Santoku vs Nakiri

The santoku and the nakiri are both Japanese, both flatter than a Western chef's knife, and both often confused for each other. But they're not the same tool: the santoku is an all-rounder(meat, fish and vegetables — the name means "three virtues"), while the nakiri is a vegetable specialist. If you're choosing one to add alongside a chef's knife, that difference is the whole decision.

The differences that matter

What each is best at

The santokuhas a slight belly and a little tip, so it does a bit of everything — it's the Japanese answer to a general-purpose knife, and it's the one to buy if you want a single nimble blade. It's covered head-to-head against a Western knife in chef knife vs santoku. The nakiri is taller, dead flat, and squared off at both ends. That flat edge contacts the board across its entirelength in one push, so it slices vegetables cleanly full-width with no rocking — brilliant for volume vegetable prep, but useless for tip work, proteins or rock-chopping. See it against a chef's knife in chef knife vs nakiri.

Which should you add?

If you already own a chef's knife (or a gyuto) and want one more knife, the answer depends on what's missing. Choose a nakiri if you do a lot of vegetable prep and want a specialist that does it faster and cleaner than anything else. Choose a santoku only if you want a smaller, nimbler general knife — but note it overlaps heavily with a chef's knife, so it's a weaker addition if you already have one. In short: nakiri to complement, santoku to replace. Whichever you pick, the steel matters more than the shape; start with the field in best Japanese chef knives.