Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef Santoku Knife, 180mm / 7"

An excellent choice as your main go-to knife for home or professional use, and a GREAT value! This size and the super-popular santoku shape just feels great and balanced and easy to hold and handle. It's the idea size for home use, and many pros are now using santokus so it's not out of the question for a working chef or culinary school student. The straighter edge, shorter length and wider blade (compared to a traditional European-style chef's knife) mean you don't need to use a rocking motion much (and most of us at home don't do this anyway), and it's very easy to use and very sharp and quick-cutting. The handle is just the right size for the blade and the fit and finish are excellent, making this a fantastic value for someone looking for a quality true Japanese made santoku with high quality steel. Made of hard and long lasting special alloy stainless steel from Uddeholm Sweden. This is a an extremely sharp knife that will be sure to offer years of pleasure in the kitchen.

All Grand Chef series knives are made from high quality Bohler N685 stainless steel. This is a martensitic chromium stainless steel with added molybdenum and vanadium, which results in high hardness and good wear resistance, with excellent corrosion resistance -- an ideal steel for durable and sharp kitchen knives! Grand Chef blades are hard and tough with long lasting edges. HRC approx. 59-60 for sharpness and ease of maintenance and sharpening.

I'd recommend the fine ceramic hone (see below) 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 mostly on the right side, which means it's not really suitable for left-handed use.