ZDP-189 steel pros and cons for kitchen knives

ZDP-189 holds an edge longer than any other steel we sell. The price is a blade that chips more easily, takes a long time to sharpen and is only modestly rust resistant. It's a specialist's steel, and we wouldn't make it your first Japanese knife, or your second.

The good:

• Edge life. In Knife Steel Nerds' CATRA testing it lasted about 162% as long as 440C, well past SG2. On a board full of meat and tendon it keeps cutting long after most stainless knives have gone dull.
• Hardness. Makers run it at 63 to 66 HRC, so it takes and holds a very fine edge.
• Bite. Roughly 30% of the steel is chromium carbide, more of it and coarser than in SG2, and you can feel the edge grip fibrous protein.

The bad:

• Chipping. At that hardness it won't forgive bone, frozen food, a twist in the cut or a glass board.
• Sharpening. We find it slow on most waterstones, with vague feedback, and much happier on a diamond plate. Given the choice, we'd rather not sharpen it at all.
• Rust. The spec sheet says about 20% chromium, but the 3% carbon ties most of that up in carbides. Larrin Thomas's modelling puts the chromium left in the steel near 6.5%, and in his water test a ZDP-189 sample rusted inside eight hours while SG2 and VG10 stayed clean. Treat it as stainless, not stainproof, and dry it straight after use.
• Price. When we have it, our ZDP-189 knives run from about A$440 to A$800 (October 2026).

It suits a cook who already sharpens on stones, cuts a lot of protein and treats knives gently. For most people SG2 is the better buy. We call SG2 the goldilocks of high-performance cutlery steels: a little softer than ZDP-189, but tougher, more stainless and far easier to keep sharp. Our SG2 vs ZDP-189 page has the full comparison.

ZDP-189 comes and goes in our range. When it's in, it's Hatsukokoro's Hayabusa line and Sukenari's Hairline line.