Okubo Kajiya Nakiri-bocho 180mm Aogami #2

Start and end of the Nakiri search?

Posted by Daniel on 18th Mar 2024

TL;DR: excellent knife, maker and service by Knife Japan.

I’m a first-time Nakiri User, so I can’t compare the knife to other Nakiris. But this is a very good entry into the world of Nakiris - maybe even the end? Time will tell.

First off: I wanted some additional length for the knife. Michael was patient and a pleasure to work with, as he made some additional choil shots of different Nakiris and wrote a comparison for the ones he thought would fit to my request. He also pointed out that Okubo-San could also make a Nakiri with less height or any thing with specifications between the two Nakiris Michael offers as a custom design. At the end, I settled with the regular model. Okubo-San will know best what interaction of length and height will work best.

The delivery to Central Europe was alright, due to the weekend I had to wait a full week. But this was just due to DHL - Michael did his best (including roughly 17 layers of packaging material) and forwarded it directly after he received it from Okubo-San.

So here’s the summary of the knife after 2 weeks:
The first cuts were a bit strange because of the height. My other knives are at least one centimeter smaller and I needed some time do adopt. But this resolved easily after the initial familiarization.
This knife is not a laser, but more of a workhorsy knife. Therefore, the weight can aid in cutting harder stuff like thick carrots, celery roots or your personal rhizome of choice. The performance with leafy vegetables is also excellent. I have not yet sharpened it, because the initial OOTB sharpness and the edge retention is excellent. The steel has a high hardness but still is tough enough to avoid any chipping.

Fit and finish are good, the KU-finish is stunning and durable. The chestnut handle is nicely made and feels comfortable. The finish of the blade is a bit rough, but some sanding paper could erase the grind marks. Or some JNats of course ;-) For me, those are not impacting the performance and maybe I will erase them during the first sharpening session. The choil and edges are not really rounded, but not too edgy and do not impact the handling. Okubo-San knows what he does.

The most important part, the edge itself, is very well made. No annoying bad spots on either side and cutting performance is consistent along the whole edge.

Food release is good - cucumbers for example stick to the blade, but I don’t think any standard convex knife will release such stuff directly to the cutting board. Carrots and potatoes on the other side are easily released.

All in all, I think this is an high value knife and the performance is excellent. Of course, there are better finished knives around , but not for this price tag. Performance-wise I don’t think there are many better knives for the price and even knives which cost 2-3 times might struggle to compete with this Nakiri. Since there is also the option to have a knife build to your own preferences, there are a ton of possibilities.