What size steel for a sujihiki?

A sujihiki is long and narrow, and its height at the heel sets the width of the bar. The preset is a 10 1/2 in blade (about 270 mm), 1.45 in tall at the heel, with a 3/32 in (0.094 in) spine and a 5 in full tang. Add 1/8 in for clean-up and you need 1.575 in. For 1084 the calculator lists no width between 1 1/2 and 2 in, so it rounds up to 2 in. That makes it 2 × 3/32 in flat bar, forged or ground. A sujihiki up to 1 3/8 in tall still fits 1 1/2 in bar, which by stock removal takes about 10 oz of bar instead of 13 oz.

The matching KraftyDesign blank (the "Draw this blank" link) is long and narrow, with a flat edge and a point that sits close to the spine. The handle is straight and lines up with the spine. KraftyDesign starts Japanese patterns at 3/32 in, the same as this preset.

Shop knives are a good check on those sizes. Spec listings from seven knife shops in the US, the UK and Australia cover eight 270 mm sujihikis. Seven of the knives are 1.6 to 2.75 mm (about 0.06 to 0.11 in) at the spine, five of them about 2 mm, and one is 4 mm. So 3/32 in (2.4 mm) is near the thick end and leaves a little to grind off. The heights run from 32 to 49 mm, and six of them are 37 to 41 mm (about 1.46 to 1.61 in). The preset's 1.45 in (36.8 mm) sits just below them, and all six would still come from 2 in bar. Five of the eight have Western-style handles.

Some makers go thinner. One maker selling on BladeForums listed a 9 in AEB-L sujihiki at 0.063 in and a 9 1/4 in 52100 one at 0.078 in, both tapering to the tip. For the 0.063 in blade, set 1/16 in and the bar becomes 2 × 1/16 in. In 1084 or 52100 the calculator then warns that 1/16 in is under the 0.09 in usually thought practical, and to expect warping in the quench. AEB-L gets no warning. At 3/32 in, 1095, W2, O1, 15N20, 52100, AEB-L, CPM-154 and MagnaCut give the same bar with no flags. 80CrV2 and A2 get the warping warning. 14C28N is flagged because it is not commonly listed in 3/32 in.

The calculator starts on stock removal for this one. Stock removal takes the whole 15 1/2 in profile plus clean-up: 15 3/4 in of bar per blade. That is about 13 oz of bar for a blade that finishes around 7 oz. A 12 in bar is too short. The 18 and 24 in bars give one blade each, a 36 in bar gives two and a 48 in bar gives three at the lowest cost per blade. The shops list their 270 mm sujihikis at 142 to 213 g (about 5 to 7 1/2 oz) with handles, so the steel-only estimate may run heavy. Weigh your first one and adjust the fill factors under Calibration.

Forged, the blade stretches (a 1.6:1 draw), so just under 10 in of the same bar (about 8 oz) is enough. The blade finishes near 6 oz. The 12 and 18 in bars give one each, 24 in gives two, 36 in gives three and 48 in gives four. The 12, 24, 36 and 48 in bars cost the same per blade. To start thicker and forge down, set "Forged thickness" to "One size up". That starts you at 2 × 1/8 in, and it only applies in forged mode. The calculator won't forge AEB-L, CPM-154, 14C28N, MagnaCut or A2. Pick any of them and it works out the bar as stock removal, even with Forged selected.

What a sujihiki is for

A sujihiki is a long Japanese slicer for meat and fish. Korin, a Japanese knife shop in New York, says it is intended for slicing boneless protein. Wikipedia writes the name 筋引 and translates it literally as "muscle/sinews puller". It describes long knives used to cut meat, often with a draw cut, in sizes from 24 to 30 cm. Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide, a knife maker and shop in Osaka, says the knife is mainly used on meat, and that the long, narrow blade is easy to control when cutting a block of it. Some cooks, it adds, use it as a sashimi knife. It sells one line in 240, 270 and 300 mm and says the 270 mm is the more popular size. Many buyers, butcher shops among them, use the 300 mm for large blocks, and the 240 mm suits smaller blocks of meat or a smaller workload. Knifewear says a sujihiki is excellent at thin, straight slices of meat and fish. Its length, which Knifewear says is usually anywhere from 210 to 360 mm, lets it glide through even the largest cuts in one stroke. Knifewear also says the needle-like shape is ideal for getting under fat and connective tissue and trimming it off big cuts like ribeye or pork loin.

The sujihiki is double bevel. Wikipedia lists it among Japan's double-bevelled knives, with the gyuto and the santoku. Knifewear says that, like most knives sold in North America, it is sharpened the same way on both sides. Not every one is even, though. Korin lists a 270 mm sujihiki with a 70/30 bevel, and Chef Knives To Go, a knife shop in Wisconsin, says one sujihiki line it sells has a notably asymmetric grind. The bevel is the big difference from the yanagiba, the traditional sashimi slicer: a yanagiba is single bevel, made for one hand or the other, and thicker at the spine. BladeStock's yanagiba page compares the two, and its preset is 5/32 in thick at the spine against 3/32 in here. Wikipedia counts the sujihiki with the French chef's knife among the knives that have become widely used in Japan. The same article says Japan took up French and German cutlery ideas in the Meiji period, in the late 19th century. It adds that Western-style double-bevel knives have grown more popular in Japan since the end of World War II. It gives no date for the sujihiki itself. Shops sell them with Western handles and with Japanese wa handles, and the preset's full tang is for a Western one.

Nothing in this last paragraph is confirmed. The origin stories come from knife sellers who cite no sources, and the looser name readings vary, so take it all as lore rather than history. Bernal Cutlery, a knife shop in San Francisco, calls the sujihiki the Japanese answer to the Western slicer. It says that, like other Western-influenced Japanese knives, the sujihiki was first made from a single steel with a Western handle, and that Japanese handles came later. Chubo Knives, another knife seller, says instead that the sujihiki is believed to be based on traditional single-edged slicers like the yanagi. Knifewear and Ichimonji both translate the name more loosely as "flesh slicer", and Chubo goes with sinew puller. Chubo also says Western carving knives are often heavier than a sujihiki, with a thicker spine and softer steel. Bernal adds that the sujihiki handles a number of slicing jobs better than the yanagi, though it won't cut sashimi as precisely.

Stock for a sujihiki

In a BladeForums thread on sushi knife thickness, one poster says 1/8 in or more is typical for a traditional single-bevel yanagiba. For a double-bevel version ("basically a sujihiki"), the same post says to go with 3/32 in or thinner. In a later, unsigned reply, a poster says their double bevels are 3/32 in at the spine and taper toward the point. Another BladeForums poster's 310 mm damascus sujihiki, in 1084 and 15N20, was 41 mm tall at the heel and about 2.5 mm thick at the spine, tapering to about 1.8 mm at the tip.

Widths assume blade height + 1/8 in rounded up to stock; thickness is the finished spine rounded up. Change the inputs above for your own pattern.

Steels that suit it

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