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

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.

Perfect for cutting fish and making sashimi! Hold edge well Wish it came with a sheath

A sharp knife is essential to making smooth cuts in the delicate flesh of raw fish. You can pay >>$200 for a decent sushi knife like they use in a restaurant. If you only make your own sushi once every month or two, that's a significant investment. This is exactly what you need. Yes, it has a cheap handle, but you're only using it for a half hour rather than all night. The blade is a traditional single-bevel grind and is the right size for easy home use. It comes sharp enough to cut tuna, but with a diamond hone you can quickly have it sharp enough for the most delicate species. Just be sure to make a blade edge protector from some plastic tubing or similar to protect it in your drawer.

Bought this years ago and forgot to leave a review, I've used it at least a few times every week since I purchased and have machine washed it each time and it still cuts like the first day I got it. Handle has still stayed perfectly well and has a solid grip and whilst it's aesthetically plain it's an amazing knife for the price.

when i got this knife in the mail today it was neatly packaged and no signs of damage upon shipping when i took the knife out of the case and tried it out on a single piece of paper it cut through cleanly and flawlessly the only thing i can think of that this knife needs is a proper handle.. but seriously for the price it is i cant complain at all this knife would be good for the at home chef who occasionally makes sushi or the person who does cooking for a living.. pros sharp as hell out of box beautiful knife for the price makes easy work out of any type of fish your cutting cons just the handle.. i dont really care or have any other complaints other then that

It's fine. The handle is plastic and the fit and finish is poor. I expected both things at this price point. It is sharp and the steel seems to be high in quality. My real big issue with this knife is that it has a secondary bevel. Which I mean most knives do, but it is obnoxiously large on this knife. I can fix it I think, but it is gonna take a while.

For the cost this is a great sashimi/sushi knife for the occasional homemade sushi dinner. We'll see how it holds up over time but so far it's great. Since I make sushi/sashimi only about once every 2 months or so I didn't want to buy an expensive knife. This Kai Wasabi Yanagiba can easily cut through various fishes/shellfish, no problem with cutting rolls either. It's so sharp that I cut myself accidentally with the very corner a the heel of the blade. It was a nice clean cut though! I bought an even cheaper Ewei's HomeWares 8" Non-Stick Sushi Chef's Knife, the black one with holes in it, to compare. Although the Ewei's performed OK, I could cut through more rolls with this Kai Wasabi without having to rinse the knife and the cuts were easier.

I really like Kai Wasabi Yanagi-ba, and have others in the Kai line. I have had a Shun and also a have a couple custom (blacksmith made Shirogami) Japanese style knives. The steel in these is lower in carbon (0.6% vs. 1.0%) and chrome (13.5% vs. 15%) than the Shun line making them slightly softer (58 +/-1 RC vs 60+/-1 RC for Shun) and less stain resistant. These are a great deal and a good line to get started in if you have never used a Japanese style knife. I also have the 6 inch utility, Nakiri and Deba in the Wasabi line,and am currently considering the 4 inch paring knife as the 6 inch is longish for everyday tasks. I will never go back to soft steeled, heavy handled Western style knives*. Japanese knives are different than Western knives. 1) They usually have thinner, lighter handles. 2) Many styles have a single bevel, meaning they are only ground on one side; this means lefties should get a left handed model. 3) You won't see a full tang on a traditional Japanese knife. 4) They are much harder than traditional Western knives. This means it will chip if used roughly. It can take longer to sharpen. A tip will likely break vs. bend if dropped. EDIT: * One area where Japanese style knives fall short is meat with heavy bone. I will not use a knife as hard these removing meat from heavy bone. Small fish bones are ok but if you hit a large beef bone with one of these you can and likely will chip your knife.

Came out of the box extremely Sharp. Perfect for cutting sushi rolls. Glides through tempura shrimp like butter. Great quality!

Impec!

Vale la pena.

Nicht besonders, schnell stumpf

Couteau d’une excellente qualité. Lame très tranchante, coupe nette et précise pour le poisson. Parfait pour le sashimi et le sushi. Très bon rapport qualité-prix. Je recommande vivement.