Sakai Takayuki Ginga ZA-18 Damascus Santoku 180mm

Both are all-purpose Japanese knives, and either will handle the bulk of daily prep. The choice comes down to length, blade shape, and how you like to cut.

A gyuto is the Japanese chef's knife, with a gently curved edge that lets you rock and slide through cuts as well as chop. Tojiro's guide to Western knife shapes gives 150 to 210mm as the household size for a gyuto and up to 360mm for professional use. The extra length and pointed tip give you reach and versatility, from proteins to large produce.

Tojiro's guide to Japanese knife shapes gives 165 to 170mm as the household size for a santoku, which has a flatter profile and a rounded sheep's-foot tip. It rewards a straight up-and-down push cut, feels nimble in smaller hands or tight kitchens, and is the classic Japanese household knife.

Rule of thumb: choose a gyuto if you want one do-everything knife with more reach, or a santoku if you prefer a compact, easy-to-control blade. Plenty of our customers end up owning both.

Match the shape to your stroke. Rock chopping keeps the tip on the board and rolls the curved belly through the food, so a gyuto or a Western chef's knife suits it, and Japanese knives rock fine as long as you rock gently.

Up-and-down chopping, the Chinese style, wants a straight run of edge, so a nakiri, usuba, santoku or bunka suits it better; a curved edge chopped straight down easily leaves pieces joined. Neither shape is better; it depends on how you cut.

A Japanese dictionary explains the name of the santoku (三徳包丁) as coming from the three things it handles: meat, fish and vegetables. The same dictionary entry points from the santoku to the bunka (文化包丁), treating the two as one knife.

One Japanese knife maker guide distinguishes the two by the tip. It says that in the Showa era the bunka was made with its tip cut at an angle, and the santoku came after it by rounding that tip.

Sakai Takayuki (堺孝行) is a brand of Aoki Hamono Seisakusho (青木刃物製作所) in Sakai, Osaka, and the company's own page says so directly. The trademarks for 堺孝行 and 堺菊孝 were registered in 1964.

The company started in Tondabayashi, Osaka, in 1947 as a wholesaler of Sakai forged knives, moved its office to Sakai in 1963, and built its Sanpo factory in Sakai in 1977. So when you see the Sakai Takayuki name, that is Aoki Hamono's own line.

Sakai Takayuki knives are made by Aoki Hamono Seisakusho and its craftsmen in Sakai, Osaka. The company's own traditional-craftsman page profiles its named Sakai smiths.

Sakai works by division of labour: forging, grinding and sharpening are each done by a different specialist. Aoki Hamono's Sanpo factory, home to its smiths and sharpeners since 1978, added an automatic grinding machine for Japanese knives in 2015.

A honyaki is water quenched with sword-style hardening, so it usually runs about 1 to 2 HRC harder than a comparable knife that is not honyaki, though that varies by maker. The quench has a high failure rate, and that craft is a large part of the price.

A honyaki also needs more care. If your kitchen is busy, an everyday line such as the 33-layer or 45-layer VG10 Damascus, which share a VG10 core and differ mostly in looks, is the easier choice; if you want a harder edge and the craft itself, a honyaki can suit you.