Similar Content to: Grapefruit Knife

A type of knife commonly used to prepare ingredients for Asian food dishes. This knife, which is also known as an Asian cook's or chef's knife, is very similar to a traditional chef's knife with a wide blade that has a long straight edge curving up slightly at the end. The main difference is that the Santoku knife has a wider blade that is thinner in thickness, shorter in length, and curves up very gradually at the end providing a straighter cutting edge. Constructed of stainless steel, this knife will typically be expensive to purchase, since it is precision made to be well balanced and well formed for ease of handling and greater control. With a thinner blade than a chef's knife, the santoku can cut smoothly and more precisely through dense vegetables, which may have a tendency to provide more resistance when using thicker width blades.

Versions of this knife are manufactured with either a standard-edged blade that does not contain evenly spaced indentations or a hollow edge with indentations, which may also be referred to as a Granton edge (named for the Granton Knife Company) or a kullenschliff edge (named for the German term for this type of blade). Evenly spaced indentations or hollows are ground into the blade and evenly space along the edge of the blade running the full length of the blade. The purpose of the Granton-style blade is to assist with keeping particles from sticking to the knife edge as it chops small bits of food as well as a friction reducer to provide less drag when chopping, which enables easier and faster motion. Santoku knives are used for chopping, dicing, and slicing foods into narrow or fine pieces so they can be added as ingredients to enhance the look or flavors of the various foods being prepared. This knife also works well for butterflying boneless chicken breasts, providing a manageability and ease of handling for the cutting required to butterfly poultry. Common sizes of this knife range from 4 to 7 inches in length.