Stainless Steel Sushi Sashimi Knife

I wanted to attempt sushi and this is the knife I bought since I wasn't going to do it too often. It's sharp. It does what is expected. I haven't used it too often as I expected so for the rookie sushi chef it's a great buy. If I ever make it a career I'll obvious have to buy myself a more expensive better one. Until then this works perfectly.

I normally spend more time with my purchases before writing a review but in this case I want to make other shoppers aware of the fact that this very same knife is available on Amazon at a substantially lower price. Shame on the vendor for passing this off for something other, and tacking on a higher price, with no value added. In fact, the opposite is true, not only from the higher price, but from the misleading product name. They did not even bother to repackage the product--that is how I found out the original brand name. Now that I have the knife in my hand, I see that it is actually a Seki Ryu brand yanagi bocho.For starters, this is *not* a Santoku and cannot be classified as a Chef's knife (gyutou) either. This is a yanagi-style sashimi knife. Blade length is 210 mm (8 inches) from choil to tip, which is very short for a yanagiba. The principle behind this type of knife is that from the sharpness and length of the blade one is supposed to cut fish meat with one clean stroke, no sawing back and forth, or the texture of the flesh gets ruined. Total length is 330 mm, and weighs in at about 77 grams! Spine thickness at bolster, about 1.78 mm. In any case, this is still a good buy, considering that the truly professional-grade yanagibas can cost up to a hundred times as much, or more.The handle is wood, D-shaped and because of this, plus the single-bevel edge, is definitely not meant for the sinistral user. I doubt if you can find a left-handed version. The bolster is plastic, instead of the traditional water buffalo horn--but what can you expect at this price? Fit and finish is fair, a tad blade-heavy (balance at about 30 millimeters north of the choil).To find the "cheaper" version of this product, just do an Amazon search for "sekiryu sashimi." I cannot determine what kind of metal they used for the blade, but for a single-bevel edge, it does not seem to be that sharp. Don't get me wrong--out of the box, it is still very sharp--sharper than any traditional western-style knife out there. The metal seems to transfer very easily onto a ceramic steel (soft?). I will see for myself how well it will sharpen, and how well it can hold its edge. Bevel angle seems to be greater than 15° (probably to protect the edge from the "average" user?), so it should sharpen to a much keener edge after I'm done with it. Despite the short blade, this knife should do very well for almost anything that your traditional slicer kitchen knife is used for, just not as rugged.For the budding Japanese-knife enthusiast, this makes for an ideal "practice" knife. So, in spite of all my complaints, I can still give this item four stars!

I own several high end knives, shun, henkles, victorknox etc.. and this is by far the cheapest knife I have ever purchased. I bought it cuz when I have sushi night, my tool of knives just doesn't cut it. Sushi knifes are designed to slice in only one motion to avoid roughing up the delicate rolls and fish. All my arsenal has too wide of a blade surface which causes friction which makes rolls and sashimi very difficult to cut. So I got this knife because I didn't want to invest in something I will only use maybe 2 to 3 times a year. Although the knife is sharp, the materials are very cheap and very light. Light metals has a tendency not to keep its edge. For the money and the amount of time I will need this knife, it is worth more than the $16 I paid. If you keep this as a specialty tool, it should be okay but if you plan on using this regularly, I suggest you buy a different knife. On a regular basis this knife will not last a year. It comes down to what you plan to do with this knife to find its value. For me and with my use and expectations, it is worth the money and does the job.

This is a great sushi knife for the novice sushi maker. Sushi knives are expensive, this one is not. It is definitely worth the price. It is stylish, strong, durable, sharp, and serves its purpose of cutting fish and sushi rolls very well. It is a good purchase for anyone that has been tinkering with the art of sushi-making or knows somebody that does.

I purchased this knife because I wanted a dedicated sashimi knife for the sole purpose of slicing sushi rolls and ingredients for sushi. Japanese knives, such as this, are usually sharpened at a much sharper angle than traditional knives, so they are very sharp, and this knife is no different. It is very sharp, and has maintained its edge after 2 months of use. It is very inexpensive, but the actual blade seems to be of a sufficient quality to handle fish. The knife has a D-handle, which means the handle is in the shape of a "d" so that it is flat on one side and curved on the other, to fit into your palm. This means that the knife is designed for right-handed people and will feel odd in the left hand. The handle is very cheap, however it has held up and I don't really have a problem with it since I only use it for one purpose. The knife is sharpened on both sides of the blade. Traditionally, a knife like this for sushi should be single-ground (sharpened on one side), which it is believed makes cleaner cuts and doesn't tear the nori on the sushi. I have used this for dozens of rolls and don't have a problem with it tearing and not making clean cuts, provided I dip the blade in water first. I should mention that unlike the manufacturer's picture of the knife, the tip of the blade is rounded and not pointed at all.If you're not looking to spend a lot of money on a sushi knife, I would recommend this knife. However I do not think it should be used as an everyday knife and shouldn't be used for cutting things like beef or tougher foods which might dull the blade.EDIT: 6 Dec 2011 - Have to change my review from 4 stars to 1. After maybe one hour total use with the knife, the blade has separated from the handle (see my picture). Closer inspection of how the blade is designed to attach to the handle leads me to believe that this is likely to happen with other knives, since the piece that connects to the notch is just not long enough. I always washed this knife by hand and took care of it. It still has a decent blade, but that won't mean much when it breaks off while you're slicing. Buyer beware.