This 165mm Japanese santoku knife from the Jiro Tsuchime Wa series is crafted by Jiro Nakagawa, a blacksmith based in Nagano, Japan. The santoku is a versatile knife designed for everyday tasks, including cutting vegetables, herbs, boneless proteins, and general food preparation. This series is made from Yasuki Shirogami #1 carbon steel with a soft iron clad construction in a Japanese wa configuration.
The 165 mm blade has a simple, handcrafted finish, with a visible contrast between the jigane and the polished cutting edge. The santoku profile offers good blade height and a practical tip for precision work, while maintaining a geometry suitable for pushing, pulling, and controlled chopping movements. The octagonal wa handle by Taihei, made of Tagayasan wood with a black ferrule, provides a firm grip and balance typical of Japanese knives with traditional handles.
In use, this Japanese knife stands out above all for its impressive and precise cutting feel, typical of a fine carbon steel santoku. It is well suited to a wide variety of preparations on a cutting board, particularly vegetables, thin slices of meat, and everyday tasks in domestic or semi-professional kitchens. Like any santoku, it is less specialized than a yanagiba for long slices of raw fish and less suitable than a deba for heavy work or joints.
En usage, ce couteau japonais se distingue surtout par une sensation de coupe impressionnante et précise, typique d’un santoku fin en acier carbone. Il convient bien à une grande variété de préparations sur planche, particulièrement les légumes, les fines tranches de viande et le travail quotidien en cuisine domestique ou semi-professionnelle. Comme tout santoku, il reste moins spécialisé qu’un yanagiba pour les longues tranches de poisson cru et moins adapté qu’un deba pour les travaux lourds ou les articulations.
