Samura Meteora Nakiri Knife 173 mm

The Samura Meteora nakiri knife is a Japanese-style vegetable knife with a 173 mm blade. It is made for chopping, slicing and dicing vegetables and for preparing fruit. The whole knife is made of metal: a 5-layer VG-10 Damascus steel blade with a hammered finish and a stainless steel handle.

Blade and steel

The blade is made from VG-10 Damascus steel in 5 layers and hardened to 59–61 HRC. That hardness helps the edge stay sharp through plenty of vegetable prep, and a whetstone restores it when it starts to dull. A hard edge does ask for some care: keep it away from bones, frozen food and glass boards.

Like every Meteora knife, it is hand forged and undergoes convex sharpening, which means the sides of the blade curve gently into the cutting edge. The hammered finish leaves small indentations across the surface and gives the knife its distinctive look. The broad blade is 50 mm high.

Handle and balance

The stainless steel handle carries the hammered look on from the blade, giving the nakiri an all-metal appearance. SAMURA describes Meteora knives as well balanced, and the unusual design does not come at the expense of comfort or practicality. The knife weighs 218 g net and measures 304 mm overall.

Best uses

• Chopping and dicing vegetables
• Dicing onions
• Slicing vegetables thinly
• Shredding leafy vegetables
• Cutting and slicing fruit

Care and sharpening

Before first use, rinse the knife with hot water and wipe it dry. Wash it by hand with non-abrasive materials and dry it straight away; a dishwasher is not recommended, and the knife should not sit in the sink for long. Use it on wooden or plastic boards, never on glass, and leave bones to a SAMURA cleaver and frozen food to a double-sided saw knife with a serrated blade. Keep it in a brush block or knife holder where the blade does not touch metal items, hone it on a honing rod between sharpenings and resharpen on a whetstone at the original factory bevel angle of 15–17°.

About the Meteora series

Meteora knives are hand forged and designed with an extraterrestrial, outer-space aesthetic for cooks who want their knives to stand out. Every knife in the Meteora collection combines a hammered VG-10 Damascus steel blade with a hammered steel handle, and like all SAMURA knives, it comes with a 2-year warranty.