A short journey into Japanese knives.
Five stops. About fifteen minutes. By the end you'll know which knife to reach for, what the steel actually does, how to hold one properly, and how to make it last decades. Walk it in order or jump to the stop that matters most to you.
Begin the journeyThe single most important lesson in this whole school.
The wrong knife on the wrong food is how home cooks cut themselves. Click any ingredient. We'll tell you what to reach for and what to leave in the block.
For onion
Reach for the Santoku or Gyuto.
Use
Avoid
Each one was invented for a specific job.
A two-minute tour of what each blade is for, and what each is not for.
Gyuto · 21–24cm
The Western chef's knife.
Longer, slightly curved. Built for the rocking cut. Versatile across vegetables, meat, fish. The one most chefs reach for first.
Best for: onions, cabbage, meat, chicken, almost anything with volume.
Shop our Gyutos →
Santoku · 16–18cm
The Japanese all-rounder.
“Three virtues”: vegetables, fish, meat. Slightly shorter than a Gyuto. Flatter edge. The knife most Japanese home cooks reach for first.
Best for: aubergine, tomato, herbs in volume, fish, weeknight prep.
Shop our Santokus →
Bunka · 18–21cm
The precision Santoku.
A Santoku with a sharper, reverse-tanto tip. For cooks who want one knife that handles bulk prep and detailed work in the same session.
Best for: fish, precise cuts, anything you want to do with a tip.
Shop our Bunkas →
Nakiri · 16–18cm
The vegetable specialist.
Rectangular, straight-edged. Designed for clean push-cuts. Goes through a head of cabbage or a stack of carrots in a way no other blade can match.
Best for: cabbage, julienne, plant-led cooks.
Shop our Nakiris →
Petty · 12–15cm
The small precision blade.
A paring knife. For small, detailed work in the hand or on the board. Most people own one and use it for the wrong thing.
Best for: garlic, shallots, peeling fruit, mincing small herbs.
Shop our Pettys →
Kiritsuke · 21–24cm
The traditional chef's blade.
A long Japanese chef's knife traditionally reserved for the most experienced cook. Combines chef-knife geometry with the angled K-tip of a slicer.
Best for: experienced cooks who want a blade with presence and precision both.
See it in the SHIN line →
Bread knife · 23.5cm
The bread specialist.
Long, serrated, hand-set teeth. The knife that takes a crusty loaf in one clean pass without compressing the crumb.
Best for: sourdough, baguettes, brioche, tomatoes (yes really).
See the PAN line →
Yanagiba · 24–33cm
The sashimi slicer.
Long, slim, single-bevel. Used in Japanese kitchens to cut sashimi and sushi cuts in a single uninterrupted pull-stroke that doesn't tear the flesh. Demands maintenance most home cooks don't want to give it.
Best for: sushi chefs and serious enthusiasts only. We don't sell it.
Deba · 15–21cm
The fish butcher.
Thick-spined, heavy, single-bevel. Built to break down whole fish — through small bones, around the spine, through the head. Too specialised for most home kitchens, and not gentle on a hand that isn't used to it.
Best for: cooks who break down whole fish from the market. We don't sell it.
Two families of steel. We chose one.
Before you look at named steels — there's a more important fork in the road.
High-carbon · Shirogami, Aogami
The traditional choice.
Pure carbon steels — white #2 (shirogami), blue #2 (aogami) — are what most Japanese masters used historically and what many sushi chefs still prefer. They take a sharper edge than any stainless, in absolute terms.
The trade-off is real. They rust within minutes if left wet. They develop a patina (some people love the look; others don't). They require oiling, careful drying, and a kitchen culture that respects the blade. Drop one in a sink with a wet sponge on top and you have a problem.
Best for: professional cooks and enthusiasts willing to baby a blade.
Stainless · What we make
The honest choice for a home kitchen.
Modern Japanese stainless steels — VG10, AUS10, SG2 powder — perform within a hair's width of high-carbon at peak sharpness. The gap exists, but it's smaller than the gap between a sharp Oishya and a dull one.
The advantage is the rest of the time. Wash it, dry it within the next few minutes, put it away. No rust. No patina. No oil. The same edge in five years that it had at the start, if you maintain it.
Best for: anyone who wants a Japanese knife that fits an actual cooking life.
Our six lines all use modern Japanese stainless. We made the call early. The cooks we make knives for are people who want the Japanese edge, not the Japanese maintenance routine. Here's what we put into each line.
AUS10
A Japanese stainless tool steel. Holds a good edge, stays sharp through a normal cooking week, resists rust. Used in our KYU line. The right starting point for cooks new to Japanese knives.
VG10
Probably the most famous Japanese kitchen steel. Sharper edge than AUS10. Used in our KATA and RYU lines. The mid-range workhorse.
12Cr18MoV
A modern stainless steel that performs similarly to VG10 but takes the rainbow Damascus pattern beautifully. Used in our NIJI line. The aesthetic choice.
SG2 / R2 powder steel
A powdered metallurgy steel. The grain structure is finer than conventional steel, which means the edge can be ground sharper and stays sharp for longer. Used in our SHIN line. The top of the range.
1K6 stainless
A carbon-rich Japanese steel chosen specifically for serrated blades. Tougher than thinner chef-knife steels. Used only in our PAN bread knife.
A short note on hardness
What HRC means, in one paragraph.
HRC = “Hardness Rockwell C.” Higher number, harder steel, sharper potential edge. A department-store knife is ~55 HRC. Most Japanese knives are 60-62. Ours are 60–64. The trade-off of harder steel: don't twist it through bone, don't drop it on stone. The hardness that holds the edge is what chips if you abuse it.
Two grips, learned in ten minutes. Used for the rest of your life.
The single biggest reason home cooks cut themselves is gripping wrong. These two corrections fix most of it.
The pinch grip
Pinch the blade just above the bolster with your thumb and forefinger. Wrap the other three fingers around the handle. The blade is held by the steel, not the wood. This is how every chef holds a knife, and the change you'll feel is instant.
The claw grip
Curl the fingers of your non-knife hand back like a claw. Knuckles touch the side of the blade. The flat of the blade slides up your knuckles, not into your fingertips. This is the single biggest reason home cooks cut themselves.
A Japanese knife should outlive you. Here's how to make sure it does.
Five things that ruin a Japanese knife within a year. Avoid all five and your blade will last decades.
- 01The dishwasher kills knives. Heat warps the handle, detergent corrodes the steel, other utensils chip the edge. Hand wash, sixty seconds at the sink, dry immediately with a soft towel.
- 02Wood boards only. Glass, stone, marble are harder than the steel and dull the edge in days. End-grain hardwood is the right choice. Hinoki cypress if you can find it.
- 03Never twist through bone. Hard steel is brittle steel. Use a heavier Western chef knife or a cleaver for anything that requires force. Japanese blades are for slicing, not levering.
- 04Store the blade alone. Loose in a drawer with other metal is the fastest way to chip. Use a magnetic strip, a block, or a saya sheath.
- 05Sharpen on a whetstone, never on a rod. Japanese knives are too hard for honing rods — the rod chips the edge instead of straightening it. A whetstone session every three or four months, or post the knife back to us and we'll sharpen it (the sharpening is on us, shipping both ways is on you).
Don't want to learn the stone? Post the knife back any time — the sharpening is on us, for life. You cover shipping both ways. Repairs (chips, handle work) are quoted separately.
A Japanese knife, cared for properly, will outlast you.
Everything you need to know to keep an Oishya at peak performance for thirty years. Four routines, four time horizons.
Daily · Sixty seconds at the sink
Wash, dry, store.
Every time you finish using the knife, wash it by hand with warm water, a soft sponge, and mild dish soap. Avoid abrasive pads, dishwasher detergent, and bleach. Sixty seconds.
Dry the blade immediately with a soft cotton towel. Water on high-carbon steel rusts within minutes. Wipe edge-down from spine to belly, never towards your fingers. Stand the knife on a rack so any moisture left in the handle runs off.
Store it on a magnetic strip, in a knife block, or in a saya sheath. Never loose in a drawer where the edge meets other metal.
Occasionally · A drop of oil on the wood
Feed the handle. It's a piece of wood.
The handle on every Oishya knife is real wood — maple burl and bog oak, separated by a hand-fitted copper ring. Like every wooden object in your kitchen, it slowly dries out. An occasional oiling — once or twice a year, or whenever the wood looks like it's lost its glow — keeps the handle sealed against water and looking the way it did when you unwrapped it.
Use a food-safe oil. Camellia oil is the traditional Japanese choice. A tablespoon of mineral oil or a beeswax-mineral oil blend also works fine. Avoid olive oil and other cooking oils — they go rancid.
Wipe a few drops onto the handle with a soft cloth. Let it soak in for ten minutes. Wipe off the excess. Done.
A few times a year · The whetstone session
Learn the stone. It's the practice the knife depends on.
Japanese knives are not honed on a steel or ceramic rod. The steel is harder than a Western blade (HRC 60–64), which means a honing rod doesn't realign the edge — it chips it. Pull-through sharpeners are worse: they reshape the geometry of a knife somebody spent three months making. The water stone is the only tool the steel was built for, and once you've done it twice, the whole thing takes fifteen minutes.
What you need. One combination water stone, 1000/6000 grit (we sell the King HT-65 PRO and recommend nothing else for a first stone). The rubber base that comes with it. A bowl of water. A soft cotton towel. About twenty minutes the first time, half that after.
The method, in short. Soak the stone for fifteen minutes — bubbles tell you it's done. Put it on its base on a stable counter. Hold the blade at a 15-degree angle (about two pound coins stacked under the spine). Pinch grip on the handle, fingertips of your other hand flat on the blade controlling pressure. Push the edge across the stone from heel to tip with steady pressure; lift on the return. Ten to fifteen strokes on the 1000 side.
Feel for the burr. Run your fingertip perpendicular to the edge on the back of the blade. A tiny rough ridge means you've moved metal — that's the burr, and it's the only proof you've actually sharpened. Flip the knife and do the same number of strokes on the other side. Then turn the stone over and do eight to ten lighter strokes per side on the 6000 grit. The slurry that comes up is the polish doing its work — don't wipe it away.
The five mistakes to skip. Pressing too hard (the steel is hard, force won't help). Lifting the angle “to be safe” (rounds the edge). Skipping the soak. Wiping the slurry away. Working a single spot too long instead of moving along the blade. Avoid all five and your edge will pass the tomato test — the skin parts under the weight of the blade alone, no pressure from your hand.
After the session, rinse the stone, stand it on edge to dry, and put it away only once it's air-dried both sides. Once a year or so, when the surface dishes slightly, flatten it on wet-and-dry sandpaper or send it back to us.
If you can't, we can. Post the knife back any time — the sharpening is on us, you cover shipping both ways. We'd rather you learn the stone, because the practice is part of owning the knife. But the option exists.
As needed · The repair service
If something goes wrong, send it back.
Even a well-cared-for knife eventually meets a frozen vegetable, a stone counter, or a clumsy drawer. When that happens, don't try to fix it yourself. Send it to us.
We repair chips in the blade, re-fit loosened handles, re-profile worn edges, re-polish corroded surfaces, and replace any element that fails. The work is done in our European workshop by the same craftsmen who finished the knife in the first place. Repairs are quoted on inspection — most are modest, none are mysterious.
Send-back instructions, packaging guidance, and the return form live on our repair page. You cover shipping both ways. Sharpening on a returned knife is on us, for life.
The kit
Four things worth owning.
King 1000/6000
Japanese whetstone
Two grits in one. The whetstone most home cooks should own first. From £80.
Hinoki or walnut
The right cutting surface
Japanese Hiba cypress (the family of woods often called hinoki) or European walnut. Both softer than the blade, both keep the edge alive. From £75.
Counter-top
Magnetic knife stand block
Hand-finished oak or walnut block with hidden neodymium magnets. Holds up to seven knives by the spine, never the edge. From £140.
Wall-mounted
Magnetic knife strips
For kitchens where counter space is precious. Steel, copper, or brass on an oak or walnut backing, made by the same maker as the stand block. From £140.