Yoshimitsu Hamono Black-forged Santoku 165mm Aogami Super

The santoku knife is the all rounder for the home kitchen, with a blade length and profile well suited to end-preparation meat and fish-cutting tasks and the kind of vegetable preparation that makes up for most of the cutting work in a Japanese home kitchen. Think sengiri, think rangiri, think vegetables for the pot. If you remember that we use chopsticks in Japan and that most of our meals and dishes are presented with the cutting already done then you'll have some insight into why the santoku is a very common knife for the Japanese home.

Yoshimitsu Hamono's black-forged Aogami Super santoku is anything but common. Premium cutlery steel affixed to a high-grade handle in Japanese cherry. The fully capped ferrule is a wonder - how do they do it? Whatever dark magic, it completes this beautifully executed knife in a very satisfying way.