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Buying Guide
Looking to learn more about Japanese kitchen knives and which may be the best fit for you?
Check out these Buying Guides to learn about the different Japanese knife styles, intended use, steel types and maintenance.
Usuba Knives
Finesse Your Vegetables With an Usuba
The Usuba knife is a Japanese vegetable knife. It has a single straight edge that makes it perfect for finely peeling vegetables, such as the daikon, as well as for rhythmic chopping on a cutting board. Japanese chefs commonly use it for slicing, dicing, and mincing their produce.
The Usuba really shines when you’re tackling fruits or vegetables you’d like to serve raw. It has a thin and sharp blade that produces very clean cuts with little damage to your produce. This minimizes oxidation and therefore the discoloration and change in the flavor of the food. The long blade is also great for chopping up larger vegetables, such as cabbages.
The Usuba knife is quite similar to the Nakiri knife in that they’re both made for chopping vegetables. The main difference is that while the Usuba has a single-beveled blade, the Nakiri has a double-beveled one. As with most single-bevel knives, it can take a bit of practice to get used to the Usuba, but the results are unmatched.
Finesse Your Vegetables With an Usuba
The Usuba knife is a Japanese vegetable knife. It has a single straight edge that makes it perfect for finely peeling vegetables, such as the daikon, as well as for rhythmic chopping on a cutting board. Japanese chefs commonly use it for slicing, dicing,. . . Show More >
History of the Usuba Knife
Usuba is a combination of the Japanese words “usui’ meaning thin and “ha” (or “hamano”), meaning blade. It’s literally the thin-blade knife, specifically designed to give you paper-thin slices, even with soft, squishy ingredients like tomatoes.
The Usuba originated in Tokyo. It’s one of the basic knives that professional Japanese chefs master and is a mainstay of traditional restaurant kitchens in Japan. Historically, it has been used for performing specialized cutting techniques, such as Katsuramuki (“rotary peeling”) and Kazarigiri (“decorative cutting”).
Usuba and Kamagata Usuba are hand-forged by master blacksmiths. If you hear the rhythmic hammering of metal in any of the knife-making villages there is a chance that the blacksmiths are working on a traditional knife like the Usuba. Heating the metals in the forge over glowing charcoal, hammering the metal, and repeating until the metal begins to resemble what will soon become a functioning work of art.
Shop Finely-Crafted Japanese Kitchen Knives at Hasu-Seizo
There’s a reason the Usuba is so highly revered by Japanese chefs. Its unique craftsmanship lets you prepare your ingredients in a way that few other kitchen tools can. Its extremely sharp chiseled edge is honed to perfection by master bladesmiths.
We recommend stainless steel or White Steel #2 for the Usuba vegetable knife. The latter, in particular, improves on the Usuba’s design to give you an even sharper edge for those perfect, translucent cuts of produce. Explore our range of Japanese kitchen knives, including the Usuba, Petty, Gyuto, Deba, Yanagiba, and more. Each one is handcrafted by traditional artisans in Japan and will prove an excellent addition to your knife collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The Usuba is a traditional Japanese vegetable knife that originated in Tokyo. Its blade is thin and long with a single-bevel edge and a square tip.
A regional variant of the standard Usuba is the Kamagata Usuba, which is popular in the Osaka region. The Kamagata Usuba has a rounded spine towards the tip, similar to the Santoku, often referred to as a sheep’s hoof.
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An Usuba is designed specifically to work with vegetables. The single-bevel can be useful for creating consistent slices and is ideal for chopping, slicing, dicing, and mincing.
Its single edge makes it perfect for peeling vegetables such as the daikon radish. This technique is common in Japanese cuisine and can be used to create garnishes or as a component of a dish.
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All three of these are very similar Japanese vegetable knives. Both the Usuba and Kamagata Usuba are very good single-bevel vegetable knives. The Kamagata Usuba has a bit more of a pointed tip which can help more if you’d like to try decorative carvings or find you like using the tip of the knife for cleaning vegetables, such as peppers.
The Mukimono is more specifically oriented towards delicate carving and decorative work with a very sharp-angled tip, reminiscent of a Kengata-style Gyuto or Santoku.
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The better you care for your blade, the better and longer it’ll serve you. Refrain from placing your knives in a dishwasher. Hand-wash them instead with warm water and dry them with a soft cloth. Ensure you wipe off moisture once you’ve finished using it to help prevent rust and corrosion. Regular application of Tsubaki Camellia Oil will also help with this.
All single-bevel knives will need to be sharpened using a whetstone.
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