are their sharpness and ease of re-sharpening. On the other hand, they are susceptible to moisture, and if not maintained properly, the blades will rust.

Stainless steels (e.g. Silver Steel#3, VG10, Molybdenum Steel) are resistant to rust and easy to maintain. The sharpness of the blade is getting better year by year, but they are still more difficult to sharpen than carbon steels.

We recommend carbon steel to people who value sharpness and ease of sharpening and stainless steel to people who value rust resistance and ease of maintenance.