Japanease Kitchen Knives

A double edged Japanease knife is made using a "triple structure" technique, where a layer of solid steel is sandwiched between 2 layer of soft iron.

Steel or Stainless-steel?

	Steel	Stainless-steel
Sharpness	Very hard and sharp.	Since it is softer thean steel, its sharpness is not as good as steel's.
Edurance	Keeps an extreme edge for an extended period of time without re-sharpening.	Comparatively, it becomes dull in a short period of time.
Rust Resistance	Withour prober care, iron-steel knives can rust.	Stainless-steel doesn't rust
Ease of Sharpening	Easy to maintain a great edge even for a novice.	It is not well honed and needs frequent re-sharpening.

Kusouchi or Migaki?

Kurouchi: The surface of the blade is blackened by an oxide film when put in the fire, made red hot and hardened. Thought the black part can gradually disappear with repeated sharpening, leave it into unpolished the blade is coated by the oxide film, it doesn't rust easily
Migaki: With Migaki plades, the oxide film is polished to a beautiful finish. It looks beatiful but can be more difficult to maintain than Kurouchi because the polished surface becomes rusty much easier.

Shape and Uses

Shapes	Uses
Kawamuki	This versatile knife can be used for paring fruit, vegetables, or chopping seasonings.
Small Santoku	This small sized multi-purpose knife is designed for cutting meat, fish, or vegetables. It's very useful for filleting soft-boned fish like horse mackerel.
Santoku	This is a multi-purpose knife, designed for cutting meat, fish, or vegetables.
Nakiri	This knife is designed for cutting vegetables, paring Japanese radish, etc.
Yanagiba	This long, narrow classic knife is for slicing sashimi.
Kodeba	This knife is best for filleting small fish. Typically single edged.
Deba	This knife is ideal for filleting whole fish and cutting chicken bones. Typically single edged.
Petit	This knife is a paring / small kitchen knife perfect for cutting vegetables.
Gyuto	This knife is a multi-purpose Western style knife, designed for slicing meat, fish etc.
Kiritsuke	The use of this knife is similar to the Gyuto. It has a triangular edge.
Honesuki	This knife is a poultry boning knife.
Chinese Cleaver	This knife is for cutting handmade soba noodles. The blade has a dead straight edge.

Hardness

Hardness of steel is normally measured on the Rockwell scale. For a kitchen knife a hardness below 58 is considered a soft knife, while a hardness above 60 is considered a hard knife.