Introduction

Love sushi and sashimi, but hate the price of eating out? We all know that feeling en esta economia. A partial solution is to learn how to prepare raw fish and sushi at home. Who wouldn’t like to be able to make a halfways-decent set of nigiri or several rolls for a fraction of the price at your downtown sushi spot? It’s also such a great skill to impress friends, loved ones, and dates with. 

Let’s preface this by saying that most home cooks are never going to reach the skill level of the average Japanese sushi chef. But what you save on regular cheap and cheerful sushi can be funneled into the piggy bank for a splurge on Special Occasion Sushi Restaurants. You know the kind we mean. 

Preparing sushi and sashimi begins with a good fish knife. Here’s how you build a Japanese fish knife collection that will take you from fish to finished dish in no time at all. 

Begin with one or two core knives

Most of you wouldn’t commit to a marriage on the first date. Treat knives the same way, and test the waters with a small, versatile setup that lets you prep fish without diving straight into super specialised single-bevel knives. 

For most home cooks, one or two double‑bevel knives are enough to prep most sushi‑grade fish and portion fillets — not perfect, but good enough. Double‑bevel knives are sharpened on both sides, similar to Western chef’s knives, so they feel familiar, are easier to control, and are more forgiving as you practice angles and pressure.

The first knife to try is a gyuto. A gyuto in the 210–240 mm range can handle almost all relevant fish and sushi-related tasks and more. Think trimming bloodlines (not the human kind), portioning fillets, cutting maki rolls, and general prep like vegetable-slicing and garnishes. It’s essentially the Japanese take on a Western chef’s knife, but usually thinner and sharper at the edge, which helps you make cleaner cuts in delicate fish flesh without crushing or tearing it.

The next is a sujihiki. At around 240-270mm, it is somewhat longer than a gyuto. A sujihiki is a double-bevel slicing knife designed for smooth, pull cuts along the grain of meat and fish. It’s similar to a Western-friendly sashimi knife, in that you can slice sashimi portions, trim loins, and plate neat slices with less damage to the surface so the fish keeps its shine and texture. The slim blade reduces drag, so you’re less likely to leave visible “sawing” marks when you slice.

Both of the above knives will take the beginner home cook quite far. An optional but nice extra at this stage is a flexible fillet or boning knife. The flexibility helps you stay close to the bone and follow the natural curves of the fish, which reduces waste. For smaller, softer fish like mackerel, sardines, or horse mackerel, a flexible fillet or boning knife is much more approachable than the traditional deba. 

Add one or two specialist fish knives

When you’ve come to enjoy and feel confident with prepping raw fish for sushi and sashimi, the next step is to add one or two specialist fish knives. 

The first is the deba — a traditional Japanese knife for breaking down whole fish. This is a thick, heavy, single-bevel blade, typically around 165-180mm for home cooks. It has a triangular blade and a stout spine, designed to remove heads, split along the backbone, and lift off fillets with control rather than brute force. 

Different parts of the blade are for different tasks. The heel is for handling head removal, collars, and small bones. The middle section lifts fillets of the frame, using the knife’s weight to glide smoothly through flesh. The tip is for fine work such as slicing open the belly, tracing the backbone, and trimming bloodlines. (Not the human sort!) 

In practice, that means one deba can take a whole fish from “intact” to clean fillets, then also trim and skin without switching tools. Many home cooks also use a deba on chickens, such as cutting through cartilage and trimming meat. Just remember not to saw through the bones. 

Where a deba shines is with breaking down whole fish like salmon, horse mackerel, yellowtail, sea bream, and mackerel. Working with a whole fish is more cost-effective, and as a bonus, you get bones and heads for stock. 

However, you have to want to work with whole fish enough to learn new techniques (cutting and sharpening), and you’ll need a softer cutting board. If you mostly buy pre‑filleted fish and just slice sashimi at home, skip the deba and get thee a sujihiki or yanagiba. 

The second knife to add is a yanagiba. This is a classic long sashimi knife, perfect for making single, smooth, long pull cuts that leave the surface of the fish glossy, cells and muscle fibres as intact as possible. The yanagiba is a single-bevel knife, with blades typically measuring around 240-270mm. Professional yanagiba blades can measure up to 300mm. 

At this stage, then, your fish knife collection should consist of a gyuto and/or sujihiki, a deba (if working with whole fish), and a yanagiba. This mirrors what most professional and traditional guides recommend as a standard fish knife toolkit for serious home cooks. 

Refine the collection even further

But wait, there’s more! If you want to collect all the Pokemon — uh, fish knives, you can add a few more knives that are tailored to specific fish or cuts. Welcome to the world of specialised fish knives. 

Enter the mioroshi deba. This single‑bevel Japanese fish knife has a longer, slimmer, and thinner blade than a standard deba (often around 210–270 mm).

A hon-deba is capable of heavy tasks like beheading or cutting through softer bones. A mioroshi focuses on clean filleting, trimming, and light slicing. In other words, it’s made to glide along bones and through long fillets, not to chop through heads or thick spines.

Compared with a regular deba, the spine of a mioroshi is thinner and the profile narrower. This makes it lighter to wield, and is great for medium-sized fish like salmon, sea bream, red snapper, or yellowtail loins. It can absolutely stand in for a yanagiba when it comes to basic sashimi slicing, but it won’t quite match the finish you get with a dedicated yanagiba. 

Why, then, should the home cook consider the mioroshi deba? 

This knife is especially useful if you often buy whole medium fish but don’t want to invest in both a full deba and a yanagiba yet. One knife can neatly fillet and then portion the same fish. It’s a hybrid stepping stone to a Serious Fish Knife Collection. So really, some of you could just skip the deba and yanagiba pair for this. 

Then there are nice-to-have tools for specific fish and techniques. For example, there’s the takobiki. As the name suggests, it’s usually associated with slicing octopus, but can also be used for sashimi. 

Another is the fugubiki. This is an ultra-thin sashimi knife designed for making super thin slices, especially of firm white fish like, well, fugu (blowfish). One can shave almost transparent slices of fish with great control. Overkill for most home cooks, but a great way to show off your skills. 

Lastly, there are knives like the kiritsuke and sakimaru yanagiba. These are basically variants on yanagiba with modified tips and different balance. A kiristuke has an angled ‘k-tip’ point, while the sakimaru has a more sword-like tip. These are for cooks who love making decorative cuts and ridiculously intricate trimming. Again, a nice way to show off your skills. 

How to care for your fish knives

The same advice for Japanese knife care also applies to fish knives. It’s about cleaning (and therefore preventing rust), protecting the edge, and sharpening blades the right way. 

Cleaning and rust prevention

• Always wash by hand immediately after use with mild dish soap and a soft sponge. Then, dry it thoroughly with a towel. 
• Don’t let the knife air-dry. Don’t leave it wet! 
• Never put it in the dishwasher. 
• Wipe the blade promptly if you’ve been cutting acidic or salty foods, such as tomatoes, citrus, onions, fish, anchovies, etc. These can stain or corrode both carbon and stainless steels over time.  
• For carbon steel knives, get into the habit of wiping the blade during use and drying it as soon as you’re done. For long breaks or humid climates, apply a very thin coat of food‑safe oil like camellia or mineral oil before storage.

Protecting the edge in daily use  

• Use suitable cutting surfaces. Wood, soft rubber, or decent plastic boards are all acceptable.
• Avoid using cutting boards made of glass, stone, metal, or very hard bamboo, which will quickly dull or chip a thin edge.  
• Unless they are specialised knives for the task, don’t use them on bones, frozen foods, shells, or very hard rinds. 
• Never twist or pry if the blade sticks—gently back it out with a straight or slicing motion.
• Store knives so their edges can’t hit other metal. For example, in a block, on a wooden or well‑made magnetic strip, or in sayas/blade guards, not loose in a drawer.

Sharpening 

• Single-bevel fish knives are designed to be maintained on whetstones. Most of the work is done on the beveled face, with light maintenance of the concave back of the blade. 
• For the double-bevel knives like gyuto and sujihiki, you alternate sides and consistent angles to form a centered edge. It’ll take some practice on a whetstone. In terms of stones sed, a basic progression of about 1000 grit (to restore sharpness) and 2000–3000 grit (to refine and polish) is enough. 
• Use light, even strokes at a consistent angle, generally in the 10–15° per‑side range unless the maker specifies otherwise.  
• It is best to touch up edges before they become very dull so you’re maintaining the bevel rather than rebuilding it from scratch.
• Start with more forgiving steels (i.e. not the super premium knives) and practice with smaller, less expensive fish and off-cuts before tackling the fancy fillets. 
  

Bonus: What kind of cutting boards should one use?

A general rule of thumb is that hard cutting boards do not play nice with Japanese kitchen knives. There is no point spending all that money on a hand-forged Japanese knife if you then use a cheap, crappy cutting board that will chip and ruin the edge. 

For filleting, skinning, portioning, and slicing sashimi, choose a medium-soft knife‑friendly board. Woods like cedar and maple work well, as do synthetic rubber boards. They’re firm enough for precise cuts but soft enough that a thin yanagiba or deba can bite in without chipping. Avoid materials like glass, stone, or hard bamboo. You and your knife will regret it. 

Hygiene and cross-contamination is also important. Serious home cooks tend to have a dedicated fish cutting board, often a plastic or rubber board that’s color‑coded and can handle very hot, soapy scrubs or the dishwasher. 

Wood is a great material for Japanese knives and comes with some natural anti-bacterial advantages. However, it must be maintained regularly — kept dry between uses, oiled periodically, and retired if it develops deep cracks or persistent odors. 

Plastic isn’t quite as kind on a knife edge as good wood or rubber, but it’s easy to sanitize and cheap to replace, making it a good “sacrifice” surface for raw fish if you’re worried about smell and bacteria. Don’t think too much about the microplastics. 

Whatever you choose, basic care matters. Rinse off as much scale and slime from whole fish under running water before it even touches the board. Wash boards immediately after use with hot water and detergent. 

For wooden cutting boards, dry them upright to allow air to circulate around it. Apply mineral oil or a board conditioner periodically to prevent cracking. Any board with deep cuts or cracks that you can’t clean properly should be retired, since those grooves can harbour bacteria and odours. Plus, the knife edges won’t like them either.