Happy SalesHSSR200, Japanese Nakiri Chef Knife

Pretty darn good for the price. I wanted to try this style of knife in a cheap version before going for the $200 version. It does very well. I chopped up a head of lettuce with it and the blade was almost long enough to cut from one side to the other. The blade went though lettuce very easily and worked great as a scooper after. I would say it was only about 1/2 inch too short to make it. I did try a think skinned tomato and have to use a little slicing action to get the skin to break, but not much. This does come pretty sharp out of the box just like it should but not impressively sharp. Its as sharp as you would expect a cheap knife to be. This seems well constructed. Nothing is loose, and I doesn't feel like I need to be careful with it. The weight is designed for a grip with forefinger and thumb on the blade while the rest of the fingers grab the handle. This is the preferred grip for this knife anyway and it balances well with it. The wood on the handle is not rough and felt good.After using this I will be purchasing a high end version one day but I plan to continue using this for awhile. I wanted to get familiar with this type of knife to see if I wanted a Nakiri or and Usuba. This is a Nakiri not an Usuba. I say that because some of the labeling on some knives can be vague on this. Nakiri's are sharpened from both sides and Usuba's are only sharpened from one. This knife worked well enough that I am not in a hurry to replace it and will be spending some time getting familiar with the different style and shape before I make a decision on Nakiri or Usuba.Picture for size refference.

I've had this low-end Nakiri for about eight years now, so I can give some perspective based on experience. For such a low-priced knife, it definitely does the job. It started out sharp and has held an edge very well, with help from some periodic sharpening stone work I've done on it. Others have mentioned problems with the handle, but it's been very sturdy for me, no looseness at all. I wash and dry it meticulously after every use, and I periodically go over the wood handle with some mineral oil to keep it looking decent. Very nice knife!

It's great for a twelve buck knife, this is the one I reach for when I don't need something specific. I used this for one intense year in restaurants, it fell apart on me last month. It's best for cutting vegetables, or anything where you're cutting straight down; I use it to cut sushi rolls as well. I actually like that it is such a cheap knife, because it's my workhorse and I don't need to worry about damaging it. The blade is cheap stainless and dulls quickly, but it still gets decently sharp so I just sharpen it a little more often. It's double-edged, but I'm working it into a single edge. Extremely light. I like the wooden handle not just for the feel of it, but because it disguises the cheapness better than, say, a plastic handle might. I was thinking about getting a better (more expensive) knife, but I'm thinking I might just superglue the thing back together and get a little more work out of this thing until I can put down 400 for the real deal. For the price, this is a really good knife; just don't expect it to last forever.

I like these knives so much I bought one of each in the various styles, Deba, Santoku, Nagiri, etc. As these knives are manufactured similarly and exhibit the same qualities you'll see the same review for each of these knives. I specifically sought out Amazon vendors that offered the "Sekiryu" brand of knives. ( http://www.sekiryu.co.jp/wabou/e-81.htm ). This can take a bit of research here on Amazon but I found that their quality seems to be is slightly better than knives of the same style made by another manufacturer and they don't muck up the blade with a bunch of markings other than some nice kanji. These knives are no substitute for a high end Japanese forged high carbon blades so get past that now. They are simply decent bargain priced representations of the style. The blades are made from a "higher" carbon content stainless steel stock to resist rusting and staining but I've found the edge grinds to be true, and the blade sharp out of the box. The handles are wood, smooth and "D" shaped in cross section for right hand use. A plastic "cup" is used to secure the handle to the tang. I can see where these caps might come loose but easily fixed if that happened. The handle is a bit small for very large hands (like mine) and I'm debating doing a cord wrap for a bit more secure ergonomic grip. The trade off being sanitation when food gets in between cord wraps. Considering these knives were made with a smaller sized populace in mind that doesn't surprise me. Its not a deal killer. The blades sharpen well but like many less expensive blades do need more attention to maintain that edge than say a $200+ blade of similar style. That should be intuitively obvious so buyers shouldn't come back crying about how one needs to sharpen these blades on a more regular basis. Its the nature of the metal. For entry level examples of various Japanese cutlery styles I can recommend the Sekiryu products unreservedly.