Choosing a good knife is one of the most important yet difficult decisions you can make for your kitchen. If you don’t choose correctly, cutting and preparing food will be a pain and can even be dangerous. An inferior knife will take the joy right out of cooking.
Choose wisely, and you can cut and prepare fruits, vegetables, and meats with ease, saving time and effort. A good knife will make cooking easier and much more enjoyable.
In this article, I will review a knife from Oishya, a company that sells many different types of knives made in Japan.
I will be taking an in-depth look into their Seki Kyuba Kata Chef Knife and will give my honest review on whether it should belong in your kitchen or if other knives are better.
Contents
Disclaimer
A couple of months ago, Kamila, the co-founder of Oishya, contacted me to see if I would be interested in reviewing this knife. I told her I would do it under one condition: I would write a completely honest review and include any negative points I found with their knife. I cook every day, so I would test this knife by using it daily for the next two months in “real world” conditions.
She said that she only wants unbiased reviews and wants her potential customers to have all the information they need, good or bad, to make an informed decision.
After receiving the knife, I got to work testing it out.
Seki Kyuba Kata Bunka Chef Knife: First Impressions
The knives from Oishya come in a sturdy wooden box with a beautifully designed sleeve around it. Upon opening the wooden box, I saw the knife resting safely inside. You also get a Japanese 5-yen coin (there’s a cool story about this, which is also included with your knife) and a certificate of authenticity.
In a word, the aesthetic of the Seki Kyuba Kata knife is breathtaking. I received their Mediterranean blue handle, but they also offer a natural brown and olive green color for this style of knife. The blade has a hammered finish at the back (near the non-sharp edge) and a smooth, stylish core steel finish in the middle.
While the blade is elegant and refined, the standout feature of this knife is the handle. The wood they use for this handle is a limited European stabilized maple burl wood, which is dried for 2 years. It then takes 1 week to dye, shape, and attach the handle to each knife. Each handle is made by an artisan in Europe, and the natural wood used ensures that each handle has its own unique design and pattern.
The top “collar” of the handle utilizes a waterproofed bog oak wood that is at least 2,000 years old!
About Seki Kyuba Kata Bunka Chef Knife
The Seki Kyuba KATA Chef’s Knife Bunka is considered an all-purpose or general-use knife. This means you can use it to slice and dice most food items, from fruits and vegetables to meats and seafood. Of course, you should avoid using this knife when cutting through harder items like bones (even fish bones) or frozen items, even though this knife can do that.
The blade is made from VG10 steel forged by seasoned knifemakers. VG10 is a stainless steel that holds its sharpness quite well. It is quite durable and easy to sharpen. The one thing you need to be careful of is rust. While this is a stainless steel blade, it can form rust if you don’t care for it properly. You will need to remove the rust as soon as if forms to ensure the longevity of your knife. If you care for it properly, a VG10 blade shouldn’t have any problems with rust over its lifetime.
Testing the Knife
Whenever I get a new knife, I like to test it out over a couple of months of daily use to see how it holds up under normal usage and how comfortable it is to use. I used this knife almost daily (and even multiple times per day) for the last two months.
The Seki Kyuba knife feels very light and is well-balanced. It has a double beveled edge, meaning right-handed and left-handed people can use this knife.
As expected, it cut exceptionally well right out of the box. Slicing through harder vegetables like carrots, daikon, and potatoes was effortless, as the sharp blade did all the work. It was also sharp enough to slice through delicate items like whole tomatoes without squashing them. I could easily cut thin slices out of tomatoes and avocados. The design of this knife’s blade has a reversed tip, which you can use for more detailed cutting jobs. I used to take out the top stem and upper core of tomatoes.
A real test for me is when I use a knife to cut bunches of green onions, which is commonly used in Japanese cooking. Cutting all the way through a big bunch of green onions (so they are completely severed without some being connected by thin strands of fiber) takes both technique and a sharp knife. Without both, you’ll have a lot of partially cut green onions. I was pleased to find that the Seki Kyuba knife had no problems cutting green onions into thin slices with ease.
For notoriously hard things to cut, like kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), this knife could cut through it well, but I prefer a Nakiri knife for jobs like this. A Nakiri is a Japanese vegetable knife. The Seki Kyuba has a thinner blade, which makes slicing through the pumpkin easier, but I prefer the Nakiri because of its thicker and wide-blade design. In theory, a thicker blade would make slicing through things more difficult, but it’s quite the opposite for me.
The thicker Nakiri blade provides more stability, making each cut feel more secure and safe. The wider, rectangular blade also makes cutting hard things like this safer by providing a better guide for your fingers to rest against. That being said, the Seki Kyuba Kata is a more versatile knife overall.
The Seki Kyuba also made light work of all the proteins I cut: chicken, beef, pork, and fish. I could cut through both raw and cooked proteins with ease. The sharpness of the blade also allowed me to cut thin slices out of things like beef and chicken, which came in handy for many of the dishes I made.
While this is not a sashimi knife, it cuts raw fish into sashimi-style slices smoothly and effortlessly. The only problem is that with general knives like this, you’ll find that raw fish sticks to the blade after each cut. It’s not a big deal, in my opinion, though, as it is easy to take the slices off the blade or to “brush” them off on the cutting board if you prefer to display your sashimi in nice rows.
Durability/Sharpness
Every knife in the world will get dull over time. The frequency that you will need to resharpen your blade depends on many factors, like the material of the blade, the design, how often you use it, and the type of things you cut. You’ll need to use quality whetstones to keep your knife sharp and in good condition.
After a month of near daily use, I found that the Seki Kyuba showed minimal signs of dulling. I did hone the blade with a honing rod intermittently (after heavy use or after a few light uses). However, after two months of pretty heavy use, I found some slight dulling in the blade.
The blade could still cut through soft things like tomatoes with ease (and without squashing them), but I had to put a little more effort into cutting things like green onions and bunches of herbs for it to make complete cuts. Also, cutting through bigger pieces of carrots took a little more effort to get through. Cutting through things like cooked chicken breasts would also “catch” and take a little more effort to get a complete, clean slice. But the difference was only very slight, and I have a feeling that many home cooks wouldn’t even notice.
That being said, I found the quality and durability of the blade to be top-notch. I’ve used other knives that would get much more dull in half the time. Overall, I would give the quality and durability of the blade a solid 9 out of 10.
Pros Vs: Cons
Pros:
- Quality blades made by artisans in Gifu, Japan
- Beautiful Design: The handle uses European maple bur wood and 2,000-year-old bog oak
- Each handcrafted knife is one-of-a-kind
- Lifetime guarantee
- 100-day return policy
Cons:
- Price
Who is This Knife For?
Professional chefs could use this knife for their work, but it is better suited for home cooks. Having worked in restaurants before, a kitchen’s hectic and often rough environment is no place for a designer knife like this.
This knife is perfect for home cooks who want a knife that can be used to prepare their daily meals and also brings style into their kitchen. This knife has a quality blade that makes cutting and preparing ingredients a pleasure. It is lightweight and can be used by both left and right-handed people. While any knife takes time to get used to, the Seki Kyuba’s size (18 cm) makes it easy to control and limits fatigue while cutting. Overall, this knife is perfect for home cooks who want a blend of utility and beautiful design.
Who This Knife Is NOT For
As mentioned above, a knife this beautiful would be a waste to use in professional kitchens by chefs. Also, serious home cooks, or home cooks who solely focus on the efficiency of a knife and don’t care about the aesthetics or design, could find knives with better blades at the same price point.
At the time of this article, the Seki Kyuba knife costs £295, or around $366 USD. Knives with similar quality blades can run anywhere from $200 to $500 or more. Those who don’t care about design and just want a knife with a quality blade could find many cheaper options than the Seki Kyuba. Or, at this price point ($366), you could find a knife with a higher quality blade. However, the Seki Kyuba is a very high quality knife that stands out with its beautiful design.
Also, Oishya has two policies that go beyond most other knife retailers I have seen. These two policies might warrant a higher price, even for those who want a quality blade without a fancy design.
First, they have a 100-day return policy. If you are unsatisfied in any way, you can return the knife within 100 days and get a full refund. Of course, the knife must be in the same, new condition that you received it in.
I find this amazing because most knife retailers usually have a 30-day return policy at best. I have even seen companies that offer refunds for damaged or defective products, but you cannot open the case that it comes in. How can you check the knife if you don’t open the case it’s in?
Another service they provide is a lifetime guarantee on your knife. This doesn’t mean they’ll replace your knife after 20 years due to normal wear and tear. This lifetime guarantee only covers “any defects in manufacturing and materials that functionally impair the product.” If you discover this type of defect, they will repair or replace your knife for free.
Please note that this lifetime guarantee does NOT cover things like:
- Damage to the knife caused by you (accidents or purposely damaging the knife)
- Damage from wear and tear from normal use
- Damage to the knife from theft or natural occurrences like fires
- Damage due to loss
- Damage due to improper storage
- Damage caused by commercial, professional, or workplace use
While there are many stipulations under this lifetime guarantee, Oishya is the only company I have seen that provides this service. Most other knife retailers I have seen only have a 14 or 30-day refund policy…if anything happens to your knife after that, you’re on your own.
Summary
If you’re looking for a high-quality knife forged by expert craftsmen in Japan AND exquisite style, the Seki Kyuba Chef’s Knife Bunka by Oishya is an excellent choice. The blade is both beautiful and practical, making cutting and prepping a breeze with its sharp and durable edge. The handle is a thing of beauty and is both comfortable and secure.
While the knife has a high price tag, the aesthetics, Oishya’s 100-day return policy, and lifetime guarantee make it worth it for those who want style and peace of mind.
For more information, you can check out and purchase the knife here: Oishya’s Seki Kyuba Chef Knife – Bunka
