Japan day 13: knife and Kappabashi

Toshimi Saitou, chef of Yokohama Ramen Saito, suggested me to visit Kappabashi “Kitchen Town” in Tokyo. Lazy Penguin suggested to buy a good Japanese kitchen knife. So today’s mission: buy a knife in Kappabashi.

The street is close to Ueno Station, this blog has a detailed story about the location. Today is Labor Day, so most people are having a free day.

When I arrived at Kappabashi, half of the stores were open.

I found a knife shop (Kitchen World TDI Knife shop) and I was overwhelmed by all the Japanese knives.

The owner told me that any knife is good. The prices range from 4000 yen to 40.000++yen (30 euro to 300 euro). Probably even higher, but I didn’t dare to look at those.

My budget: 10.000 yen. I picked a knife which looked nice and was nice to hold and cut. The curly waves in the blade come from 37 layers of steel. It’s called Damascus steel. Wikipedia says: This “Modern Damascus” is made from several types of steel and iron slices welded together to form a billet, and currently the term “damascus” (although technically incorrect) is widely accepted to describe modern pattern welded steel blades in the trade.

I bought the 4th one from the left, a black handled knife with dimples. The dimples create air between the ingredient, so it will not stick to the knife. For example, when you cut a cucumber, the slice will fall from the knife easier.

I can’t wait to use it at home! Internet says it’s very sharp and it stays sharp for a ling time. When I am going to sharpen it, I will need to do some research to do it properly. So I won’t damage my precious. I will let you know the experiences by then!

Have a lovely day!

⬆ One of the kitchen shops

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