Takeda Nakiri Review
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:38 am
After originally planning to purchase a Takeda knife through CKTG I had to find an alternative due to the shipping costs from the US to Australia. In the end I purchased mine from Shosui Takeda himself due to the more direct shipping, but I'd still like to thank Mark for his excellent advice.
The knife arrived in a much sharper condition than I'm use to from Japanese smiths, there was absolutely no need to sharpen the finished product. There has been a lot of talk about Takeda grinds and after testing on a range of different vegetables I feel like it's partially misguided. This Nakiri won't go easily through a large sweet potato (trust me I've tried), in that regard it's a "wedge monster". It will however mince a broken down sweet potato into a mash suitable for a hash brown in no time at all. It will also dice a large onion into 2.5mm cubes with absolutely perfect food release. I'm still getting use to using a nakiri but I'm finding for non-hard vegetables I can complete my prep work in about 1/2 the time compared to using my usual carbon steel gyuto.
This isn't an all purpose knife, and I suspect that even if I'd purchased the Takeda gyuto I'd still need something more suitable for large hard vegetables. The reason why I'm recommending this knife is that it's fun, you won't get the same enjoyment making chicken stock with any other knife.
Now for the downsides. It takes a while to get the hang of this knife on any board, the edge tends to cut into the board which provides resistance. The lacquer that comes on the knife can make the blade edge look terrible in certain conditions. Being a nakiri it's not suited for protein, I have used it to split beef cuts like top blade, but my gyuto doesn't dig into the board while performing the same task.
Overall, this knife is fun. I don't think anyone "needs" a nakiri if they have a gyuto, but using this knife for prep work on a large quantity of veggies is a completely different experience.
Side notes: Have used a Shun Nakiri before which didn't suit me.
The knife arrived in a much sharper condition than I'm use to from Japanese smiths, there was absolutely no need to sharpen the finished product. There has been a lot of talk about Takeda grinds and after testing on a range of different vegetables I feel like it's partially misguided. This Nakiri won't go easily through a large sweet potato (trust me I've tried), in that regard it's a "wedge monster". It will however mince a broken down sweet potato into a mash suitable for a hash brown in no time at all. It will also dice a large onion into 2.5mm cubes with absolutely perfect food release. I'm still getting use to using a nakiri but I'm finding for non-hard vegetables I can complete my prep work in about 1/2 the time compared to using my usual carbon steel gyuto.
This isn't an all purpose knife, and I suspect that even if I'd purchased the Takeda gyuto I'd still need something more suitable for large hard vegetables. The reason why I'm recommending this knife is that it's fun, you won't get the same enjoyment making chicken stock with any other knife.
Now for the downsides. It takes a while to get the hang of this knife on any board, the edge tends to cut into the board which provides resistance. The lacquer that comes on the knife can make the blade edge look terrible in certain conditions. Being a nakiri it's not suited for protein, I have used it to split beef cuts like top blade, but my gyuto doesn't dig into the board while performing the same task.
Overall, this knife is fun. I don't think anyone "needs" a nakiri if they have a gyuto, but using this knife for prep work on a large quantity of veggies is a completely different experience.
Side notes: Have used a Shun Nakiri before which didn't suit me.