What Is A Sashimi Knife Like?
 

I have a hankering for a Japanese sashimi knife.

One of those elegant sword-shaped hand-forged blades, about 10-12" long, with a slim wood handle, no bolster, one-side sharpened. I would probably spend about $150 since I have no legitimate reason to spend $500.

But I realize that I have no idea if such a knife is suitable for any kitchen work other than preparing sashimi - which I do not do - and I am not sure what it is like to use a single-sided blade. I am also unclear how one sharpens and maintains such a blade.

Can anyone enlighten me? Should I skip this? I have a perfectly good selection of kitchen knives already, so any knife I add to the stable has to be functional.

I can't add much except that you might consider a plastic one. I was at a Japanese buddy's house, a guy who could afford anything in the world, and we were sitting in his kitchen just snacking on sashimi. He had some very elaborate looking plastic knife he cut it with. This guy only ever had the finest of anything, so it might not be as ghetto as plastic would suggest.

A friend of ours has ceramic knives. Extremely sharp. Problem being that they are insanely expensive.

We use rather mundane Henckels knives and they work well. Getting decent stainless steel knives and keeping them sharp is really the key. Many folks overestimate their knife sharpening skills. It is worth the minor cost of having a professional do it.

I use knives from a restaurant supply house.
'Sani-Safe'. Stainless blades.
I've had them for 24+ years.


KT

A 'chef' knife is fine.


KT

Traditionally forged J-knives are carbon steel which gets sharper, stay sharp longer and are easier to sharpen when dull. The down side is that they do rust if not well taken care of.

You could get them for $50 or less. I have one that i bought for $15 years ago and it works better than $100+ fancy euro stainless knives as a cutting instrument.

Check this thread out. Lots of Japanese steel.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/303435-cutlery-pic-goodness.html?highlight=kitchen+knives

As Alf said, Japanese knives will require more care and feeding than a "regular" knife.

Couldn't agree more. Cindy loves her 3 decades old Chicago Cutlery set...carbon steel. We hand wash & dry only, treat the wood handles with tung oil...

+1
We've had our "Old Hickory" brand knives for over 40 years and they will last forever if taken care of. Hand wash and dry and occasionally oil the wooden handles.

I'm fine w/ caring for a carbon steel blade, have some of those. Our knives get steeled each use, handwashed, dried, and I wipe the ferrous blades w/ olive oil before I put them away.

I'm wondering about the one-side sharpened aspect - is that weird to use?

It can be a bit weird to get used to.

bingo - except the stay sharp longer part - stainless usually stays sharp longer

carbon steel is not in fashion with the yuppies - makes it easy to get good knives cheap - even cheaper if used

you might ask jp [overpaid slacker], he seems to have a lot of asian style cutlery.
i wonder if a one sided edge would be a left or right handed knife?

Chisle ground knives are pretty nice to use for slicing. Although they are hand specific. Example if you are right handed the right side should be beveled and vice versa. They are easier to sharpen too, you just need to worry about getting the angle right on one side.

Nice thing with the chisle grind is the knife will 'eject' the cut piece at an angle so that you could move on to the next slice quickly. And it is easier to control the flat side with your knuckles. Like working with a chisle.

With normally ground knives you need to push the cut meat off if you are cutting fast. I used to work in a restaurant and did LOTS of cutting, chisle ground knives are a great innovation for control and speed. Watch a sushi chef cut and you will know what i mean.

added: chisle grind not so good for cutting through bone, the angle is too acute and might chip the edge if not careful. Better to use a convex ground edge for bones.

When you sharpen the blade, how do you remove the burr without inadvertently sharpening the non-beveled side (i.e. changing its angle from zero)? Do you lay the non-beveled side of the blade flat on the stone? Seems that would scratch the polished surfaces?

I sharpen my existing knives on a stone when they need it - seldom, at most yearly - and would hate to have to send this one out for the service.

I have a bunch of sushi knives...cant remember the correct Japanese description for the blades... but I have chisel, and bevel types...

the chisel blades are "handed" very hard to use "opposite hand"

I've had a Sushi dinner at least once, if not twice a week for many many years..

If you go to a restaurant where there is a master sushi chef..(correct term eludes me again) they take there time while they masterfully cut each piece of fish... They don't make a show of the prep like those tepanaki places..

I've been to Nobu a few times... and the chef usually used some commercial butcher knife that had been reground or just used till it suited the owner

Yup, just lay it flat. The flat side is typically not polished and stone marks look cool.

You could use a sharpening rod in between stone sharpening. Several runs on the beveled side followed by one on the flat side to deburr does the trick.

You sound like someone that needs a J-sword too....check out www.japanesesword.com ;)

Well, I'm late to the game, but you've been given some good and accurate advice so far.

Yes, single-bevel blades are "handed", and it's not a good idea to use one for the opposite hand.

Most traditional Japanese blades are single-bevel (the Nakiri (a vegetable knife) being the most notorious exception), and most are intended to be used cutting on a "forward" stroke.

You'd probably get what you're after with a Sujihiki -- which is good for cutting filleted and boned fish. It's not really the knife you'd want to use to take the whole fish apart. It'd do it, certainly, but the "thing" with Japanese cutlery is that the knives are designed to fit a specific purpose (Garasuki for quartering chicken; Takobiki for octopus; and the Deba (or Yo-Deba) for cutting meat and filleting fish -- heavy... good for cutting through muscle, tendon and bone).

As for sharpening, I've found it best to sharpen the bevel until you just get a burr on the "back" side, then run it, essentially flat (maybe 1 degree) on the back side until the burr is gone. You can get a *screaming* sharp edge that way -- as in, total included angle in the 10-12 degree zone. yeeeow!

To hold that edge, you want a very hard steel, and you can find high-carbon stainless that's up in the 62 range, but you'll have to look and it won't be cheap. I'd stick with carbon and just take care of it.

Incidentally, since my prior posts, I picked up a Spyderco medium sharpening stone to use on the stainless stuff to "rough in" an initial edge. It's used w/o water or oil, and it's freaking awesome. As I mentioned in a prior post, stainless, though not as "hard" can be very tough to take down -- this Spyderco stone rocks.

BTW, Ralph's ebay store is GONE! I'm going to email him and see if he's set up shop elsewhere. Ralph is a very good guy and very knowledgeable about knives.

Regards,

JP