The 4 Greatest Santoku Knives, In accordance with My Assessments

My Favourite Santoku Knife

The Made In Japanese Damascus Metal Santoku topped my exams with its sharp blade, beauty, and excessive efficiency in all conditions. For a funds choice, the Mercer Culinary Genesis Santoku did fairly effectively in testing regardless of its shockingly low worth.

How I Examined Santoku Knives

I examined 12 totally different santoku knives. Starting with common design, deal with consolation, and weight steadiness, I rated the knives on quite a lot of traits as I put them by a sequence of similar exams.

• Candy Potato Check: I used every santoku to halve, peel, and chop a candy potato into cubes. Reducing by the dense flesh was a great way to guage every knife’s energy and precision with heavy objects, and peeling helped observe the extent of sharpness.
• Mozzarella Check: To measure efficiency with gentle, sticky substances, I used every knife to chop a small ball of mozzarella into slices. I famous how a lot effort and back-and-forth sawing I wanted to get by the cheese, how simply I used to be in a position to get skinny and even slices, and the way a lot the slices caught to the aspect of the knife.
• Garlic Check: To charge chopping efficiency, I used every santoku to cut three peeled garlic cloves totally. I famous how effectively every knife lower by the garlic and the way a lot effort and time I wanted to scale back it to a totally minced texture.
• Steak Check: I used every santoku to chop 3 ounces of steak into cubes, noting whether or not any blades had hassle slicing by meat and the way simply they have been in a position to make even items.
• Cleansing: Between exams, I hand-washed every knife, noting those who wanted additional scrubbing on the blade or deal with, and any that have been particularly slippery when moist.

Solely after finishing all my different exams did I reveal the retail costs of the santokus to think about worth for cash. On the time of testing, the 12 santokus ranged from $38 to $199, with a median of $131.

What I Regarded For within the Greatest Santoku Knife

Blade Materials and Design

Metal is by far the most typical materials used for knives of all types. Japanese knives specifically are sometimes constituted of carbon metal, which incorporates additional carbon, making it more durable than regular and in a position to maintain a finer edge for longer. The drawback of carbon metal is that it is extra brittle and extra inclined to rust. Chrome steel is made with added chromium, which makes it shiny and rust-resistant, however softer and fewer sharpenable. There are numerous totally different “recipes” for metal which have totally different mixtures of properties, and a few knives additionally layer a number of steels collectively to realize totally different results.

With the santoku specifically, the precise form of the blade is essential, too. The underside of the knife must be rounded for a rocking reducing movement, however totally different fashions have totally different curves that work finest with totally different knife strategies. A santoku’s broad blade provides it energy and is beneficial for issues like crushing garlic cloves, however the form additionally makes it heavy for its measurement — and every santoku is somewhat totally different in peak, size, and weight.

One other design facet to search for is a Granton edge. It is a sequence of divots carved into the blade that create air pockets so meals would not stick. It is an particularly useful characteristic should you plan to slice lots of meat, cheese, and different moist or sticky substances.

Deal with Materials and Design

It would not matter how sharp the blade is; if a knife is painful to carry or slips out of your hand, it is not a superb knife. There are many totally different deal with shapes accessible, and I discover that the perfect ones are neither completely spherical nor completely sq.. Sharp corners are safe within the hand, however they are not notably comfy. Round handles really feel good, however they’re slippery, particularly when moist. Spherical-cornered rectangles or oval shapes can each be very efficient, along with your favourite relying on precisely the way you maintain your knife.

By way of deal with materials, wooden and plastic are quite common, together with composites like Micarta and Pakkawood, that are layers of wooden and different supplies bonded collectively in a plastic resin. Whatever the materials, it’s best to have a look at the feel, which may vary from completely easy (straightforward to scrub however probably slippery) to tough and sandpapery (good for grip however can maintain onto bits of meals). One other deal with design facet to concentrate to is the rivets that join the deal with and blade: Ideally, these ought to really feel completely easy, with no gaps the place corrosion can start to kind.

Weight and Stability

Santokus are pretty gentle knives basically: Those I examined ranged in weight from 3.5 to eight.8 ounces. This isn’t meant to be a knife that is robust to carry, however there was a noticeable distinction in really feel between fashions. A heavier knife would not provide as a lot management, however the weight helps lower by robust or dense meals with much less effort. Lighter knives are extra agile however much less highly effective, however you do need some quantity of weight to carry the blade securely in your hand.

Simply as essential as general weight is weight steadiness. Ideally, the deal with and blade offset one another completely, which makes the knife as steady as doable and provides you essentially the most management. But when a knife is a bit unbalanced, it is higher if it is weighted towards the blade than towards the deal with. A heftier blade can really feel prefer it’s pulling itself by meals, whereas a knife that is balanced towards the deal with needs to drag the blade backward out of the meals.

Different Santoku Knives I Examined

Sturdy Contenders

Masamoto HC Japanese Santoku ($198 at Amazon)

I felt good management holding this knife, and it did a ravishing job in my exams. The explanation it is not on my record of winners is that it discolored fairly badly after a single rinse and wash. I washed all of the take a look at santokus collectively in the identical method and the Masamoto was the one one with this drawback, so it is quite a bit much less forgiving than rivals in the case of care. (Notably, Masamoto’s nakiri didn’t discolor in my nakiri testing and was my decide for finest splurge.)

Tojiro Skilled Santoku ($92 at Amazon)

Tojiro’s properly priced santoku gave me nice management, particularly when peeling the curved surfaces of a candy potato. Nonetheless, it was not as sharp because the higher-priced fashions above, needing a notable quantity of sawing to slice the steak and many chops to get by the garlic.

Victorinox 7-Inch Rosewood Santoku ($67 at Amazon)

This wood-handled santoku is a good funds purchase, with an especially sharp blade that carried out a lot better than I anticipated given the light-weight design and plain wood deal with. It will have been my decide for the perfect worth, besides the Mercer Genesis did even higher and is cheaper.

What Did not Make the Record

Not one of the santokus in my take a look at stood out as a foul performer; the fashions not included above simply fell a bit behind the remaining, both in efficiency or worth. All 5 come from manufacturers that we belief and which have produced winners in different knife class exams: World, Mac, Misen, Shun, and Wüsthof.

Our Experience

Meals & Wine senior author Jason Horn examined 12 santokus at dwelling and wrote this roundup. With a grasp’s in journalism and a culinary diploma, he is been writing about meals and drinks for almost 20 years, together with at Liquor.com, Playboy, and Severe Eats. Our resident knife-testing skilled, he is additionally examined and reviewed butcher knives, meat cleavers, oyster knives, brisket slicers, and extra.