Sakai Kyuba KYU Vegetable Knife 16cm Nakiri
Quality in cut. Beauty in design. Drawing from a 600 year old blacksmithing tradition, the Sakai Kyuba 堺久馬 Nakiri knife is designed to intensify the pleasure of cooking. The Nakiri is perfect for more fleshy vegetables and fruit like potatoes or butternut squash. The sharp blade is set in premium-cut, waterproof stabilised maple burl wood dyed Mediterranean Blue. The knife comes in a handcrafted, minimalist wooden box wrapped in a signature illustration strip. Backed by a lifetime guarantee.
Lifetime warranty
Every knife we have ever made, covered for life.
Free UK delivery
Included on every order over £90.
100-day returns
Use it for three months. Send it back if it isn’t right.
Hand-finished box
Hanko-stamped certificate, 5 yen coin tucked alongside.
Why this knife
The blade, and the thinking behind it.
The Nakiri
The Japanese Nakiri knife is designed for cutting vegetables. It features a thin, wide blade and squared-off tips. Its double bevel makes it perfect for both left and right-handed use. Thanks to its sharp straight blade, the Nakiri can cut through long items (think eggplants, carrots) with ease, as well as make super thin, precise slices of cucumber, bitter gourd, tomatoes and the like. It is also a great tool for cutting into hard-skinned produce like pumpkins and squash.
An indispensable knife for any veggie lover.
The Blade
The blade is 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. 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 blade has a Rockwell Hardness rating (HRC) of 62, which means the edge stays noticeably sharper for longer, so you won’t have to sharpen it often. It is forged with 46 layers of Damascus steel, which is legendary for its plasticity, hardness and distinctive patterns.
The hands that make it
Sakai. Six hundred years of blade-making.
Sakai, in Osaka, is the birthplace of the traditional Japanese kitchen knife — a craft passed down for six hundred years, descended from the methods used to forge samurai swords. KYU is the flagship of our range, forged there by a master blacksmith whose family has been at this work since 1927. We make his blades under the name Sakai Kyuba.
The steel is AUS10, folded into 46 hammered Damascus layers and hardened to HRC 62. Each blade passes through around two hundred and twenty separate steps over roughly three months — the forging, folding, quenching, grinding, polishing and sharpening all done by hand, on a small scale.
The handle is finished in Małopolska, Poland, by craftsmen who shape every one by hand: a stabilised maple burl body and a bog oak ferrule — the kakumaki. Blade and handle meet at a single hand-fitted copper ring, set with a soft tap of a wooden mallet, in an octagonal profile.
Care, briefly
Three habits, and it outlasts you.
01.
Hand wash, dry immediately.
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 it keen.
What you receive
In the box.
- The knife, sharpened, oiled, wrapped in cloth.
- A hand-finished box for the knife.
- A Certificate of Authenticity, hand-stamped with the maker’s hanko, naming the smith and certifying the blade.
- A 5 yen coin tucked alongside. “Go en” — the Japanese for five yen — is the homophone for luck, connection and bond. Returning the coin to the giver turns the gift-knife 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 when the order ships.
Frequently asked.
Is it dishwasher safe?
How often will I need to sharpen it?
Can I use it to cut meat?
How long does shipping take?
What if it isn't right for my kitchen?
From the people who cook with it
Reviews.
This Nakiri is a game-changer for vegetable prep. Super sharp and well-balanced.
The Nakiri is exceptional for vegetable prep.
This knife has transformed my cooking experience.
The Nakiri makes vegetable prep a joy.
The best veggie knife I own!
Not sure this is the one?
Take two minutes.
Six questions about the way you actually cook. We’ll point you to the knife that fits.