ZDP-189 Nakiri Black 160mm (6.3″)

ZDP-189 Nakiri Black is another great looking knife from our ZDP-189 line of premium knives. Nakiri is a Japanese knife made to serve one purpose – cutting vegetables. It’s an ideal knife for anyone who chops a lot of veggies, either for a home cook (attention vegans and vegetarians!), or a professional chef. 

The knife is manufactured at the smithy of Yoshida Hamono in Japan, a family company with an age-long tradition in manufacturing state-of-the-art tools and Japanese swords, i.e. katanas, by hand. Yoshida Hamono has a great deal of experience forging ZDP-189 steel in the traditional manner. See the photo story from our visit to their smithy in 2016.

The heart of the knife is made of ZDP-189 steel, proven for its superior qualities and long-lasting sharpness. The steel is laminated (san-mai clad), meaning that the core is made of the super hard ZDP-189 steel, covered with an external layer of softer stainless steel. Such blade remains sharp for a very long time, while the outer layers protect the core steel from external factors.

Kuro-uchi finish, the unprocessed (black) part on the top side of the blade has already developed a dark patina, which protects the blade and gives it a traditional Japanese look. The knife bears visible impressions of the hand-forging process (round hammer dents on the blade), which gives it a beautiful finish and also prevents food from sticking to the blade.

Nakiri Black was fitted a traditional Japanese wooden handle, called Wa handle. The wooden handle is made of Walnut wood with octagonal shape, so it will fit equally well into the hands of right- or left-handed users.

The steel contains as much as 3% Carbon (C), which is one of the main elements contributing strength and typically found in amounts of up to only 1% in other types of solid steel, while the Chromium (Cr) content, which prevents corrosion, amounts to nearly 20%. It also features 0.60% Tungsten (W), which considerably increases the abrasion resistance of steel, 1.4% Molybdenum (Mo), which helps to preserve the strength and power of steel under variable temperatures, and 0.10% Vanadium (V), the key element in increasing steel strength. Heat treatment produces steel with a hardness of 65-67 HRC.
ZDP-189 composition: C 3.00 % | Cr 20.00 % | W 0.60 % | Mo 1.40 % | V 0.10 % | Mn 0.50 % | Si 0.40 %