30 DAYS OPEN PURCHASEThis is our cheapest Japanese knife. No Damascus steel, no hand-forged edge, just a small snap-off knife from NT Cutter, who have been making blades in Japan since 1959. We spotted it by the till in a kitchen shop in Denmark and brought it home, because it belongs in every kitchen that takes deliveries.
In restaurants and professional kitchens this is the knife that opens the produce boxes, slits vacuum bags and gets labels off. Chefs like it for the same reasons they like their real knives: it is sharp, it lasts and it does what it is told.
The handle is die-cast aluminium with a steel core, light at 49 grams but solid in the hand, and the side grooves give grip even when your fingers are wet. The auto-lock mechanism locks the blade automatically at whatever length you push it out to, so it stays put however hard you cut. The blade can be reversed, which makes the knife equally comfortable for left- and right-handers.
When the tip goes dull, snap the segment off in the built-in blade snapper and you have a fresh sharp edge in seconds. The blade is 9 mm wide, in specially hardened Japanese steel. One blade is included, and NT-A (9 mm) replacement blades come in packs of 10.
So no, this is not the knife you show off when guests arrive. It is the knife that gets everything else out of the box.
