Why is kiritsuke difficult to use? The Kiritsuke knife requires precision and control due to its long, straight blade and angled tip. It's typically used by experienced chefs for complex cuts.
Because the Kiritsuke is essentially a combination of both Usuba and Yanagiba knives which are developed for very different tasks, considerable skills are required to master the use of this unique Kiritsuke design with its considerable length, height, weight and its single-bevel edge.
Take your index finger and thumb to hold the base or bolster of the blade while your other three fingers wrap around the handle. Pull up toward yourself and push down and away from yourself. Not as much of a rocking motion as with other knives, unless the blade of your kiritsuke is curved.
All of these types of Kiritsuke have less blade curvature / 'belly' than the the typical Gyuto, making them less ideal for 'rock chopping', but better suited to 'push cutting' and 'pull cutting'.
The kiritsuke yanagiba is designed for three primary cutting methods: push-cutting , pull-cutting, and chopping. Push-cutting works well for thin slices of sushi-grade fish, while pull-cutting is ideal for long vegetables like cucumbers. Use chopping for denser foods such as root vegetables.
Kiritsuke Knife Uses and Versatility
Although it takes some practice when you first use the Kiritsuke, this multi-purpose kitchen knife excels at precision cutting, slicing thin slices, dicing, filleting and julienne.
➝ Bunka has a shorter blade with a wider profile and a double-bevel edge, which means it makes for a great multi-purpose knife, suitable for a wide range of tasks and dishes. ➝ Kiritsuke is a single-bevel knife, specialized for the traditional preparation of raw fish and vegetables.
The word Kiritsuke means “slit open” in Japanese. The traditional version of this kitchen knife features a single bevel, straight edge blade and a flat, sword-like front end.
They feature a straight square blade, like a small cleaver and are ideal for vegetable centric cuts such as julienne, brunoise and allumette. Nakiri are ideal for precision vegetable cuts and is a great option for cutting into dense, hard skinned veggies like pumpkins, squash and root vegetables.
In Japan, the Kiritsuke is considered a multi-purpose tool suitable for most kitchen tasks including cutting vegetables or meats.
In Japanese the word Gyuto translates to mean “cow sword” which we feel is pretty telling of the kind of kitchen knife we're working with.
Knife Blade's Thickness – 2.5mm.
White Steel #1 is highly favored by professional chefs who specialize in traditional Japanese cuisine. Its ability to be sharpened to an extremely fine edge, combined with excellent edge retention and ease of re-sharpening, makes it a popular choice.
Stainless steel is a softer material that dulls rapidly under typical industrial use. Stainless steel blades are sharpened excessively when they are manufactured in an attempt to extend their useful cutting life. This makes a new stainless steel blade much more likely to cut you, unless you handle it very carefully.
If precision and specialized tasks are your focus, a Kiritsuke might be the right choice. However, for versatility and everyday kitchen tasks, a Santoku knife offers ease of use and efficiency. Whether you choose the Kiritsuke knife or the Santoku knife, you will elevate your kitchen capabilities.
The traditional katana sword is fashioned only from the purest steel, which the Japanese call tamahagane ("jewel steel").
A thinner grind, although resulting in much greater sharpness, means that a Japanese kitchen knife may be prone to chipping or breakage if used improperly (torquing/twisting the blade while cutting, or hitting or chopping hard or frozen objects).
If all the consonants surrounding a vowel are unvoiced, then "I"s and "U"s are silent. Example: Sou desu (Soo Dess) Sou desu ga (Soo Desu ga) In the first phrase, you don't pronounce the "u" at the end of "desu", because all the consonants around it are unvoiced (again, the unvoiced consontants are S, T, H/F, and K).
A gyuto knife is a traditional Japanese chef's knife used for working with vegetables, meat, and other general-purpose activities. Gyuto knives are dynamic utensils as they allow for chopping, slicing, disjointing, dicing, and julienning.
Bunka in Japanese literally translates to “culture”.
Grab yourself a honesuki or boning knife!
Deba is a traditional knife a chef uses to prepare a whole fish: anything from cleaning, filleting, portioning fish, removing fins and heads, to chopping through smaller bones. It can also be used for preparing poultry and other meat with smaller bones.