What Japanese Knife Should You Buy Second? (UK Guide)

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Updated August 2026 · 8 min read · UK Japanese-steel knife specialists

Buying your first good knife is the easy decision. Almost everyone lands on a chef knife or a santoku, uses it for everything, and is happy. The second knife is harder, because the obvious upgrade — a slightly different, slightly bigger version of what you already own — is usually the wrong one.

The useful question isn't "what's the next best knife?" It's "what is my first knife actually bad at?" Answer that honestly and the second purchase picks itself. For most UK home cooks it comes down to four candidates: a nakiri for volume vegetable prep, a petty for small fiddly work, a bread knife for anything with a crust, or a boning knife if you break down meat and fish. You can see all of them in our single knives range.

Start with the gap, not the shape

A good 8-inch chef knife or 7-inch santoku will do perhaps 85% of everything you do at a board. That is why it is the right first buy. But the remaining 15% splits neatly into four gaps, and each one has a knife shaped for it.

The volume gap. Your chef knife has a curved belly, so it wants to rock. That's fine for a shallot; it's tiring for two kilos of carrots, cabbage and squash. A flat-profiled knife that goes straight down onto the board — a nakiri — is meaningfully faster and less work.

The precision gap. A 200mm blade is unwieldy for topping strawberries, deveining prawns, peeling in your hand or trimming fat off a chop. Anything you'd naturally do off the board wants a smaller blade.

The crust gap. This one is absolute rather than a matter of preference. A straight edge cannot saw through a hard crust without crushing the crumb, no matter how sharp it is. Only a serrated blade does that job.

The bone-and-joint gap. Jointing a chicken, trimming silverskin or filleting a fish needs a narrow, flexible blade that follows bone. Forcing a wide chef knife through joints is how good knives get chipped.

Pick the gap you hit most often in a normal week. That's your second knife. Everything else is a third or fourth purchase.

Four second knives worth owning

All four are the same family of steel we sell across the range: a high-carbon Japanese VG10 or AUS-10 stainless core, ground to roughly 15° per side rather than the ~20° typical of European knives. They hold an edge well and they are not fussy — they don't rust in normal use, but they do want hand-washing and drying.

One more worth naming: if your cooking is meat-led, the Haruta 6″ VG10 Boning Knife (£79.99, 4.87 from 111 reviews) is the honest answer for you rather than any of the four above. It's a narrow blade built to follow bone, and it will save your main knife from the chips that jointing causes.

Compared at a glance

Knife	Price	Fills the gap	Buy it if
Haruta 7″ Nakiri	£89.99	Volume veg prep	Most of your board time is vegetables
Minato Petty	£69.99	Small, in-hand work	Your big knife feels clumsy for little jobs
Haruta 10″ Bread	£89.99	Crusts and skins	You buy or bake real bread
Riku 5″ Utility — best value	£59.99	Small work, on a budget	You want the gap filled for under £60
Haruta 6″ Boning	£79.99	Bone, joints, fish	You break down whole birds or fish

Three second knives we'd talk you out of

A second chef knife in a different size. Going from an 8-inch to a 9.5-inch chef knife feels like an upgrade in the shop and changes almost nothing at home. You'd be paying to duplicate the 85% you already cover. If you genuinely want a longer blade, that's a replacement, not a second knife.

A block set, bought to "fill out" the collection. Sets are excellent value when you're starting from nothing — that's the case we make in our guide to knife sets. But if you already own one knife you like, a set means paying again for a chef knife you don't need. Buy the two blades you're missing instead.

A traditional single-bevel specialist. Single-bevel knives such as a usuba or a yanagiba are beautiful and genuinely specialist, but they're sharpened on one side only, they're handed, and they need more skill to maintain. They're a fourth or fifth knife for someone deep into the hobby, not a second one. There's more on the difference in our guide to single bevel vs double bevel.

How much should a second knife cost?

Less than your first, usually. The first knife earns its price because you use it every day; a second knife covers a narrower job, so the sensible spend is lower.

As a rough guide for Japanese-steel knives in the UK: under £40 is the zone where the steel is generally softer and the edge won't last, £50–£100 is where the VG10 and AUS-10 blades sit and where nearly everyone should be buying, and £150+ buys finish, handle materials and presentation rather than a sharper edge. A second knife almost always belongs in that middle band.

One caveat worth being straight about: a bread knife is the exception where spending less is defensible. Serrations do the work, they last for years, and you can't easily resharpen them at home, so a mid-priced serrated blade is not a compromise in the way a cheap chef knife is.

Two knives means twice the sharpening

This is the part people forget. A second knife doubles the maintenance, and a blunt second knife gets left in the drawer — which is the most common way a good purchase turns into a waste of money.

The honest answer is that if you don't already own a sharpening stone, buy one before you buy a third knife. A combination whetstone handles both blades, restores an edge properly rather than grinding it away, and costs less than most of the knives on this page. Our step-by-step whetstone guide walks through it from scratch, and how often to sharpen covers the timing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best second knife to buy after a chef knife?

For most home cooks, a nakiri. Its flat edge and tall blade make bulk vegetable prep noticeably faster than a curved chef knife, and it does not duplicate anything your first knife already does well. If you rarely prep large amounts of veg, choose instead by what your chef knife physically cannot do: a serrated bread knife for crusty loaves, a petty for small in-hand work, or a boning knife for meat and fish.

How many kitchen knives do I actually need?

Three covers almost every home kitchen: one large all-rounder such as a chef knife or santoku, one small knife such as a petty or paring knife, and one serrated bread knife. A nakiri and a boning knife are the two most worthwhile additions after that, depending on whether you cook mostly vegetables or mostly meat.

Is a nakiri or a santoku the better second knife?

It depends on your first knife. If you already own a chef knife, a nakiri is the better second buy because it is genuinely different — flat edge, tall blade, straight-down cutting. A santoku overlaps a chef knife heavily and would duplicate what you have. If your first knife was a santoku, the nakiri is still a step forward for vegetables, but a petty or bread knife may add more.

Should I buy a knife set instead of a second single knife?

Not usually. Sets are good value when you are starting with nothing, but if you already own a knife you are happy with, a set means paying a second time for a large all-rounder you do not need. Buying the one or two specific blades you are missing is almost always cheaper and leaves you with no unused knives.

What is a petty knife used for?

A petty is the Japanese small utility knife, typically around 120–150mm. It sits between a paring knife and a chef knife, so it works both in the hand — peeling, hulling, deveining — and on the board for shallots, garlic and herbs. It is the knife most people pick up dozens of times a day without noticing.

Do I need a different whetstone for my second knife?

No. One combination whetstone sharpens every double-bevel knife you own, whatever the shape, because they are all ground to a similar angle of roughly 15 degrees per side. The exception is a serrated bread knife, which cannot be sharpened flat on a stone in the normal way and generally does not need to be for years.

How much should I spend on a second kitchen knife?

Usually less than you spent on your first. In the UK, £50–£100 is the band where Japanese VG10 and AUS-10 stainless blades sit, and that is the right place for a second knife. Below about £40 the steel is generally softer and the edge will not last; above £150 you are mostly paying for finish and handle materials rather than a sharper edge.

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