A santoku is a Japanese all-purpose kitchen knife. Like a chef’s knife, the santoku is used for just about every cutting job in the kitchen. The name means “three virtues.” Depending on who you ask, the name refers either to the three types of foods it works well with—vegetables, proteins, and fruit—or for the three types of cuts at which it excels—slicing, dicing, and chopping. Hollow-ground indentations on the blade help reduce friction so the blade glides through the food more easily. When we first introduced the Shun Classic Hollow-Ground Santoku to the market, it was named “Kitchen Knife of the Year” by Blade magazine. The Shun Classic Hollow-Ground Santoku is part of the Shun Classic line of tasteful and contemporary cutlery.

The Shun Classic line features beautiful Damascus-clad blades and D-shaped ebony PakkaWood® handles. Yet behind these handcrafted knives' beauty is function: razor-sharp blades offering top performance. Shun's VG-MAX steel, known for its incredible edge retention, is clad with Damascus stainless steel, then ground and bead-blasted, revealing the flowing pattern of the layered steel. The result is a line of knives that are sharp, durable, and corrosion resistant, as well as beautiful to behold. The Shun Classic line also offers you the widest assortment of both traditional culinary blade shapes and cutting-edge designs, so you can always find the right knife for the task.

• A light and manoeuvrable all-purpose kitchen knife
• Named 2005’s Kitchen Knife of the Year
• Hand-sharpened 16° double-bevel blade (32° comprehensive)
• Steel: VG-MAX cutting core, 32 layers of stainless Damascus cladding
• Handle: D-shaped ebony PakkaWood®
• Blade length: 7 in. (17.8 cm)
• Handcrafted in Japan