Recommendation? Japanese Knives

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Nov 5, 2018
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Regarding Japanese knives, I have a Gyuto, a Petty, a Santuko and a Nakiri.

What other Japanese knives should a well rounded knife roll have? Suggest a couple knives.

Thanks,
 
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That should pretty much cover you in the kitchen... In fact, with a good gyuto, it could be argued that a santoku and nakiri are redundant.

The only other thing is perhaps a long sujihiki for slicing big roasts, turkey breast, or other slicing jobs that your gyuto is too short to handle.

Maybe a hankotsu which is used to trim and debone meats. The honesuki is meant for cleaning poultry but some people might use them to trim and debone other meats too. They are different in blade shape but depending on what you use it for, you could probably get buy with just the one or the other, or even just use the petty, just being careful not to nick bones with its edge.

Some people might recommend trying a traditional single bevel style like yanagiba, deba, and the like, but those are pretty close to single purpose knives, not much good for multiple things.
 
Thanks to both of you. I was thinking something heavier and shorter than my Gyuto like a Deba would be my next knife and a long 270mm slicer like the Sujihiki would be a good choice too, both with Wa handles. I need to go to a store and play with some more knives.
 
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Honestly, this would come down to the work you find yourself doing the most, along with your comfort and skillset with the knives you possess, rather than how full your knife roll is. You can do so many tasks with a gyuto alone, it makes a lot of the other knives more of a preference of comfort really. If you have a 240 gyuto, that can cover most big slicing tasks and is wieldable enough to cover many smaller tasks as well, provided you have the proficiency and skillset through practice. Even a 210 gyuto will cover a lot of mileage. Since you have a petty for smaller work, most of your bases are covered in a common cooking scenario with those 2 knives alone. If you break down whole fish regularly, a deba might be a worthy addition. I use hankotsu boning knives for de-boning beef, pork, lamb and poultry and they work exceptionally well; while being different enough to western/German style boning knives to add to my kit. One thing to note is the single and/or asymmetrical bevels they usually possess. While this creates a very sharp edge, it is more susceptible to fracture when coming into contact with bones, counters, etc. Best to be honest with yourself on your usage as to find if you need, want, or can use another style and if it holds a practical worth in advantage to become an addition to your current kit; unless of course you have the money to spend and those factors don't matter :cool:. My .02
 
Personally, I ended up selling my gyuto and santoku and using a very thinly ground funayuki instead - but that's just an individual preference thing. I also like the Misono No. 61 Chinese Cleaver for stuff like splitting pumpkins which may involve unintentional blade torquing etc.

I have a lefty yanagiba and deba, but in truth they don't get used all that much. A sujihiki is probably a more versatile slicer than the yanagiba, as mentioned above. A custom honesuki in AEB-L pretty much gets used as a 'beater' utility knife, and for other people to use (no one else touches my J-knives).

Most of my kitchen knife use is handled by the funayuki, nakiri and petty.

Ok, it's not really a knife, but the other indispensable Japanese cutting tool is a Benriner mandolin, if you don't already have one.
 
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