8" Santoku

[Shalmanese]

Want to buy a nice kitchen knife for a friend as a wedding present. Took him shopping today and he really fell in love with santokus except he's also a big guy and is looking for something a bit larger. The largest santoku's we saw today were 7" and a quick google doesn't reveal anything larger. Is there a reason santoku's are so small?

Does anyone have a reccomendation for a 8" santoku? Preferably around VG10 level steel.

[Shalmanese]

A more thorough google reveals that no, they don't exist. The largest Santoku's I could find were 190mm/7.5" which brings up the question: Why don't they exist? There doesn't seem to be any technical reason you can't produce a larger blade and to me, 7.5" is simply too small for a general purpose knife. Given that Gyuto's go up to 270mm, why do Santoku's top out at 190mm?

[Chris Amirault]

Now I always just thought that I was missing an obvious supply somewhere or other but, yep, google turns up nothing. Perhaps it's because the "three good uses" of slicing, dicing, and mincing don't require blade length? (There's a bit more information in this topic where people discuss their inability to grok santoku knives.)

[Vaughan]

I have a 240mm (about 9.5 inches) Masahiro santoku, and I think they make even larger ones(270 and maybe even 300). And it's large and extra deep, which I like for certain applications. Very sharp, i believe Hitachi White steel, which could also be the downside for you if you want VG10 type stainless, it's not.

Thought I got it at Japenese Chef Knives but can't find it there, maybe one of the other knife nuts can help out.

[Octaveman]

I vaguely remember someone having long santoku's but I'm having memory issues today. I strongly suggest to email Koki at JCK.com and ask this very question. If it's available, he can get it. I would suggest 240mm for the length if the guy is a big dude.

[Shalmanese]

According to koki:

Santoku knife is considered as multi purpose home cooking knife in Japan. Most Japanese hause has Santoku shape blade for their home cooking. Thus from long time ago, there has not been larger size of Santoku blade available in Japanese market.

Seems like a really large gap in the market.

[miles717]

To the best of my knowledge, Masahiro is the only maker offering a longer santoku. If you check knifemerchant.com, I think they stock them.

There is one other option for a "large" santoku, but it's in the wildly expensive realm. Shun makes a Michel Bras "signature" line which sells at Williams Sonoma. It includes a 10" santoku, but if I recall correctly, the set retails for close to $2000.

If Knife Merchant doesn't have what you need and you don't want to drop a couple thousand dollars, you can always look into having a bladesmith make a custom piece for you.

[Fat Guy]

There's a 9" santoku sold under the Anolon brand name. I have no idea who actually makes it or what its specifications are. The nice thing is that it's cheap. So you could get him that and a chef's knife, so once he gets tired of the santoku shape he'll still have something to remember you by.