Milk Street 6.75-inch Nakiri Knife by Christopher Kimball, 1.4116 German Steel Nakiri Chef Knife, Ideal for Home Kitchen, Renowned Milk Street Nakiri Knives

I learned about this Knife while listening to Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Radio. I cook a lot but just haven't been able to suck it up and buy a new knife. Way over due. We'll let's just say I wish I had bought this knife years ago. Fantastic. Thin blade that cuts like butter. Great design. Plus not super expensive. I'm thinking of even getting second!! Definitely a great gift idea too!

This is definitely my new go-to. Only thing is everything sticks to the side of this knife.

I love this knife. Highly recommend!

I understand Mister Kimball… this knife is a work of art and engineering. I love how it’s elegant, inexpensive, sharp, cuts nicely and releases the produce with the help of the decorative indents. The packaging was very elegant as well. I would gift this to any of my foodie friends because it to me is my new favorite knife. Please don’t tell my Shun 😂

Thanks to the insistence of my Instagram feed, I caved and purchased the expensive knife from Milk Street and couldn't be happier. It is a dream to work with. Love the thin blade. Will probably get the smaller one, too. Now Milk Street Insta is trying to sell me pots. Not gonna happen!

Prepping. Good knife. Could be a bit heavier.

The ergonomics of this knife are great. Definitely feels like a step up from the white handle kitchen supply store knives, but nowhere near as fragile as a lot of Japanese steel.

I’m on the fence about this knife. I’m a big fan of Milk Street but I feel like their line of kitchen products is placing a lot of emphasis on style, aesthetics, and branding instead of the functionality and durability that I thought they would have prioritized.This is certainly a fine looking knife and it comes impeccably boxed making it gift worthy (if you’re not superstitious). It’s very sharp, with a very smooth polymer handle that is comfortable but may get a bit slippery when wet, depending on your personal kitchen habits. It’s definitely economical for a Nakiri knife, not that that’s a bad thing, but these basic attributes weren't enough to sell me on it.If you’re unfamiliar, a Nakiri knife is a traditional Japanese knife used for cutting vegetables and that’s where it excels. It’s not a knife intended to veer very far from that task, even if you could use it for cutting other things in a pinch. The name even translates to “leaf or vegetable cutter.” A traditional Nakiri knife has a rectangular blade with a flat edge making it the perfect tool for root vegetables. It also has a textured or hammered side to prevent sticking, which is especially useful when working with starchy vegetables like potatoes.Milk Street has taken the basic Nakiri design and modified it by adding a curve to the blade, creating a sort of hybrid knife that in theory gives you the best of both worlds, and shortens the learning curve on this knife for people who are used to using a chef knife to “rock” though their prep. While this “everyman’s Nakiri” seems like a good idea on the surface, it takes away part of what makes the knife special and, more importantly, useful. If I want to rock my knife to cut, I already have a chef’s knife for that, and I suspect so do most other “home chefs.” If I need to cut a squash or a pumpkin, I want a knife that can power straight through, not one that I have to rock at the end. Not only is that inefficient, it’s less safe. In curving the blade on this knife, they’ve taken away some of the blades surface area that would be used as you come through a hard root vegetable and with a traditional Nakiri, hit square against your cutting board. This is extremely useful and practical for cutting something like a squash or pumpkin. So, while the curve may make this knife more “comfortable” for some people to use or get used to, it eliminates the efficiency of the Nakiri design, making this knife less useful than it was originally designed to be, essentially a cleaver for vegetables.This knife does have many positive attributes. It’s quite lightweight, although not as light as a Global knife, and the blade is thin and elegant, although I'm not convinced that's necessarily a plus - we'll have to see how it stands up over time. The blade is textured to help release starchy items, like a regular Nakiri knife, and the feel of the knife in the hand is well-balanced and comfortable, with the caveat that this may vary from person to person. Using the curved edge, while similar to a chef’s knife is a little bit different and takes some getting used to, but I suspect a lot of people will still like it, so feel free to take my dislike of it with a grain of salt.The instructions for maintenance advise “frequent and gentle” honing, so if you aren’t comfortable with that, this may not be the knife for you, and in any case, I wouldn’t recommend this knife to someone looking for a good all-rounder or a knife that can effortlessly multi-task. This is, at its core, a specialty knife, so your best all-rounder is still a chef’s knife. It also recommends hand washing this knife, so pass if you throw absolutely everything in the dishwasher. If you're in the market for a Nakiri knife, they are likely going to cost more than this Milk Street version, so if you're looking for a "Nakiri-esque" knife and aren't necessarily set on a true flat-edged blade for your vegetable prep, then this might be a suitable and more cost-effective option.Overall, this is a good looking knife that will take some practice to use it in the most efficient way. I’m not sure it’s still really a Nakiri given the modification. I think this was done solely to capture a larger user group and personally, I think curving the blade was a mistake. This is a specialty knife that not everyone needs, so if you’re stocking your kitchen and looking for knives that will be the most useful for day-to-day cooking, I’d give this one a pass. It's relatively inexpensive and I'm not sure how that will translate into long-term durability, but does make it more accessible. I'm in the middle of the road on this one: three stars.