Shun Premier Utility Santoku 18cm (7")

Both are all-purpose Japanese knives, and for most home cooks 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.

KAI, the company behind Shun, says VG-MAX builds on the VG10 formula with more carbon for strength and durability, additional chromium for wear and corrosion resistance, and increased tungsten, which it says makes the steel very fine-grained so the edge can be extremely sharp.

KAI attributes corrosion resistance and strength to molybdenum, and impact resistance and carbide formation to vanadium. KAI uses VG-MAX in its Shun Classic and Premier series.

Shun Premier is made with a VG-MAX steel core clad in Damascus, and KAI calls VG-MAX Shun's own formula for edge retention, durability and corrosion resistance.

KAI's European site lists the series as made in Japan.

KAI says the hammered finish (tsuchime) makes the blade stronger, and that added strength allows a thinner grind.

KAI's European site adds that the hammered surface helps food come off the blade, thanks to the air pockets it creates.

Yes, KAI launched its premium knife line Shun in 2000. KAI traces its history to 1908, when Saijiro Endo began making pocket knives, and the company was established in Seki, Gifu, in 1920.

Seki Magoroku is also a KAI brand. KAI says it carries the craft and spirit of the swordsmith Seki no Magoroku into modern knifemaking, fused with KAI's own technology, and its top tier is the Master Line.

Imayo (いまよう) is a series inside KAI's Seki Magoroku line. KAI describes it as a high-hardness blade body that takes a three-step edge, set up for sharpness that keeps going for a long time. It is one of the series on the Seki Magoroku knives page.

KAI's knives page lists Imayo alongside the all-stainless 10000ST and 匠創, the stainless three-layer 茜, the 10000CC in carbon steel, a 32-layer Damascus and the Master Line 要.