This is a high-carbon stainless steel chef knife designed to cut produce and boneless meats.

The best sharpening tools for Japanese knives are leather strops and fine whetstones.

Blade: VG-MAX high-carbon stainless-steel, damascus clad

Handle: Contoured walnut-colored PakkaWood®

Japanese chef knives are brittle and are designed for cutting soft tissue foods. Carbon steel chef knives can rust if not kept dry.

The Shun Premier 7-in. Santoku is a beautiful, Asian-inspired chef's knife that many cooks today have added to their kitchen favorites. A knife of many talents, a santoku easily handles all the basic kitchen cutting tasks. Slightly shorter than the standard chef's knife, the Shun Premier Santoku is light, agile, and very easy to maneuver. There's just enough belly curve to enable rocking cuts, which just adds to the Premier Santoku's versatility. We think you’ll find that the Shun Premier 7-in. Santoku works beautifully and fits your hand like a glove. The santoku is as easy to use as a chef's knife and is especially well suited to a down-and-forward cutting motion (push cut). Many cooks swear by their santoku for top performance.

The Shun Premier Santoku is part of the beautiful Shun Premier line, which calls to mind the hand-forged knives of ancient Japan. While each knife still takes at least 100 handcrafted steps to complete, the materials Shun uses are among the most advanced in the industry. Each blade has a cutting core of Shun's proprietary VG-MAX “super steel” to take and hold a precision edge. The layered Damascus cladding supports the core and provides additional stain resistance. Near the edge of the blade, where the steels meet, an undulating line is formed—similar to the hamon formed when samurai swords are tempered using a traditional clay-baking technique. The hammered tsuchime finish acts like a series of hollow-ground cavities to reduce drag. The handles nestle comfortably in the hand, while the embossed end cap adds balance and beauty.