The Best Sujihiki Knife

Buying Guide

A Sujihiki knife is a type of chef’s knife that is widely used in Japanese cooking. Like any good chef’s knife, the blade of a sujihiki knife will be made of high-quality metal and be designed to hold a very sharp edge over time. Specific to sujihiki knives is how thin they are.

“The blade is thinner and sharper than American slicing blades and is especially popular in Japan for slicing raw fish for sashimi and sushi preparations,” says Julie Chernoff, dining editor of Better, a lifestyle website and print magazine. “In a home kitchen, it works wonders filleting fish — especially separating the fish skin from the flesh — and making thin slices of meat, such as turkey, ham or beef tenderloin.”

Designed to slice into raw meats like sashimi, the extremely sharp and thin blade of the sujihiki knife will easily pass through the delicate meat without damaging the structure of the meat at the point of the slice. This allows the meat to maintain its delicate tenderness and appearance while also allowing easy work on the chef’s end as the knife will make easy work of the meats they are carving.

Sujihiki is a specific style of Japanese chef’s knife that means “muscle cutter” and comes with a rather long blade, as it is intended to be drawn through large pieces of meat in an attempt to slice or carve the cut. The handles of Japanese knives historically did not use a full-tang style as we see in Western countries, where the metal from the blade extends entirely to the base of the handle to create a sturdy and nearly indestructible handle, but there has been a shift in the sujihiki manufacturing by many companies to lean toward this Western approach to handles.

A good example is the Yoshihiro INOX AUS-10 Stain-Resistant Steel Ice Hardened Sujihiki Slicer Chef Knife that incorporates a full-tang handle with an otherwise slender Japanese sujihiki blade.

The metal in the blade of a chef’s knife is very important to its performance and longevity. The primary metal that we will find in the blades of sujihiki blades is a version of stainless steel that small amounts of other products like carbon and vanadium. The result is a blade with a high rating on the Rockwell Hardness Scale (a good thing in a knife) that allows the knife to function well, hold a good edge and last through quite a few sharpening sessions over the course of its long life.

When using the sujihiki knife to make thin and delicate cuts, whether it be through a cucumber or a shank of meat, there will be some moisture surrounding the blade edges that will create friction and drag during the slicing motion. To combat this friction that tugs at the meat and slows down the blade, many sujihiki blades have a textured side that allows small pockets of air to break up the suction that is working against you. It’s easily seen in the DALSTRONG Shogun Sujihiki Knife, 10.5-in, where the rectangular sections on the side of the blade are intentionally placed there to help the knife perform at the highest levels.

A high-quality sujihiki knife is something that should last generations. With solid construction and the right materials, it very well could be something handed down to grandchildren not only as an heirloom but still in perfect working condition.

• If you want to use this knife for many years, as it is intended to do, you will have to keep up with sharpening it at necessary intervals. How often you sharpen a knife will depend heavily on what you use it for and how often you are using it. There are professional knife-sharpeners that will hone the edge for you so it slices like new again, but there are also plenty of tutorials and products that allow you to learn how to sharpen the knife blade yourself. Check out some of the products available and how to use them and you can keep your knife as sharp as it was the day you first got it.
• Thin, hard knife blades like on the sujihiki chef’s knives are incredible at slicing through tough or delicate meats and vegetables, but the trade-off is that they don’t have good tensile strength to resist being dinged or chipped by things hitting it in the perpendicular direction. This can happen in a dishwasher as things are jetting around at high temperatures and speed. It is best to hand-wash a fine knife like the sujihiki knife for this reason and it is also best to only use it for slicing with long and smooth strokes as it is intended to do.
• Most sujihiki knives come with a protective sheath and it’s a really good idea to use it whenever the knife is stored and not actively being used to cut something. These knives are so sharp that they can cause injury to a hand very quickly.