Kai Wasabi Black Santoku Knife, 6-1/2-Inch

The five stars factors in the price point, so not saying these knives perform as well as a $300+ knife. I ordered the Nakiri, the Deba, and the Yanagiba because I wanted to start experimenting with Japanese style knives without jumping into the deep end of the pool right away and spending thousands of dollars. These are great, arrived as described and I couldn't be happier. The Nakiri is the perfect veggie chopper/slicer, and I've already prepared multiple sashimi platters at home with perfect, restaurant quality glassy cut edges.Mine were factory sharp out of the box, didn't need immediate sharpening at all and I have just used a quality steel for honing so far. Haven't needed to use a whetstone yet.I saw a confused review claiming that the Nakiri was single beveled like a Usuba. Mine is double beveled as a Nakiri should be and was quite sharp out of the box.The carbon steel seems quality, mine have held their edge with regular honing so far.I would equate the reviews claiming rust/corrosion spots and chipping to misuse and/or neglect. Some people just shouldn't have nice things.

Considering I've been an avid knife collector for quite some time and the fact that I also sharpen knives professionally, I consider myself a bit of a knife snob at this point. That being said, I honestly wasn't expecting very much when I saw these kitchen knives at a price of less than $30 per knife. I am very familiar with KAI and the fact that they also manufacture Zero Tolerance, Kershaw, and Shun knives, which was honestly probably the only reason that prompted me to pull the trigger on these knives and give them a try. Boy was I surprised!!!The handles are crafted in a style that pays homage to traditional Japanese cutlery (i.e. wooden handle with resin ferrule) but in this case, to keep costs down, KAI went with Poly handle and steel ferrule. Honestly, I found it rather attractive looking, and even more attractive once I got the product in hand.The blade steel far exceeded my expectations in a few different ways. First, the blade came very sharp right out of the box! This isn't a very big deal to me, as I've received many very high-end knives that didn't come exceptionally sharp out of the box, and also the fact that no matter how good a knife is, they all need to be sharpened at some point. But it is always a pleasant surprise to see a company send you a razor sharp knife right out of the box, especially with a knife this affordable!Second, after touching the knife up on one of my very fine grit ceramic rods, I was very quickly able to bring this knife to popping hairs off my arm without even touching skin! Just stop and think about that for a moment.... Lousy quality steel will usually NEVER take an edge like that. So this clearly demonstrated to me that KAI is using a good quality steel with a superb heat treat in these knives! They obviously care as much for their economical housewares line as they do for their Kershaw and Shun lines as well! Good job KAI!Furthermore, one thing I've always enjoyed about all of KAI's brands such as Shun and Kershaw is that they are not afraid to put very acute grinds on their knives which allow them to acheive superior edge geometry and slicing ability! My guess is that like Shun, these sister company Wasabi knives are also probably ground to the same 16 degree edge. Very cool! I've also been using these knives for a while now and they seem to hold an edge just as well as my $100 Wusthof knives. And oh, did I mention that these Wasabi knives are made in Japan? That's right, these knives are actually made in Japan folks! So you're getting Japanese quality at an exceptional value here.The one and only complaint I have about these knives is that the spine and bolster (rear section of the blade your fingers rest against) of the blade were ground and left at a rather sharp 90 degree angle that digs into your finger, which I could see possibly causing irritation with prolonged use. This was a very easy fix however. I simply rounded off the sharp corners with a very fine grit ceramic sharpening rod. It only took a few minutes, and presto, I have a high-performance, good looking knife at a fraction of the cost!So far I own the Kai Wasabi Santoku and Nakiri knives and I love them both! I will post this same review to both models because my review would be the same anyways. I also plan to purchase the Chef knife and Paring knife soon.Bottom line: I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TRY THESE KNIVES! They are a truly exceptional value for the money, and their made in Japan by a company that knows knives. You can't go wrong! Give them a try.

For the price, excellent knife. Overall quality is great. My husband loves it.

I bought this knife about 2.5 years ago and, for the price, I expected it to do alright for awhile and then develop problems or become dull very quickly. It hasn't done either one. Haven't been a purist or treated it with kid gloves, either. I've sliced London broil like butter, carved turkeys, cut up whole chickens, taken fish apart, and chopped the usual veg with it. It's still going strong. I also own the nakiri and the yanagiba from the same KAI Wasabi range. The nakiri has held up well (I've only ever chopped vegetables with it) so I would rate it exactly the same. I've never actually used the yanagiba since I haven't made sashimi at home since buying it! A deba is actually designed for butchering fish. It has a heavy weight to easily cut through fish bones during the butchering process, and it will do that without a second thought. That also makes it very useful (in my opinion) for cutting up chickens and any other sort of work where you need to work the knife through joints and cartilage.PLEASE be aware that this is a Japanese single-bevel knife, meaning the cutting edge is not a 50/50 "V-shape". It is ground ONLY on one side at 15º. If you run this knife through a regular knife sharpener you will dull and basically end up destroying the knife. You must use a stone by hand or another type of sharpener that will hold the knife at the correct angle on the correct side. But if you do end up destroying the knife it's not the end of the world! It was $40!I have also read forum posts, by people who actually live in Japan, about KAI knives being the most common knives in use in Japanese homes. So yes, a lot of very good Japanese home cooks are using $7 (their cheap resin series, which I have also owned) to $40 (Wasabi) KAI knives. They get the job done for very little money. It's obviously not a knife for people who do this for a living, but I've never felt like they've ever tried to market it that way, either.If you want a knife to last you a lifetime, invest in something in something higher quality like a Misono or a Hattori or even a Global, or a high-quality European knife. If you want something economical, that will do the job for a casual home cook, and will last an acceptable amount of time, then you need look no further than this knife.

Great value knife, great start out knife for someone who’s looking to do more cooking. Very sharp! My dad used to be a chef and keeps his own in his collection (30 chef knife collection… insane, I know), I purchased one for myself, and I have purchased one as a gift. Buy it! We do maintain the knives and get them sharpened regularly!