Yoshihiro AUS-10 Uzushio Damascus Nakiri 165mm

Part of the edge never reaches the board, so the cut never finishes. At our counter we put it simply: there is not enough flat at the heel. A knife with a long curve is built for rock chopping, not for the Chinese or Eastern up-and-down chop.

A straight edge, like a nakiri's, meets the board along its whole length and finishes the cut. On any knife, a dip worn near the heel or a dull section can cause the same thing.

The bevel. A Japanese dictionary describes the nakiri (菜切包丁) as shaped like an usuba but double-bevel and relatively easy to handle; the Sakai cutlery association describes the usuba (薄刃包丁) as an acute, wide knife for vegetables, in a square Kanto type and a kamagata Kansai type.

The names overlap, since another dictionary records the usuba as also called nakiri, so check the bevel rather than the name.

We suggest AUS-10 as a sound stainless for an easy-care first knife, not a budget compromise. Aichi Steel, which makes it, groups AUS-10 with AUS-6M and AUS-8 as the grades that add more carbon, plus vanadium and molybdenum, to improve hardness, wear resistance and tempering resistance.

We stock it in our K&S AUS10 Monosteel line and the Yoshihiro AUS-10 Uzushio Damascus line. Stainless means 10.5% or more chromium and rusts less, the JSSA says, so wash and dry it after use.

Yamawaki Hamono (株式会社山脇刃物製作所), a Sakai knife company founded in 1927, makes them: Yoshihiro is its main brand and carries the name of the Kamakura-period swordsmith Goh Umanosuke Yoshihiro (郷右馬允義弘).

Its company page says the firm makes and sells mainly high-end kitchen knives for professional cooks, as well as knives for homes and cooking schools.