The Quiet Revolution

There is a quiet revolution going on in the world of kitchen cutlery. It isn't fueled by technology or by mass marketing. It is fueled by craftsmanship that goes back centuries.

Last year U.S. sales of kitchen cutlery imported from Japan enjoyed more than a 300 percent increase over the prior year. The rest of the kitchen cutlery industry had a decline in sales. The reason is that the manufacturing principles of ancient Japanese sword makers is being applied to the kinds of knives we use every day and the result is cutlery that simply works better.

The famous "katana" or war sword of the ancient samurai featured a thinner blade made from harder steel than swords made in other parts of the world. Because the steel was harder, it was possible to sharpen the edge to a more acute angle so that it would cut more effectively. Such an edge wouldn't hold up on the softer steels used in Western swords. Even today, we Westerners tend to view the ancient Katana as the state of the art for a weapon of its day.

So what does the katana have to do with modern cutlery? In Japan, they continue to make some of their traditional knives in a manner similar to that of the old war sword and these models are the most prized by Japanese cooks. But cooks in the West aren't accustomed to using the yanagi, usuba, deba and other patterns of traditional Japanese cutlery. We prefer to use the chef's knife, the slicer, the parer and so on. With the development of some of the high-tech stainless steels in Japan and elsewhere, the Japanese cutlers have been developing high quality Western style knives with thin, hard, stainless steel blades that cut better than ours do. The ancient war sword technology has been updated to fit into the needs of the modern Western kitchen.

The thin, hard blades designed into Japanese knives provide three advantages. The first is that the harder steel can support a sharper edge as we mentioned. The second is that the thinner blade is lighter so it tends to produce less fatigue. The third is that it is easier to balance the thinner blade so contraptions like the long full bolsters on forged European knives aren't necessary. High quality Japanese knives have smaller bolsters that don't get in the way of the heel of the blade. That makes the blades significantly easier to sharpen and maintain.

The Japanese refer to our chef's knife as the gyuto and here are some examples of a few of the excellent gyutos that are available to the Western cook.

At the top is the Shun 707 10" chef's knife distributed by Kershaw in the United States. It has a laminated blade with VG-10 stainless steel in the interior that is hardened to 60 on the Rockwell C scale. That's harder than the kitchen knife blades made in Europe or the U.S. The exterior of the lamination is soft, forge welded stainless steel that provides an attractive "damascus" pattern and also serves to provide toughness to the thin interior portion of the blade. It has a resin-impregnated laminated wood handle and a tiny bolster. The author often uses this product as a bread knife - no serrations required.

The second knife is the Misono UX-10 240mm gyuto. It has a thin 9 ½" blade made from one of the Swedish wonder steels that is also hardened to RC60. The small bolster and handle are enough to balance this knife to perfection. This is the author's favorite chef's knife and is used every day. It is lighter than a forged European 8" chef's knife so it provides a light feel with the advantages a longer blade provides for chopping, dicing and mincing.

The knife at the bottom is the popular Global G2 8" chef's knife. It has no bolster at all but the hollow handle allows the manufacturer to put enough sand inside to balance the knife to perfection. It is quite light and maneuverable. One might compare it to a sports car while Western knives might be more like family sedans.

Recently a race for blade hardness has become apparent in the Japanese knife industry. One of the new wonder steels, Hitachi's ZDP-189 was designed specifically for knife blades and is capable of being hardened to RC65. Cowry Y can even be hardened to RC67. That is very hard indeed. These kinds of numbers were unheard of just a couple of years ago in stainless steel products. The Japanese makers have also begun making their traditional patterns with these new ultra high technology stainless steels.

So are you ready to move from the heavy European knives made for durability to the newer Japanese knives made for performance? Let's discuss the downside before you make a decision.

There are some issues involved in owning and using knives like these. The first is that acute bevel angle. The owner should understand that most commercial knife sharpening services are set up to grind 20 degree bevels to restore knife edges. This is appropriate for Western knives with softer steel but won't restore the original sharpness of the Japanese knives. They can handle angles of 15 degrees or even less. So if you can't or won't sharpen your own knives, you will need to find a sharpening service that can accommodate this type of edge. Sharpening the knives is really not a problem. Even though the edges are harder, they are thinner so maintenance is similar to what you might expect in a Western knife. You can steel them between sharpenings in the same manner as a Western knife.

The ultra hardness of some of these blades makes the edges somewhat more brittle and delicate. That means you shouldn't throw these knives into a drawer with other knives. The result could be chipped edges. Knives like these should have proper storage like a wood block or magnetic storage strip or the use of some kind of cover over the edge. Every good quality knife should have good storage but it's more important with the newer Japanese products.

The alloys used to make these harder blades are somewhat less stain resistant than those on Western knives. You must keep them out of the dishwasher or they will spot. No good quality knife should ever go into the dishwasher but it's doubly important with these.

So, if you are ready to make the plunge be sure to visit your local cutlery or Gourmet store and check them out. Choose the one that feels best to you. If you can't find them locally, they are easy to find on the internet. www.japanese-knife.com has a broad assortment of both high quality traditional Japanese knives and Western style products. The author's website at www.thegoodgourmet.com also has a good selection of Japanese knives.