The 4 Finest Santoku Knives, Based on My Checks

My Favourite Santoku Knife

The Made In Japanese Damascus Metal Santoku topped my checks with its sharp blade, beauty, and excessive efficiency in all conditions. For a finances 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 basic design, deal with consolation, and weight stability, I rated the knives on a wide range of traits as I put them by means of a sequence of equivalent checks.

• Candy Potato Check: I used every santoku to halve, peel, and chop a candy potato into cubes. Chopping by means of the dense flesh was a great way to evaluate 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 elements, 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 means of the cheese, how simply I used to be capable of get skinny and even slices, and the way a lot the slices caught to the facet of the knife.
• Garlic Check: To price chopping efficiency, I used every santoku to cut three peeled garlic cloves completely. I famous how effectively every knife minimize by means of the garlic and the way a lot effort and time I wanted to cut back it to a completely minced texture.
• Steak Check: I used every santoku to chop 3 ounces of steak into cubes, noting whether or not any blades had bother slicing by means of meat and the way simply they had been capable of make even items.
• Cleansing: Between checks, I hand-washed every knife, noting people who wanted further scrubbing on the blade or deal with, and any that had been particularly slippery when moist.

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

What I Regarded For within the Finest Santoku Knife

Blade Materials and Design

Metal is by far the commonest materials used for knives of every kind. Japanese knives particularly are sometimes comprised of carbon metal, which incorporates further carbon, making it tougher than regular and capable of 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 various totally different “recipes” for metal which have totally different mixtures of properties, and a few knives additionally layer a number of steels collectively to attain totally different results.

With the santoku particularly, the precise form of the blade is essential, too. The underside of the knife ought to be rounded for a rocking chopping movement, however totally different fashions have totally different curves that work finest with totally different knife methods. 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 slightly totally different in peak, size, and weight.

One other design facet to search for is a Granton edge. This can be a sequence of divots carved into the blade that create air pockets so meals does not stick. It is an particularly useful function if you happen to plan to slice numerous meat, cheese, and different moist or sticky elements.

Deal with Materials and Design

It does not matter how sharp the blade is; if a knife is painful to carry or slips out of your hand, it is not a very good knife. There are many totally different deal with shapes out there, and I discover that one of the best 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, you must take a look at the feel, which may vary from completely clean (simple to wash 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 clean, with no gaps the place corrosion can start to kind.

Weight and Steadiness

Santokus are pretty mild knives usually: Those I examined ranged in weight from 3.5 to eight.8 ounces. This isn’t meant to be a knife that is powerful to carry, however there was a noticeable distinction in really feel between fashions. A heavier knife does not supply as a lot management, however the weight helps minimize by means of powerful 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 total weight is weight stability. Ideally, the deal with and blade offset one another completely, which makes the knife as steady as attainable and provides you probably 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 means of 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 an attractive job in my checks. The rationale it is not on my checklist of winners is that it discolored fairly badly after a single rinse and wash. I washed all of the check santokus collectively in the identical approach and the Masamoto was the one one with this downside, so it is quite a bit much less forgiving than opponents in relation to care. (Notably, Masamoto’s nakiri didn’t discolor in my nakiri testing and was my choose 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. Nevertheless, 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 means of the garlic.

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

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

What Did not Make the Record

Not one of the santokus in my check stood out as a nasty 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 checks: International, Mac, Misen, Shun, and Wüsthof.

Our Experience

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