Reviewing the new Mac Knife Santuko Knife Set
Article by Anthony Arnold – PremiumKnives.com
MAC Corporation was
founded in 1964 by T. Kobayashi, a creative Japanese designer. The
ideal of Mac Knives; a knife series that is sharper, lighter, less expensive, and more
ergonomically designed than any other existing brand, was formed by Kobayashi while working as a chef,
studying in the US for his design degree. Kobayashi was disappointed with the low quality and high cost of the knives available in
the US market, compared to the less expensive knives from his home of Seki City Japan, the historical
epicenter of super premium cutlery and sword making.
The
Original series
of Mac Knives were formed while cooking one day when the heavy knife Kobayashi was using fell and lodged
itself in the floorboards between his feet. When he tried to get it loose, the tip of the blade broke off.
Instead of throwing the knife away, Kobayashi ground a rounded tip and found that for many tasks it was
actually easier to work with than pointy knives and added a margin of safety while working in the tight
confines of a commercial kitchen – and so the classic rounded tip of Mac Knives was born with more design
ideas soon to follow.
Along with the
Original series, featuring the rounded tip that started Mac Knives, the current Mac Knife lines are
manufactured in Seki City Japan, and includes a Chef Series imitating both the fatter classic western style
and thinner European blade profiles, a Professional series with forged bolsters like those found in German
style knives, a Japanese series which includes sushi, deba, and boning
knives, a limited knife line of
Ultimate and Superior series knives which feature upgraded steel, and even a outdoor sports knife line.
Mac Knife has further expanded to include a line of Mac
Knife accessories. The company is unique in that all
knife shapes are not available in every style and as is typical in Japan, knife styles are meant to be mixed
to fit each person’s unique cooking style. A unique “whatever works for you”, approach in the cutlery industry that we at
PremiumKnives.com applaud, yes that is correct, we believe every knife in your set does not have to match.
Mac Knife has now sold over 25 million knives, a tiny number
when compared to some of the more popular German knife brands available, however we believe choosing the road
less traveled in this case is a very good thing indeed. Mac Knife is the underdog of the cutlery industry, no fancy advertising, no paid
celebrities touting their greatness and they are not available in every chain gourmet shop across the country.
Mac Knife of Japan has been quietly discovered by thousands of customers like you over the last year due in
part to the wonderful article in Cook’s Illustrated raving about the Mac Santuko knife.
The memories of a great article will only linger so long – Mac Knife’s long term popularity since
their introduction in 1964 to the US has been the phenomenal word of mouth and personal recommendations of
friends, family, and fellow chefs that are using Mac Knives which continue to make Mac one of our number one
selling knife brands. PremiumKnives.com has been the largest
retailer of Mac Knives for over five years and due to the rave reviews, emails, and positive comments, we
believe the popularity of Mac Knives has only begun.
About the Santuko
Santuko knives are a bit of a mystery, they are too large to
be called a utility knife, but to small to be called a chef’s knife, yet somehow perform almost all utility
and chef knife tasks effortlessly. The santuko’s smaller size
also makes it one of the most approachable knives available for the beginner chef, but can be deftly wielded
in the hands of a professional. The handy size and shape of the
Santuko style blade has found its way into many kitchens, restaurants, and Food Network programs as the “go
to” favorite knife, but why? Statistically, according to a recent customer survey of PremiumKnives.com customers, we
found that our customer cut hard bonelike items in the kitchen less than 2% of the time, 87% softer foods such
as meats and soft vegetables, and the remaining 11% are harder items such as carrots, hard cheese, and
chocolate. Additionally our survey indicated that over 92% of
daily cutting tasks were performed utilizing the utility to chef knife category.
As it turns out the performance of the Santuko knife is perfectly suited for all normal cutting tasks
90+% of the time and as such it quickly becomes the knife we are always reaching for.
The Ergonomics and Usability
We rounded up our normal group of testers, of varying cooking
experience, and began testing Mac Knife’s Superior Series Santuko knives – the touted Mac SK-65 Santuko
and the newer Santuko SK-40 paring knife.
We started with evaluating the Santuko Paring knife included
in the new Mac Knife Santuko knife set (SK-6540), a knife size and style that has been requested over and over
by customers of both Mac Knife and PremiumKnives.com. The Mac Knife Santuko Paring knife fits into the large paring/small utility knife size with
a handy 4-inch blade. The knife provides all the great advantages
of the santuko style in a smaller utility/paring size. We found
its fat blade to be the perfect morning knife for cutting bagels and making quick work of spread-able toppings
such as peanut butter and/or jelly. What else can it do?
We tested it as a paring knife with a routine seen around the US on most holidays, paring and
quartering potatoes, making some edible plate decorations, and as a really handy cheese and hors d'oeuvre
knife – performing all tasks with aplomb. The Santuko paring
knife may also be the answer for most of us who rarely use or need a boning knife, it seemed to provide all
the dexterity and flexibility for smaller boning jobs such as cutting up ribs before boiling and boning a
small chicken, although if you process and de-bone much whole meat at home on a regular basis a boning knife
would be better choice. Many of the testers thought the Santuko
paring knife was a better choice for most home chefs than a paring knife, as one tester put it “the other
363 days of the year when I’m not peeling potatoes I could actually use this knife – it has a lot of
utility”. The handle is made of the same resin impregnated wood that Mac utilizes on all its’ knives and
seemed comfortable for the various hand sizes of the group, even during extended cutting. Everyone agreed that
the boxy style handle afforded a comfortable, secure, easy-to-use grip in a variety of grips required by the
task.
The
focus next turned to the nationally touted, featured, tested, and reviewed
Mac Knife 7 inch Santuko. Our findings varied very little from
the glowing reviews of others, in that the Mac Santuko knife was extremely comfortable to use and proved to be
one of the most useful kitchen knife sizes and styles our testers had encountered – although most of our
testers were biased and already owned a santuko style knife. One
of our testers confirmed our survey results that the Mac Santuko was her first knife, that she felt
comfortable with the overall size as she started her adventure into gourmet cooking.
An additional attribute, which was not as apparent in the paring knife, was the thinner blade of Mac
Knives.
The larger santuko’s blade is approximately half the
thickness of most traditional chef’s knives and as a result passes through food noticeably easier and more
precisely. When compared to a standard 8-inch chef knife the Santuko is shorter and much easier to
manage, more precise, and much easier to control for daily cutting chores.
At the urging of one of our favorite professional chefs, who believes the Santuko to be the ultimate
all-purpose-knife, we began testing the knife on tasks that one would think the Santuko is not up to; boning
several chickens and a roast and even making sushi and sushi rolls. We
agreed with our chef friend, that that the utility of the Santuko is tough to beat.
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continued -
During testing one rarely mentioned feature of the
SK-65 Mac Santuko knife was noticed – limited sticking. A benefit of sandblasting the half-inch area a
directly above the cutting edge for the entire length of the blade. According to Mac Knives, this feature is included on all their larger Superior series
knives and helps limit sticking of foods such as cheeses and cucumbers and we found it functioned as designed. Due to the smaller size, Mac deemed un-necessary to add this finish on the Santuko paring
knife. Mac does have a Sushi Chef knife coated in Teflon, which
offers a greater reduction in sticking when dealing with foods such as sticky sushi rice, but the sandblasted
area on the Santuko did the trick in most cutting situations.
Cutting Performance
To answer the
question right from the start, yes we believe that Mac Knives are sharper, remain sharper, and perform better
longer than just about any knife we sell or at the very least tie with some of the best super premium knives
we have available, such as Shun. Many of the ideals of Mac Knives; a
knife series that is sharper, lighter, and more ergonomically designed, come through in the actual cutting
tasks.
The first thing that
strikes you as you are holding the knife and performing cutting tasks, is the knife is very light and the
blade is thin. Some may find this odd, if they are used to heavy
German style knives, however the precision and control you gain from the weight loss and thinner blades of the
Mac Knives is incredible.
An additional
benefit of the thin blade and fine edge, is sharpening is easy and very little steel needs to be removed to
maintain the edge. Generally only a pass or two on a sharpening steel is required to bring a Mac knife back to
a razor sharp edge. Because
of the minimum upkeep Mac Knives can last much longer than other knife brands, we are constantly amazed at the
number of customers, who were not replacing, but adding to their 20+ year old Mac Knife sets.
Many of the Mac
Knives look quite different from what we are used to in the US, the
Santuko is no different. The handle has a slight rise which makes
the knife surprisingly comfortable to use right from first use. The
extreme sharpness of the Mac Knife is tough to explain, one tester described it as feeling as though she was
in complete control of a straight razor, which performed, like her favorite utility knife.
Although not recommended, for those of you who like to thumb a knife’s edge, it feels slightly gritty
and “feels sharp”. According to Mac Knife, this feeling and
the performance that the edge delivers is due to one of the highest carbon and vanadium contents in the
industry that make Mac Knives extremely hard and very sharp. The
razor sharp edge faded only slightly by the end of our testing period and was easily returned to its’ former
sharpness with a few easy strokes on the Mac Ceramic steel (they even include use instructions for the steel).
The knife passed
cleanly through all variety of foods. As we all know food tastes better when it is cut cleanly versus torn (most apparent in
sushi). For those of us embracing Fung Shu principles, fast clean cuts preserve the chi of the food and help
increase the positive energy we consume – a good sharp knife is essential in Fung Shu.
These beliefs aside, a razor sharp knife such as the Mac Knife Santuko that cuts cleanly and precisely,
will make cooking more enjoyable.
Our Conclusion
In short we love the Mac Knife Santuko knives individually and especially as a set.
Other than adding perhaps the Mac BK-80 serrated bread/roast knife and the Mac SR-85 ceramic sharpening
steel into the set, our testers all agreed that when armed with these two knives there would be very little
that couldn’t be accomplished from a cooking perspective. One of our testers was so excited she labeled Mac
Knife as the “Quiet King of Cutlery” and is giving the Mac Santuko sets as presents for the holidays, we
could not help ourselves and put together some special offers on these great knives.
Special Mac Knife Offers exclusively from PremiumKnives.com
The Sous Chef Mac Knife Santuko Combo
– From a cutlery perspective, this set features everything you need to get cooking. The set includes Mac
Knife’s large Santuko, Santuko Paring knife, serrated bread knife, and ceramic sharpening steel.
This set is a great holiday gift for the chef or budding chef on your list.
(Boos butcher block sold separately)
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$155.00 $124.99 Advantage
Pricing
Item# MAC-SOUSCOMBO
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The Mac Superior Santuko Knife Set
- This set features Mac Knife’s large Santuko and the Santuko paring knife, a knife set that can
accomplish almost any cutting task with ease.
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$89.95 $71.99 Advantage
Pricing
Item# MAC-SK6540
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The Mac Santuko Paring Knife –
The perfect companion to the regular Mac Santuko knife. If you
already have the regular Santuko this knife will complete your set
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$35.95 $29.95
Item# MAC-SK40
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The Mac Santuko Chef Knife
– The much touted 7 inch bladed Santuko knife as featured in a multitude of print and television programs
including Cook's Illustrated as the best Santuko knife available.
Last year this knife broke all sales records as “the” holiday gift.
We expect it to be just as popular this holiday.
 |
$59.95 $48.99 Advantage
Pricing
Item# MAC-SK65
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Free Gift Wrapping on these specials
- Get your holiday shopping done early, all specials include free gift-wrapping – just ask.
(Please note in comments “FREE GIFT WRAPPING” when placing an order online or mention it when placing your
order via phone.) Free gift wrapping offer only available on above items by request on orders placed prior to
November 30th, 2005. Pieces in sets may be individually packaged and/or wrapped to assure adequate
protection..
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