Sakai Kyuba KYU Knife Set: Santoku, Nakiri, Petty
Quality in cut. Beauty in design. Drawing from a 600 year old blacksmithing tradition, the Sakai Kyuba 堺久馬 kitchen knife set is designed to intensify the pleasure of cooking. The three knives – Chef’s, Vegetable and Paring – are the only 3 knives you will ever need. Blades are set in premium-cut, waterproof stabilised maple burl wood dyed Mediterranean Blue. The knives come in a handcrafted, minimalist wooden box wrapped in a signature illustration strip. The set comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Lifetime warranty
All three blades, covered for life.
Free UK delivery
Included on every set.
100-day returns
Cook with the whole set. Send it back if it isn’t right.
Hand-finished box
Hanko-stamped certificate, 5 yen coin tucked alongside.
What's in the set
Three knives, chosen to cover a kitchen.
The Last Knife Set You'll Ever Need
The Sakai Kyuba Japanese kitchen knife set in Mediterranean Blue includes three knives, each perfectly balanced with optimal sharpness, precision and durability:
With these three quality Japanese knives you will be able to perform any cutting task in the kitchen with ease and efficiency. The Santoku, Nakiri and Petty are the only knives you will need. A set built to last for generations.
The Blades: Sharpness, Versatility and Tradition
The blades in this Japanese kitchen knife set are handcrafted by skilled Japanese blacksmiths in Sakai, Japan with premium Japanese AUS10 stainless steel. AUS10 is a stainless steel with a high carbon content, making it harder than most stainless steel types. With AUS10, you get the hardness of a carbon steel but the corrosion resistance of stainless. Hence, AUS10 steel offers an excellent balance between toughness, durability, and razor sharpness. The blades have a Rockwell Hardness rating (HRC) of 62, which means the edge stays noticeably sharper for longer, so you won’t have to sharpen them often. They are forged with 46 layers of Damascus steel, which is legendary for its plasticity, hardness and distinctive patterns.
The blades
Shared specifications.
| Weight | 1.7 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 45 × 10 × 6 cm |
| Maker | Oishya |
The hands that make it
Three knives. One workshop. One standard.
Every blade in the KYU set is forged in Sakai, Osaka, by a master blacksmith whose family has been at this work since 1927. Same AUS10 steel, same 46-layer hammered Damascus, the same standard across all three knives.
An AUS10 core in 46 hammered Damascus layers, hardened to HRC 62.
The handles are finished in Małopolska, Poland, by the same craftsmen who finish every Oishya handle: a stabilised maple burl body, a bog oak ferrule (the kakumaki), a hand-fitted copper ring, an octagonal profile. Assembled by hand, one knife at a time.
Care, briefly
Three knives. Same three habits.
01.
Hand wash all three.
Never the dishwasher. Sixty seconds at the sink, then a soft towel. Water on hard Japanese steel is the only thing that rusts it.
02.
Wood boards only.
Glass, stone and marble are harder than the steel and dull the edge in a week. End-grain hardwood is the right choice — hinoki cypress if you can find it.
03.
Sharpen on a stone.
Never a honing rod — the steel is too hard, it chips the edge. A 1000/6000 whetstone every three or four months keeps all three keen.
What you receive
In the box.
- The three knives in your set, each sharpened, oiled and wrapped in cloth.
- One hand-finished set box holding all three.
- A Certificate of Authenticity, hand-stamped with the maker’s hanko, naming the smith and certifying each blade.
- A 5 yen coin tucked alongside the knives. “Go en” — the Japanese for five yen — is the homophone for luck, connection and bond. Returning the coin to the giver turns the gift into a symbolic purchase, neutralising the old superstition that a knife as a gift cuts the bond between giver and receiver.
- A care card with the sixty-second wash routine and a link to Knife School.
- Your lifetime warranty, registered to you automatically on all three blades when the order ships.
Frequently asked.
Can I swap a knife in the set?
Are all three knives under the lifetime warranty?
How do I sharpen them?
Is gift wrapping included?
How long does shipping take?
What if the set isn't right?
From the people who cook with it
Reviews.
Love my knives! Beautiful and sharp, I love chopping with these!
I’ve been a homecook for 6 years now and it has always been a dream to own a high quality knife set and I can say that getting it from Oishya was a great decision. The knives are amazing on all fronts, their team is very easy to communicate with and every maintenance question you have will be answered.
So if you’re hesitating, DON’T!!
I have given Oishya 4/5 stars having only to do with wait time, not the knives themselves, or the customer service. The customer service was pretty excellent. Kamila stayed in touch with me, and was quite responsive to my emails inquiring about the order along the way. Given the ridiculous wait time, she graciously upgraded me to the RYU line of knives and, I have to say, I’ve never enjoyed such amazing knives in all my life. They’re perfectly balanced, light as a feather, and the strongest feeling blades I’ve ever wielded in the kitchen. And they’re of course works of art. I’m very gratified by the product and the service. However, the website suggested it would take about 6 weeks to get the knives. Although it worked out for me wonderfully in the end, 7 months is a fairly long time to wait these days. In any event, I regard these knives as amazing, the customer service attentive and responsive, but the wait time out of control. Nevertheless, I will be showing these knives off to my friends and will happily recommend them to everyone.
Although the procedure and waiting time were a little long, it was worth the waiting, for the quality of the bundle and the esthetic are both amazing. I can’t be more happy with the acquisition.
Superb knife set! Each piece is perfectly balanced and razor sharp. The oak wood handles are beautiful.
