The Best Santoku Knives

Every cook should have at least one Santoku Knife in their kitchen! It is desired for its ability to glide through everything from dense, starchy foods, such as potatoes, to delicate tomatoes.

The Santoku knife is a Japanese-designed chef's knife. Quality Santoku Knives are well-balanced and feel good in your hand. The blades come in many sizes - typically between 5 and 8 inches long. The Santoku knife has a "sheepsfoot" shaped blade, which provides less "rocking motion" than the traditional western chef's knife. It works best with a "slicing" motion rather than "rocking". It takes some getting-used-to, but many people prefer it. The style and shape of this knife provides great balance, accuracy and handling.

The Santoku Chef's Knife is normally shorter, thinner and lighter that the regular chef's knife. The steel is harder, to enable the thinner edge to maintain it's sharpness. With its granton edge and fine blade, this is a particularly useful knife for thin-slicing. These scallops along the knife blade create tiny little air pockets that keep your food from sticking to the knife as you are cutting through it.

Sharpening steels are not recommended as they will deform the edge and blade. Keeping santoku knives sharp is a must as their use as a fine-slicing knife is defeated without a sharp blade. The best way to sharpen a Santoku knife is to have a professional sharpen it for you (a local knife shop). It costs about $3 to $5, and you will probably need to have it sharpened every 2 to 3 months. Wusthof makes an Asian Knife Sharpener that will sharpen the fine edge without stripping the granton edge. You can also use an electric knife sharpener.

• Chop and Mince Onions, Garlic and Potatoes
• Slice Tomatoes
• Slice Cookie Dough
• Cut Raw Meat
• Cut Fish
• Slice Cooked Meat

Santoku knives are available through many companies. The prices vary according to the quality of the knife. Following are a few of the better ones:

• Wusthof
• Henckels
• Shun
• Kai Wasabi

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A good, quality knife should always be hand-washed and dried well before putting it away. It should be properly stored so it doesn't come into contact with other hard surfaces (a knife block or in-drawer knife organizer). When cutting, it is best to use a wood surface to cut on. Other hard surfaces will dull the knife faster. 

With the proper care, your Santoku knife should last a lifetime.  Once you try one, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it!