Santoku vs Chef Knife

Santoku vs chef knife comes down to the shape of the edge. A chef's knife has a curved belly that rises to a pointed tip, so it rocks: the tip stays on the board while the heel chops up and down. A santoku has a flatter edge and a rounded tip, so it cuts with a push forward and down, which suits thin, even slices of vegetables. Most chef's knives run 8 inches; most santokus run 5 to 7. If you can only buy one, buy the 8-inch chef's knife, because it handles more jobs; buy the santoku if you mostly slice vegetables and prefer a shorter, lighter blade.

The numbers behind that answer come from the makers. Wüsthof grinds its Classic santoku to 10 degrees per side and its Classic chef's knife to 14, from the same 58 HRC steel, so the shape and the edge change while the metal stays the same. Shun sharpens both its Classic santoku and its Classic chef's knife to 16 degrees on each side, so the Shun pair isolates the shape alone. This guide is part of the site's kitchen gear section; the best kitchen knives guide ranks single knives by job and the best kitchen knife sets guide covers buying both at once.

Santoku vs Chef Knife at a Glance

A santoku is shorter, flatter and built for push cuts; a chef's knife is longer, curved and built for rocking. The table sets the two side by side, with edge angle, hardness and weight taken from the Wüsthof Classic and Shun Classic pages, the two lines carded below.

Feature	Santoku	Chef's knife
Typical blade length	5 to 7 inches (7 is the common size)	8 inches, with 6- and 10-inch versions
Profile	Flat edge; spine curves down to a rounded sheep's-foot tip	Curved belly rising to a pointed tip
Main cutting motion	Push cut and straight up-and-down chop	Rock chop, plus slicing and push cuts
Edge angle per side	Wüsthof Classic 10°; Shun Classic 16°	Wüsthof Classic 14°; Shun Classic 16°
Steel hardness	Wüsthof 58 HRC; Shun 60 to 61 HRC	Wüsthof 58 HRC; Shun 60 to 61 HRC
Weight (Shun Classic)	6.3 oz	6.7 oz
Hollow (granton) edge	Common	Optional, less common
Best tasks	Thin vegetable slices, mincing garlic, boneless fish and meat, cheese	Rocking herbs, big squash and cabbage, carving a roast, working around chicken joints

Read the edge-angle row first. On Wüsthof the santoku really does carry a finer edge than the chef's knife; on Shun the angle is identical and only the profile changes. So "santokus are sharper" is true of some brands and not others, and the bigger, constant difference is the shape.

What Is a Santoku Knife Used For?

A santoku knife is used for everyday slicing, dicing and mincing, mostly of vegetables, plus boneless meat and fish. Its flat edge makes clean, thin, even slices of cucumber, carrot, potato, onion and tomato, it minces garlic and herbs with a quick up-and-down chop, and its wide blade doubles as a scoop for carrying chopped food to the pan. It also cubes cheese and portions a fish fillet or a chicken breast. It is the wrong knife for bone, frozen food, a whole squash or butchering a chicken.

What does santoku mean?

Santoku is Japanese for "three virtues," usually read as three uses. Dictionary.com defines it as a multipurpose Japanese kitchen knife, usually 5 to 7 inches long, with a fairly straight edge and a rounded tip, and gives the name as "three virtues, three uses." The three are most often given as slicing, dicing and mincing; another common reading is meat, fish and vegetables. Either way the name describes an all-rounder, the Japanese home cook's equivalent of the Western chef's knife.

Santoku uses, job by job

• Thin slicing. Cucumber, radish, potato for a gratin, onion half-moons: the flat edge meets the board along its whole length, so each slice goes all the way through instead of leaving a hinge.
• Mincing. Garlic, ginger, shallot and herbs, with a fast straight chop; the flat blade also smears garlic into a paste when you drag it sideways.
• Dicing vegetables. Carrots, celery, peppers and zucchini, where the tall blade keeps your knuckles clear of the board.
• Boneless proteins. Slicing a chicken breast, a pork tenderloin or a salmon fillet into portions.
• Scooping. The wide blade carries a pile of chopped food from board to pan.
• Not for: bones, frozen blocks, hard winter squash rinds or anything you would pry at, which can chip a thin edge.

If vegetables are most of what you cut, the best knife for cutting vegetables guide compares the santoku with the nakiri, the flat, square-tipped Japanese vegetable knife.

Who a santoku suits

A santoku suits cooks with smaller hands, cooks who find an 8-inch blade unwieldy, and anyone who cuts mostly vegetables with a push-cut or straight-chop style. It suits a cook who rock-chops less well, because the flat edge has little curve to roll on. Shun notes that its Classic santoku keeps a slight belly curve so it can rock a little, but it will never rock like a true chef's knife.

Blade Profile: Why a Chef's Knife Rocks and a Santoku Pushes

The curve of the edge decides the cutting motion. A chef's knife's edge sweeps upward toward the tip, so with the point resting on the board the knife can pivot, the heel lifting and falling through a pile of herbs or an onion while the tip never leaves the wood. That pivot is the rock chop, and it is fast for volume work. A santoku's edge is nearly straight until the very front, where the spine curves down to meet it, so there is little to pivot on; it cuts best when you push it forward and down through the food and lift it clear, the classic Japanese push cut.

The tip shape follows from that. A chef's knife's sharp point pierces and opens food, scoring an onion or getting into the gap at a chicken joint; Ramsay's knife-skills lesson in his MasterClass uses the tip to open a shallot and the thicker heel of the blade for chopping, and he prefers German knives with the weight in the handle because the heft gives him more control. A santoku's rounded sheep's-foot tip has no real point, which makes it less useful for detail work and a little safer for nervous beginners.

Height matters too. For its length a santoku is tall: Wüsthof's 7-inch Classic santoku measures 1.8 inches at the heel against 1.9 for its 8-inch Classic chef's knife. That near-equal height on a shorter blade gives the knuckles of your guiding hand the same clearance on a smaller knife, which is a big part of why a santoku feels easy to control.

Edge Angle and Steel: 10, 14 and 16 Degrees

Edge angle is how steeply each side of the edge is ground, and it trades sharpness against durability. Wüsthof's FAQ gives 14 degrees per side for its standard blades and 10 degrees per side for Asian-style blades such as the santoku and nakiri. Shun's FAQ gives 16 degrees on each side for its Japanese knives and a wider 22 degrees for its Western-style cook's knife. The old rule of thumb, Japanese about 15 degrees and German about 20, still points the right way, but Wüsthof's current 14 and Shun's 16 show the gap has narrowed, so check the maker's figure for the knife in front of you.

Here is the mechanism. Add both sides and a 10-degree edge is a 20-degree wedge, a 14-degree edge is 28 and a 16-degree edge is 32. A narrower wedge has less steel right behind the cutting line, so it needs less force to part a tomato skin or a dense carrot and pushes the two halves apart less, which is why a fine santoku edge leaves cleaner, thinner slices. The cost is that the thinner apex has less metal supporting it, so it bends or chips sooner if it meets a bone, a frozen block or a twist against the board.

Steel hardness decides which of those two failures you get. The Rockwell C number in every knife spec comes from the test that NIST's Rockwell guide describes: a spheroconical diamond pressed into the steel under a 150-kilogram-force load, with the hardness read from how deep it sinks, so a higher number means a harder steel. Wüsthof's Classic knives are 58 HRC; Shun hardens its VG-MAX core to 60 to 61. Harder steel holds a fine edge longer and resists rolling, but it is less tough, so it chips where a softer edge would bend. That is why a 10-degree santoku edge on 58 HRC German steel works: the softer steel forgives the thin grind, and a few strokes on a steel straighten it.

Granton (Hollow) Edge: Does It Stop Food Sticking?

A granton or hollow edge is the row of oval scallops ground into the blade above the edge, and it reduces sticking without eliminating it. Wüsthof's hollow-edge santoku page says the oval hollows are there to reduce sticking. They are common on santokus because the knife is used so much for wet, starchy slices, and the German term for them is kullenschliff.

The reason slices stick is a thin film of water. A wet slice of potato or cucumber pressed against a smooth, flat blade is held by that film's surface tension, the same pull that sticks two wet panes of glass together, and air cannot get in to break it. The hollows interrupt the flat face, so part of each slice touches air instead of steel and the film cannot seal across the whole contact. Starchy potato will still cling now and then, and the hollows do nothing for the edge itself; they are a convenience, worth having on a knife you use mostly for vegetables and easy to skip on one you use for meat.

Santoku vs Chef Knife for Vegetables, Meat and Onions

For vegetables the santoku and the chef's knife are close, with the santoku better at thin, even slices and the chef's knife better at volume and big produce. For meat, both slice boneless cuts well, and the longer chef's knife wins on a large roast or a whole chicken. For onions either works, as long as the edge is sharp.

• Onions and shallots. Halve through the root first so the onion sits on a flat face; Ramsay never cuts anything that wobbles, and he anchors the board on a lightly dampened paper towel so it cannot slide. Either knife then slices and dices well.
• Herbs. A pile of parsley goes fastest with a chef's knife rock chop; a santoku chops herbs with straight, light strokes.
• Thin slices. Cucumber, radish and potato for a gratin favor the santoku's flat edge and fine angle.
• Big, hard produce. Butternut squash, cabbage and melon want the longer, heavier chef's knife, which spans the food and splits it with less effort.
• Boneless meat and fish. Either knife slices a chicken breast or salmon fillet; a long chef's knife carves a roast in fewer strokes.
• Bones and frozen food. Neither. Use a cleaver or a boning knife around joints, and thaw first.

Sharpness matters more than shape on an onion. A sharp edge splits cells cleanly, while a dull one crushes them, and the compound that stings your eyes forms only when onion cells break open, so a blunt knife makes you cry more. The same crushing bruises herbs: broken leaf cells let the browning enzymes meet oxygen and basil or parsley darkens on the board. Whatever knife you choose, keeping it sharp is the bigger win, and the Gordon Ramsay knives page covers the German knives he uses for exactly this work.

Which Is Better for Beginners and Small Hands?

For most beginners the 8-inch chef's knife is the better first knife, because it handles every job in this guide and every recipe assumes one. A santoku is the better first knife for a beginner who finds an 8-inch blade intimidating, has small hands, or cooks mostly vegetables, since its shorter, lighter blade and rounded tip feel easier to control.

Handle shape plays a part. Western knives like the Wüsthof Classic have a riveted synthetic handle over a full tang and a bolster that balances the knife near your grip. Japanese knives often use a lighter wooden "wa" handle, round, octagonal or D-shaped, that moves the balance toward the blade; Shun's Classic line uses a D-shaped Pakkawood handle. Hold both if you can, and learn the pinch grip either way: thumb and index finger on the blade just ahead of the handle, the other fingers wrapped around it. The beginner chef knife sets guide shows how to start a kitchen around one good knife.

Sharpening and Care for Both Knives

A santoku and a chef's knife are sharpened the same way, because the santokus from Wüsthof and Shun, like most sold in the US, are double-beveled: ground on both sides like a chef's knife. The single-bevel blades that are sharpened on one side are traditional Japanese knives such as the yanagiba and deba, not the everyday santoku. Match the maker's angle: about 10 degrees a side for a Wüsthof santoku, 14 for its chef's knife and 16 for either Shun.

Hone often and sharpen rarely. Victorinox's sharpening guide separates the two: honing realigns the edge and removes little or no metal, while sharpening grinds away steel to make a new one. Shun describes honing as straightening a rolled edge without removing blade material. Ramsay steels his knife every time he uses it, with the blade held almost flat and a slight lift, so the edge never goes dull enough to be hard to bring back. A steel suits 58 HRC German steel best; harder Japanese steel chips rather than rolls, so it wants a whetstone or the maker's sharpening service.

Wash both knives by hand and dry them straight away; Shun asks owners to keep its knives out of the dishwasher, where they knock against other cutlery. Cut on wood rather than glass, stone or ceramic, which are harder than the steel and roll or chip the edge. For food safety the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service says wood or nonporous plastic boards are both acceptable, washed in hot, soapy water after each use, sanitized with 1 tablespoon of unscented liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water, with one board kept for raw meat, poultry and seafood and another for produce and bread, and thrown out once deep grooves form. The best wood for a cutting board guide covers which woods are kindest to an edge.

Santoku vs Chef Knife: Which Should You Buy?

Buy the chef's knife first if you want one knife for everything, and add a santoku later if you find yourself slicing a lot of vegetables. Buy the santoku first if you have small hands, dislike a long blade, or cut mostly vegetables with a push. Many cooks end up with both, the chef's knife for big jobs and the santoku for fast, thin prep, which is why many block sets include one of each.

If you…	Buy	Because
Want one knife for everything	Wüsthof Classic 8" chef's knife	Long curved blade rocks, slices and carves; tough 58 HRC steel
Cut mostly vegetables and like a shorter blade	Wüsthof Classic 7" hollow-edge santoku	10° edge for thin slices; hollows reduce sticking
Want Japanese steel and a push-cut knife	Shun Classic Blonde 7" santoku	60 to 61 HRC VG-MAX holds a fine 16° edge
Want Japanese steel and room to rock	Shun Classic 8" chef's knife	Same steel and angle on a longer curved blade

The santoku vs chef knife choice is about how you cut, more than which knife is better. For Japanese chef's-knife shapes, the best gyuto knife guide covers the gyuto, the Japanese knife sets guide covers sets that pair a santoku with one, and Shun vs Zwilling compares Japanese and German steel head to head.

More knife guides: best kitchen knives, best kitchen knife sets, best knife for cutting vegetables, Japanese knife sets and Wüsthof vs Zwilling.

Santoku vs Chef Knife FAQs

The questions that come up most: whether a santoku is better than a chef's knife, what santoku means, whether a santoku can cut meat, why santoku knives have dimples, which suits a beginner, whether santokus are single bevel, whether you need both, and what size santoku to buy.

Is a santoku knife better than a chef's knife?

Neither is better overall. A chef's knife is more versatile: its longer, curved blade rocks through herbs, handles big squash and carves a roast. A santoku is better at thin, even vegetable slices and suits cooks who prefer a shorter, lighter blade and a push cut. If you own one knife, make it the chef's knife.

What does santoku mean?

Santoku is Japanese for "three virtues," usually read as three uses. Dictionary.com gives it as "three virtues, three uses." The three are most often listed as slicing, dicing and mincing, though some read them as meat, fish and vegetables.

Can you use a santoku knife to cut meat?

Yes, for boneless meat and fish: slicing a chicken breast, portioning a salmon fillet or cutting stir-fry strips. Keep it away from bones, joints and frozen meat, which can chip its thin edge, and use a longer chef's or carving knife for a large roast.

Why do santoku knives have dimples?

The dimples, called a hollow or granton edge, reduce sticking. A wet slice clings to a smooth blade through a thin film of water; the hollows let air in under part of the slice so the film cannot seal. Wüsthof says the oval hollows on its santoku reduce sticking. They help but do not stop starchy potato clinging altogether.

Is a santoku or a chef's knife better for beginners?

An 8-inch chef's knife is the better first knife for most beginners because it covers every job and every recipe assumes one. A santoku suits a beginner with small hands, one who finds a long blade intimidating, or one who mostly cuts vegetables.

Are santoku knives single bevel?

Almost never. The santokus sold in the US are double-beveled, sharpened on both sides: Wüsthof grinds its Classic santoku to 10 degrees per side and Shun its Classic santoku to 16 degrees on each side. Single-bevel blades are traditional Japanese knives such as the yanagiba and deba.

Do I need both a santoku and a chef's knife?

No. One 8-inch chef's knife covers a home kitchen. A santoku is a useful second knife if you slice a lot of vegetables or like a shorter blade for quick prep, and many block sets include both.

What size santoku knife is best?

Seven inches is the most common and most versatile santoku size; dictionary.com puts the usual range at 5 to 7 inches. A 5- to 5.5-inch santoku suits small hands and small boards, while a 7-inch handles a whole onion or a large potato in one stroke.