Nakiri and Usuba

The Nakiri is a knife with a thin blade profile and popular throughout Japan. It is mainly used for effectively slicing and chopping vegetables, fruits or herbs, becoming a popular knife among vegetarians. Although often mistaken for a small Chinese cleaver, the Nakiri is too thin and light to compare to a cleaver and should definitely not be used to cut bone or very hard materials.

Like the Santoku, the Nakiri generally has a slightly taller blade than a similarly sized Gyuto or Petty. This gives your fingers a little more room when cutting directly over a cutting board. It has a good blade surface for your free hand to guide the blade during cutting techniques such as the ''Push Cut''.

The Usuba is ideal for cutting vegetables and fruit served raw, as the thin, sharp blade produces very little damage to food cells, minimizing discoloration and taste change often caused by oxidation. The versatile center section of the blade can be used to cut vegetables into thin slices and also to perform the specialized technique of Katsuramuki (rotary peeling).

The Usuba's relatively high and long blade is ideal for tackling large ingredients, such as cabbages, but it is not recommended for cutting vegetables or fruits with tough skins or hard stones as they may damage the blade. This large surface area is also very useful when using the knuckles of your free hand to guide the blade when cutting. This technique is useful if you want to cut vegetables consistently to a given thickness.