Daisuke Nishida Kurouchi Tall Santoku 180mm

Daisuke Nishida

Daisuke Nishida has been making knives from a young age. At only 19 he started his 9 year long apprenticeship and opened his own shop in Kumamoto at 28. Nishida-san uses traditional warikomi style forging as opposed to the more common san mai construction and works predominantly with Shirogami #1. While Nishida-san has a clear passion for hunting knives with a high level of fit and finish, he also makes more rustic, workhorse style kitchen knives. Where Nishida-san shines in our eyes is in his heat treating. He gets a lot out of his Shirogami and leaves just enough meat behind the edge that they cut well, but definitely remain on the tougher side.


The Knife

The Kurouchi line from Nishida-san features a rustic deep blue kurouchi finish and mono walnut octagonal handles. The tangs have a good heft to them more similar to sanjo style, and the grinds are super consistent. While the bevels aren't at a super high level of polish, they are in a great place to work on and feel fantastic on the stones. Being more on the workhorse side of things, these knives are a great fit for users that find themselves gravitating to more of a chopping style or someone that prefers the forward balance of a Japanese style handle but with a little more weight in the hand. A great bang for the buck knife, and a great project knife to polish or thin and play with different geometries! 

The word Santoku translates to "three virtues" which refers to either slicing, dicing and chopping or meat, fish and vegetables depending on who you ask. Basically the name tries to imply the extreme versatility of the blade which is what has made it so popular amongst home cooks in Japan and across the Globe. The santoku is slightly shorter than the average Gyuto (Chef's knife) making it less intimidating and easier to use while it remains capable of completing most, if not all, of the tasks it comes across in any kitchen.