Sakai Takayuki 33-Layer Damascus Damascus Petty Knife, Zelkova Handle, 150mm / 5.9"

A utility knife makes a perfect addition to a chef's knife or santoku. This one, at nearly 6 inches in length is basically a short and thin chef's knife. It also excels as a short precision-slicer. I find this Japanese style of utility knife much more useful than the standard German utility and paring knife design, as this one has a deeper blade which is shaped more like a small chef's knife, and so you can in fact use it just like a small chef's knife. I use mine all the time at home now for dicing onions, and I can now even do a fine dice of a single garlic clove (I don't like using a garlic press) just like I can an onion. It's also great for dicing ginger and any other small-ish item, and I use it for cleaning up chicken and beef pieces too, where a light touch removes unwanted bits like you're going through butter.

These knives really are very sharp, with excellent construction quality and they just look spectacular with the layered steel, hammered finish and gorgeous Zelkova (a species of elm) wooden handle. The wooden handle feels great in your hand and makes for a very light knife for easy and comfortable handling.

If you like the damascus layered steel look but don't like the artificially high prices by domestic knives and kitchen stores (we bring these in direct from Japan), this is a truly excellent choice. You get a super sharp and long-lasting VG-10 steel cutting core (this is a very hard steel and high quality knife steel, with a Rockwell hardness of approximately 60), with a 33-layer hammered stainless steel surface and a beautifully wooden handle.

Approx. weight: 81g

I'd recommend the fine ceramic hone for regular/daily maintenance of the edge. As with any knife, use the hone regularly and you'll keep the edge in good shape for a LONG time before you need to think about doing any serious "re-sharpening" or real grinding and refinishing of the edge.

NOTE: This knife is sharpened 50/50 (equally on the right and left side), so it's easy to maintain and fine for right or left hand use. If you look carefully at the edge, you'll see a slight right-side bias, this is just because the final edge is so tiny and because of the way they finish the edge; it has NO bearing on right- or left-hand use, sharpening or maintenance and can be ignored, so you should treat the edge just like any standard 50/50 edge. 

Please keep in mind that the handle is made of natural wood and so small imperfections at to be expected and are not considered defects.