Kai Wasabi Black Yanagiba Knife, 8 1/4-Inch

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.

It's a great beginner's knife to practice on your sharpening stones (whetstones). I bought this knife for the explicit purpose of practicing sharpening on whetstone -- and for that matter I bought a cheap set of stones to match this cheap knife! Why? So when I buy the $300 knife and the $100 stone I will not harm either the knife or the stone. And so on, until one upgrades to $1000 knife and .. so on. It's stainless and that means you don't really need to pay attention to it. If you are going buy a real carbon steel yanagiba you BETTER pay attention to that. It will require you to hone it, wash it, dry it, all that without a moment of laziness. You can't toss it in the sink and come back to it later. You can just toss the knife anywhere. You can't treat a $300 or $1000 knife like that. It will hate you. It will hate you so bad it will rust on you, dull on you, and take your money and make you cry. BUT, hey, if you buy this $30 knife to practice, and to get all that neglect out of your system, you will be ready when you finally get that $300+ product that you have always wanted. Make sure you practice 15 degree blade angle on the whetstone. Make sure you validate how well you have done your sharpening on a piece of fish. Stainless is softer steel than carbon steel so you will need to keep this sharpened more regularly which, hey, hones your skills! Carbon steel will stay sharp longer but will rust sooner if not careful so don't let it rust. But carbon steel can be made a lot sharper on a whetstone than stainless steel. But stainless steel gives me that laziness buffer if say I want to eat the fish instead of washing my knife, I can toss this stainless blade aside and eat my meal before I go back to washing it. Or watch some TV then go wash the knife. Or wait until tomorrow. Don't ever do that to a carbon steel blade. So, this blade served the purpose of inexpensive Yanagiba practice -- sharpening and using. It helps you get all your kinks out and train you how to take care of a blade like this. This blade 8.5 inches long and a typical carbon blade yanagiba is 10 inches long or even 12 inches. The longer it is the harder it is to use properly. Remember you can only pull back on the blade as you cut instead of pushing down. You can only cut with one motion with Yanagiba--pulling back from heel to tip. That's why the blade is so long--to give you a long cutting edge for without you slicing back and forth like sawing a piece of meat. I give it 5-stars because I love the purpose it served. The knife itself is not that great of a knife. Again, it's a generic stainless steel blade on generic material without much artisan involvement. Probably machine made from end to end. The knife I got was slightly bent and slightly tilted. But hey, what do you expect out of a $30 machine-made knife vs a $300 (at bare minimum starter basic) carbon steel yanagiba? For a tenth of the cost I got my kinks out. It's worth the 4-5 star rating.

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.

I'll start by saying it's a great knife! It slices through my wife's freshly baked sourdough bread with little effort. The 9" bread knife was recommended, and I had hoped it would be the best option for her as a Christmas present. But I do have a complaint about the edge. We christened the knife on one of her loves she baked this morning. After a few slices on our wood chop block, I noticed I could run my finger across or perpendicular to the serrated edge (not along to cut myself), and the blade caught my finger since it was bent to the side. This also could be seen in the light as I turned the blade, rotating it; the edge now had a slight fold along the knife's edge. I don't know what I'm expecting. Maybe a knife forged by a dwarven smith from Nogrod? Something "remarkable" where it doesn't dull over time. But within the first hour?? Any thoughts on why this is? Is it due to use? Or running the knife down the bread crust to touch the chop-block? Thanks for reading. I long to see better results or at the very least, answers to this mystery.

Delighted with this knife! The ergonomics of the Japanese knife aesthetic combined with dirt low price is a winner in my book. I love the feel, thinness and light weight of Japanese knives,Shuns in particular, but the chipping of the layered steels is ridiculous, and the price too much. These Wasabi knives are perfect for a pinch grip, light weight and don't have the "seen way too much" 3 western style rivets on the handles. Some may find the plastic/bamboo powder handles too plain Jane, but their matte black recessive quality works for me. Arrived not quite as stealthily sharp as a Shun or other $100+ knives, but perfectly respectably sharp for most home users. Edge retention has been good--better than my softer Henckles German steel. I will be using with my Chefs Choice Asian hand held sharpener to always have respectably sharp 15 degree light weight Japanese knives on my counter for a fraction of what Shuns, Miyatas or Globals--along with some decent whetstones--cost; yes, those higher end knives are better, get and stay a bit sharper on stones, yes... but you have to pay for it and work on sharpening skills or pay for sharpening. These Wasabis are so close in terms of sharpness and edge retention, and so much more affordable, again, I'm sold. Plan on getting the Nikiri and the utility knives soon...

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!

I bought this knife and 2 others in this line as a gift for a friend who is a fan of Japanese style knives. He's also a metalsmith and previously worked at a 5 star restaurant, so he knows knives. Since he lost his good knives and had some fairly lousy ones that wouldn't keep an edge to work with, I decided to get him some decent ones. I was looking for Japanese style, single bevel and reasonably high carbon steel. These seemed to fit the bill given my budget. My friend is happy to have a decent set of knives, but these aren't single bevel. He's ok with that, but I'm disappointed since I was specifically going for single bevel as one of the things he's mentioned liking in cooking knives. He also sharpened them as soon as he had them out of their boxes because by his standards they had a good primary edge, but needed a final sharpening. This isn't a complaint just an observation, as I can't imagine any mass produced knife having a good enough edge for him straight out of the box. If they'd had the single bevel as advertised, I would have given them 4 stars. They're good, solid knives for the price. Since I was looking for something particular and based my decision partly on that factor, I'm knocking a star off. I'd only take half a star off it was an option. I'm putting the review on this knife because it's specifically a santoku and should have a single bevel as part of the style. The other 2 knives were a paring knife and a chef's knife. Since those are western style knives, it would be more reasonable to expect a double bevel in my opinion, although the description says it's only sharpened from one side on those too.

Im in Culinary School and I got this knife to try out the Nakiri style knife. What can I say, this knife is becoming my favorite, I work with and around food 6 days a week and this thing is smooth and it has a nice rocking feel to it. A single sided edge allows for a somewhat easy drop away when chopping small garnishes or vegetables. Make sure you sharpen at a 15-19 degree angle when the time comes for it and not on the flat edge either. The handle is cheap no lie, but the feel it has is incredible. Light feel that still balances the blade, easy to grasp and easy to clean up. Take care of your knives and treat them with respect, for 35 dollars I love the quality that I'm getting for a knife with a great purpose in prep on vegetables (not meats or fish). I'm also not afraid of letting someone else use it because I didnt have to spend alot on it and it cuts better than most name brand knives. I tell you the Japanese are on to something and I own Shuns so I can say that the more often I use them, the more and more I love the Japanese forge and design. I highly recommend!!! Dont hesitate! This knife should be way more money but it just so happens not to be.