Deluxe Oishii Knife – A Knife That Makes Your Food Tastier!

The Deluxe Oishii Knife has been created to make your daily cooking more enjoyable but more importantly even more delicious than before!

When it comes to cooking, the most important part is to bring out the best of each ingredient. This is what most cooks think. However, no matter how fresh and tasty the ingredient that you have, if you don’t have a knife that cuts well, the deliciousness of the ingredient is cut in half. 

The Deluxe Oishii Knife when used to cut ingredients cuts cleanly, trapping in the ingredients’ tastiness, which has been made using specialised techniques to reduce the amount of friction between the blade and the ingredient. 

This knife, which has been made by skilled artisans who have at their disposal 50 years of experience, brings out your ingredients’ umami and sweetness and so on to their maximum potential, levelling up the flavour of your dishes!

The blade of the Deluxe Oishii Knife is made using stainless steel and is a convex santoku knife. The stainless steel that is used is a rust-resistant alloy made by adding chrome to iron, and while it doesn’t have the same sharpness as some steel blades, it is extremely resistant to rust and is easy to maintain, making it perfect for household chefs!

Blade Material: Stainless steel
Handle: ABS Resin
Blade Length: 160mm

The blade of the Deluxe Oishii Knife is a specially devised convex shape (Hamaguri Blade), which allows for it to cut gently into ingredients and smoothly be removed after cutting. 
This shape allows for it to cut through the fibres of the ingredients without smashing them, making it so that the cross-section of the ingredient isn’t damaged. 

The result is that it doesn’t allow for any of the umami flavour of the ingredient to escape, meaning that when the food arrives on your tongue you will taste the true freshness and deliciousness of the ingredient.

The difference between ingredients cut using a generally available knife and the Deluxe Oishii Knife was tested using a machine called the “Taste Sensor Leo”, which quantified the taste palate.
The results were that ingredients cut using the Deluxe Oishii Knife had significantly higher sweetness and umami flavour, and lower bitter flavours. With these results, we could quantifiably prove that ingredients cut using our knife were able to have their true tastiness brought out.

Deluxe Oishii Knife is a Santoku knife, which is typically used in households around Japan. It is the quintessential all-purpose knife. Santoku’s were developed by combining the best features of a Japanese knife and a Western knife.

With just Deluxe Oishii Knife, you can cut any ingredient with ease without losing any of it’s umami flavor, making your homemade meals even tastier!

When it comes to using a knife, the most important points are the ease of grip and ease of use. No matter how sharp a knife is, if the grip is unstable, you can put any force into the knife, and it becomes hard to cook with it. 
Because of this, for the Deluxe Oishii Knife, we worked thoroughly to focus on this ease of use. 

A Banked Handle for a Stable Grip

The handle of the Deluxe Oishii Knife is designed in a special banked shape which allows for a natural positioning of the fingers when gripped around it. 
In this regard, when gripped the fingers are fixed in place, and the force pushed through the knife is stable. 
Furthermore, you can use the knife for a long time without getting tired, and it doesn’t place any burden on your palm or fingers.

A Design that Stabilises Even the Pinky Finger

As well as this, the rear of the handle is made to support the pinky finger naturally, making it even more stable as you grip it. 
This means that when you’re cutting items, it will reduce any deviation, and a stable sharpness can be achieved. 
By fitting firmly in the hand, you can use it for a long time without your wrist or arms being burdened, and it makes your cooking fun and go smoothly!

“When it comes to chefs, knives are important tools that determine the taste of the food.When I used the Deluxe Oishii Knife for myself, I was surprised by the sharpness.

The convex shape of the blade reduces the friction between the blade and the ingredients, meaning that even when you cut through meat or vegetables, the fibres are not crushed, and the true flavour of the ingredient can be retained. 
In particular, vegetables that are cut with this knife are spectacularly delicious!

Furthermore, the unique bank-shaped handle fits firmly in the hand, and you can grip it with a natural sense of stability.
A nice point of this is that even when you use the knife for a long time, the hand doesn’t tire, meaning that you can proceed smoothly with cooking.
By reducing any burdens when you cook, you can feel happier and more excited to do so.

This knife has been made using the skills of artisans of Seki City, Gifu prefecture, and while inheriting the traditional Japanese sword-making techniques, they have created an impressive knife that is ideal for modern-day cooking!

This knife will make your everyday meals even tastier and more enjoyable to make!”
 -Chef Masami Arakawa, NHK Broadcasting Center Cafeteria

The Deluxe Oishii Knife is made by Ohzawa Swords located in Seki City, Gifu Prefecture. 
The region is known as an area of renown in regards to its cutlery since the Kamakura period ( 1185–1333) and is recognised worldwide for being home to top-quality manufacturing. 

Ohzawa Swords was founded in 1974, and from general home knives and pro chef knives to beautiful art pieces, they produce a wide range of knives. 
Inheriting the way of manufacturing Japanese blades, they make knives that meet today’s needs.

The Deluxe Oishii Knife is made by the artisans at Ohzawa Swords and is truly a masterpiece that shows off the skills of said artisans. 
Knife making that has a basis in the techniques of traditional Japanese sword-making is beloved worldwide, with the blades having the special characteristics of not breaking, not bending, and having a brilliant edge. 
The delicate manufacturing will allow you to experience these amazing qualities every time you cook.

STEP 1：
Cutting the metal using a press cutter

The stainless steel that will become the material for the knife is cut from sheet metal using a press cutter to match the shape of the knife.

STEP 2：
Heat-Treating Process

Giving shape to the steel and bringing it to life—this is the process known as quenching (hardening) and tempering, collectively referred to as “heat treatment.” Quenching involves heating the steel to approximately 1050°C to 1100°C and then cooling it in air, with the aim of hardening the material. In addition, it serves to make the hardness more uniform and to prevent bending or cracking over time. However, in this condition, the steel is brittle and prone to chipping, making it difficult to use as a blade. To address this, the steel is then reheated to around 180°C to 210°C—lower than the quenching temperature—and allowed to cool in a process called tempering. This creates toughness and improves usability, so quenching and tempering are performed as a set.

STEP3：
Polishing

After the blades have been heat-treated, the outer faces are then passed over a grinding belt to polish them.

STEP 4：
Blade Sharpening (Hamaguri Edge)

A “hamaguri” edge (clam-shaped edge) refers to a blade whose cross-section is curved, resembling the shell of a clam. Preferred by professional chefs and others, this type of edge offers advantages in terms of sharpness, edge retention, and how easily food separates from the blade. Below are the benefits of a hamaguri edge:

• Improved sharpness
• Longer-lasting cutting performance
• Food slides off more easily after cutting
• Enhanced ability to penetrate food
• Maintains the strength of the blade

STEP5：
Attaching the handle

Our carefully designed handle is then added to the blade

STEP6：
Inspection and boxing

Finally using a leather strop, any burrs are removed and the blade is finalised. Each blade is individually inspected for sharpness. In order to achieve both a great sharpness and durability, the appropriate angle of the blade has been decided on, and this is strictly controlled and measured using tools. The finished blade is then carefully boxed and packaged.

Seki City, Gifu Prefecture, a city located at the centre of Japan. 

The name of the city, Seki, is said to have been chosen from the Japanese kanji 関, which has a meaning of “connection”, and was named such as the town was established as a checkpoint, and since ancient times it was a strategic point for East-West culture, as well as prospering thanks to being a crossroads for traders travelling to and from Kyoto and Hida.

Cutlery made in Seki City is long-historied and is said to date back to the Kamakura period (1185-1333), when famed swordsmith Motoshige located to Seki and started a forge. 
During the Muromachi period (1336-1573), there were around 300 swordsmiths in Seki, and famous smiths such as Magoroku Kanemoto and Shizu Saburo Kanaeji appeared, and then in the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), receiving a shogunate license of exemption from blacksmithing duties from Oda Nobunaga, the quality and strength of Seki blades were highly renowned, and flourished as a famous swordmaking area. These outstanding traditional techniques have been passed down to modern swordsmiths and are still alive in the modern cutlery industry.

• Wash the knife with dishwashing liquid before use.
• Do not scrub with hard brushes or abrasive cleansers.
• Do not use for the purpose of cutting hard or frozen items.
• The knife is made to be used for cutting ingredients only. Don’t use for other purposes.
• When washing, do not wash in a dishwasher. It may cause rust or damage to the knife.
• Always wash and dry the knife thoroughly after use.