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Knife School
A short course in Japanese knives.
Which knife to reach for, what the steel does, how to hold one and how to keep it sharp for decades. Walk it in order or jump to the stop you need.
Stop 1 of 5
Which knife for which job?
Most kitchen cuts happen with the wrong blade. Pick an ingredient and we’ll tell you what to reach for, and what to leave on the rack.
Stop 2 of 5
The blade types, and what each is for.
Seven shapes we make, and two we don’t. Each was invented for a particular job.
The Japanese chef’s knife.
Long, with a gently curved edge for rocking and slicing. Versatile across vegetables, meat and fish.
Best for: onions, cabbage, meat, poultry, anything with volume.
Shop GyutosThe Japanese all-rounder.
“Three virtues”: vegetables, fish and meat. Shorter than a Gyuto, with a flatter edge and a rounded tip.
Best for: weeknight prep, tomatoes, aubergine, herbs.
Shop SantokusThe all-rounder with a point.
A Santoku-like blade with a sharp reverse-tanto tip, for bulk prep and detailed work in the same session.
Best for: fine cuts, fish, anything you want to do with a tip.
Shop BunkasThe vegetable specialist.
Rectangular and straight-edged, for clean push-cuts through a whole cabbage or a stack of carrots.
Best for: cabbage, julienne, plant-led cooking.
Shop NakirisThe small precision blade.
A Japanese paring knife for detailed work in the hand or on the board.
Best for: garlic, shallots, peeling fruit, trimming.
Shop PettysThe traditional chef’s blade.
A long, flat chef’s knife with an angled tip. Traditionally the knife of the most experienced cook in the kitchen.
Best for: confident cooks who want reach and precision.
See it in SHINThe bread specialist.
Long, with a serrated edge set by hand. Takes a crusty loaf in one pass without crushing the crumb.
Best for: sourdough, baguettes, brioche, and tomatoes.
See PANThe sashimi slicer. Not in our range.
Long, slim and single-bevel, for slicing raw fish in one pull without tearing it.
Best for: sushi chefs and dedicated enthusiasts.
The fish butcher. Not in our range.
Thick-spined and heavy, for breaking down whole fish through small bones.
Best for: cooks who buy whole fish at the market.
Knife School by email
Prefer it in small doses?
Five short lessons, a few days apart, straight to your inbox. Written by us, read in two minutes.
- Which knife for which job
- Two grips that prevent most cuts
- The steel, and what it won’t forgive
- Your first whetstone session
- Making a knife last a lifetime
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After the course, one letter a month from the workshops, and 5% off your first order. Unsubscribe in one click.
Stop 3 of 5
What the steel actually does.
Before the named steels, there’s a bigger fork in the road: carbon or stainless.
The traditional choice.
White #2 and blue #2 carbon steels take a very fine edge and are still favoured by many professional cooks.
They rust if left wet, develop a patina and need oiling and careful drying. For cooks happy to look after a blade every time they use it.
The practical choice for a home kitchen.
Modern Japanese stainless steels come very close to carbon at their sharpest, and keep their looks without the routine.
Wash it, dry it, put it away. No rust, no patina, no oil on the blade. All six of our lines are stainless.
| Steel | What it is | Hardness | Our line |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS10 | A Japanese stainless steel that takes a keen edge and resists rust. Here, folded inside 46 hammered Damascus layers. | HRC 62 | KYU |
| VG10 | The best-known Japanese kitchen steel, with good edge retention and corrosion resistance. | HRC 60–62 | KATA, RYU |
| 12Cr18MoV | A stainless core that sits inside NIJI’s 37 layers of steel, brass and copper. | HRC 62–63 | NIJI |
| SG2 / R2 | A powder metallurgy steel with a very fine grain, so the edge can be ground sharper and lasts longer. | HRC 63–64 | SHIN |
| 1K6 | A carbon-rich Japanese steel chosen for serrated blades, tough under the drag of bread cutting. | HRC 59–60 | PAN |
Hardness, in one line.
HRC is the Rockwell C scale. A higher number means harder steel that takes a finer edge and holds it longer, and that chips if it’s twisted through bone or dropped on stone.
Typical Western knife59–60
PAN60–62
KATA62
KYU · RYU63–64
SHIN
Stop 4 of 5
Two grips. Ten minutes to learn, used for life.
Most kitchen cuts come from how the knife and the food are held. These two habits fix most of it.
The knife hand
The pinch grip
- Pinch the blade just in front of the handle, between your thumb and the side of your index finger.
- Wrap the other three fingers around the handle.
- You’re holding the steel, not the wood. Control comes from the pinch, not from squeezing.
The guiding hand
The claw grip
- Curl the fingertips of your other hand back, like a claw.
- Rest your knuckles against the flat of the blade.
- Move the claw back as you cut. The blade travels along your knuckles, never towards your fingertips.
Stop 5 of 5
How to make it last decades.
Five habits. Keep them and the knife will outlast most things in your kitchen.
Heat, detergent and other cutlery damage the handle and the edge. Hand wash and dry straight away.
Glass, stone and marble are harder than the steel and dull the edge in days.
Hard steel slices beautifully and chips if levered. Use a cleaver for bones.
A magnetic stand, a rack or a sheath. Never loose in a drawer with other metal.
Japanese steel is too hard for honing rods. A stone session a few times a year keeps it sharp.
Wash, dry, put away.
Warm water, a soft sponge and a little washing-up liquid. No scourers, no bleach, no dishwasher.
Dry it straight away with a soft cotton towel, wiping from spine to edge, away from your fingers. Then put it on a magnetic stand or rack, or in its sheath.
A drop of oil on the wood.
The handle is stabilised maple burl and bog oak, so it’s sealed against water. A little food-safe oil keeps it looking the way it did on the first day.
Camellia oil is the traditional choice; mineral oil works too. Avoid cooking oils, which go rancid. A few drops on a soft cloth, ten minutes to soak in, wipe off the excess.
Your first whetstone session.
- Soak a 1000/6000 combination stone until the bubbles stop, about fifteen minutes.
- Hold the blade at about 15 degrees: roughly two coins stacked under the spine.
- Pinch grip on the handle, fingertips of the other hand on the blade. Push from heel to tip, ten to fifteen strokes on the 1000 side.
- Feel for the burr, a tiny ridge on the other side of the edge. Then repeat on the second side.
- Turn the stone and finish with lighter strokes on the 6000 side. Leave the slurry; it’s doing the polishing.
Done right, a tomato skin parts under the weight of the blade alone.
If you’d rather not, we will.
Every Oishya knife comes with lifetime sharpening: send it to us and we sharpen it. You cover the shipping both ways.
Chips, broken tips and loose handles are repaired in our workshop in Poland, quoted before any work starts.
/contact-us/For the kitchen drawer
The one-page care card.
Everything on this page, on a single printable card: the five habits, the whetstone steps and the handle routine. Leave your email and it’s yours, along with the rest of Knife School.
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After the course, one letter a month from the workshops, and 5% off your first order. Unsubscribe in one click.
The kit
Four things worth owning.
Two grits in one block. The stone to own first.
Cutting boardsHiba and walnutWoods softer than the blade, so the edge stays keen.
StorageMagnetic knife standOak or walnut, holds up to six knives by the spine.
StorageWall racks50 or 70 cm, in oak or walnut, for kitchens short on counter space.
Course complete
You now know more about Japanese knives than most people who own one.
The next step is choosing yours. Answer a few questions and we’ll suggest a knife and a line, or compare all six side by side.
Keep learning
One letter a month from the workshops.
Stories from Sakai and Seki, a recipe worth keeping, and the five-lesson Knife School to start. 5% off your first order as a welcome.
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