Santoku vs Nakiri: Which One Do You Actually Need?
The santoku and the nakiri look almost the same: tall, flat-edged, no dramatic point. That resemblance is why people put them head to head. But they are not really alternatives to each other. One is a knife for your whole kitchen, and the other is a knife for one part of it. This guide covers the difference, which one to buy first, and when both earn a place.
The short answer
If you are buying one Japanese knife, buy the santoku. It cuts vegetables well and also handles meat and fish, which the nakiri cannot. The nakiri is worth adding later, once you own an all-rounder and know you do enough vegetable prep to want a tool built purely for it.
The two are not competing for the same slot in your kitchen.
How they differ
| Santoku | Nakiri | |
|---|---|---|
| Edge profile | Nearly flat, slight curve at the front | Fully flat, heel to tip |
| Tip | Small blunt point | None; squared or rounded front |
| Scope | Vegetables, boneless meat, most fish | Vegetables only |
| Blade height | 40-50mm | 45-60mm, usually taller |
| Best at | Being a single do-everything knife | Clean, complete vegetable cuts |
The santoku keeps just enough curve and point to trim fat, slice boneless chicken, or portion a fillet. The nakiri gives all of that up for a fully flat edge that meets the board along its whole length, so it cuts straight through a carrot or a cabbage in one motion with no half-connected slices. On pure vegetable chopping, the nakiri feels slightly cleaner. On anything else, it is the wrong tool.
The height difference is worth noticing too. A nakiri is usually the taller of the two, which gives more knuckle clearance over the board and a broader flat face for scooping chopped vegetables. A santoku is a little shorter in height, which keeps it feeling like a general knife rather than a specialist one.
Which to buy first
For a first Japanese knife, the santoku wins by default, because a first knife has to cover everything. A nakiri that cannot deal with a chicken thigh or a piece of fish leaves you reaching for a second knife on day one.
Buy a nakiri when three things are true: you already own a santoku or a gyuto, your prep is mostly vegetables, and you enjoy the process enough to want a dedicated knife for it. If any of those is missing, the money is better spent on a petty knife or saved. Our guide to choosing a first Japanese knife covers that first decision.
The mistake to avoid
A nakiri looks capable. It is big, it is substantial, and in photos it does not obviously read as a specialist. So people buy one as a first knife, get it home, and discover it cannot slice a piece of chicken or trim a fillet without a fight. Then they buy a santoku anyway, and the nakiri sits unused. If you take one thing from this comparison, let it be that a nakiri is never the right first Japanese knife, no matter how good the deal is.
What each is like to use
A santoku takes a straight chopping motion or a gentle push cut. It does not rock well, and it is not meant to. You can pick it up cold and be productive with it, and it moves smoothly between vegetables, a chicken breast, and a fish fillet without you having to think about it. That low-friction versatility is the whole reason it is the standard first knife.
A nakiri also wants a straight up-and-down motion, and its extra height and weight let you tap-chop: let the blade fall through a pile of herbs or greens with very little force. The tall flat face is also good for scooping and carrying chopped vegetables to the pan. What a nakiri cannot do is anything that needs a tip or a curved stroke, such as slicing the round off a squash.
If you want the flat-edge idea taken further, the single-bevel usuba is the professional version, but it is sharpened on one side, made for one hand, and takes practice. A double-bevel nakiri is the home-kitchen choice.
Should you own both?
Yes, if you cook a lot of vegetables. A santoku and a nakiri overlap, but a vegetable-heavy cook will notice the nakiri doing that job a little better and more pleasantly, while the santoku stays in rotation for everything else. It is a genuine pairing, not a redundant one.
No, if vegetables are just part of a varied diet. In that case a santoku plus a petty is a more useful pair, and covers small jobs and trimming that a nakiri cannot; our petty versus paring knife guide covers which small knife to add.
The cooks who get the most out of a nakiri tend to have a specific profile: they prep vegetables in volume, they cook a lot of plant-based food, or they simply find vegetable prep the relaxing part of cooking and want a knife that makes it better. If that is you, a nakiri is a small, worthwhile upgrade to a job you already do a lot. If it is not, a santoku already has it covered. Our guide to the best Japanese knife for cooking vegetables works through the choice for a vegetable-focused kitchen.
What to look for
For a santoku, start with stainless steel around 58 to 61 on the HRC scale, 165 to 180mm, on a handle that suits your grip.
For a nakiri, the grind matters more than the steel: a thin blade slices dense vegetables where a thick one cracks them, so check the blade thickness or weight on the spec sheet. Stay stainless for a first one, and keep to 165 to 180mm. A carbon steel nakiri takes a finer edge but needs drying every time and a wipe after acidic vegetables, as our carbon versus stainless guide explains.
Both knives are double-bevelled, so they sharpen the same way, on both sides evenly. If anything a nakiri is the easier of the two to sharpen by hand, because its fully flat edge means you are not trying to follow a curve across the stone. That makes it a reasonable knife to learn whetstone technique on, once you have decided you want one.
Akira-Saku Blue #2 Nakiri 165mm
USD 146 (checked Sep 8, 2026)
- Fully hand-forged by craftsman Shoji Yoshida in Shimabara, Kyushu
- Kurouchi (black-forged) finish helps protect the carbon steel from oxidation
- An accessible entry point into fully hand-forged Japanese carbon-steel knives
The nakiri above is a hand-forged carbon example, often out of stock because it is made by a single craftsman. It shows the artisan end of the market rather than a sensible first nakiri, and you should check availability before planning around it. Our best nakiri knives roundup covers the picks worth buying at each price.
Frequently asked questions
Is a nakiri better than a santoku for vegetables?
Slightly. A nakiri's fully flat edge makes cleaner, more complete cuts straight down through produce. A santoku still handles vegetables well and can also do meat and fish, so it is the better single knife.
Can a nakiri be my only Japanese knife?
Not really. It cannot trim meat, joint poultry, or do tip work, so you would need a second knife for anything that is not a vegetable. For one knife, choose a santoku or a gyuto.
Do I need a nakiri if I have a santoku?
Only if you do a lot of vegetable prep and want a dedicated tool for it. A santoku already covers vegetables. A nakiri is a refinement, not a gap you need to fill.
What is the difference between a nakiri and an usuba?
Both are tall, flat vegetable knives. A nakiri is double-bevelled and easy to use. An usuba is single-bevel, sharpened on one face, made for one hand, and used by trained cooks for fine work like paper-thin sheet cuts.
The short version
A santoku and a nakiri are not rivals. The santoku is a whole-kitchen knife and the first one to buy; the nakiri is a dedicated vegetable knife and a good second one for a cook who preps a lot of produce. If you are choosing between them for your first Japanese knife, choose the santoku, and revisit the nakiri once you know how much vegetable work you really do.