A wooden cutting board displays a sharp knife alongside raw chicken pieces and chopped green onions, with additional ingredients in the background.

What Is a Honesuki Knife, and What Is It Used for?

Poultry lovers, rejoice!

By Rachel BaronMar 6, 2025
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Japanese knives are razor-sharp, durable, often highly specialized blades that are truly in a class of their own. After adopting three different stylesโ€”the Gyuto, the Santoku, and the Nakiriโ€”weโ€™re excited to spotlight another traditional Japanese knife style: the Honesuki. While designed for breaking down and deboning poultry, the Honesuki is actually a highly versatile knife, with a growing cadre of chefs and home cooks reaching for it over western-style boning knives.

But what, exactly, makes them so special? From their unique build, to that distinctive โ€œreverse-tantoโ€ tip, hereโ€™s everything that sets the Honesuki apart.

What Is a Honesuki Knife?

From a distance, a Honesuki knife looks strikingly similar to the Japanese Gyuto, with a long bottom edge, pointed tip, and pronounced heel. Look closer, however, and youโ€™ll see that the tip angles sharply downwards, almost like a ground-down Gyuto. This is called a โ€œreverse tanto tip,โ€ a core design feature that distinguishes the Honesuki from a western-style boning knife.

So what does the reverse tanto tip do? First off, it comes in incredibly useful when youโ€™re trying to separate meat from connective tissue or bone without tearing the flesh. Second, it increases the strength of the tip, which is extremely useful when youโ€™re butchering poultry or fish.

What Is a Honesuki Knife Used For?

A person is skillfully cutting a whole chicken with a large knife on a wooden cutting board in a kitchen setting.

The heavy, durable blade is useful for breaking down whole chickens, ducks and other poultry, while the fine, narrow tip is ideal for trimming fat and separating joints. Due to the precision tip, many find the honesuki useful for filleting fish and other small butchery tasks.

Benefits of Using a Honesuki Knife

  • The thick spine and triangular shape make for a strong, durable blade that can stand up to heavy use
  • A narrow, tapered tip offers precision and controlโ€”perfect for sliding between skin, fat, and bone
  • Compact and versatile enough to use for a range of butchery and prep-related tasks, as well as easy to store

How to Use a Honesuki Knife Properly

Like with any knife, proper grip and cutting technique are both crucial with a Honesuki: not only will this prevent slipping and injury, but itโ€™ll also help you cut more skillfully and efficiently. Make sure to choke up on the knife, with your thumb and forefinger pinching the base of the blade and your other three fingers wrapped tightly around the handle. Always hold the blade perpendicular to your body, and use a claw grip (fingers curled inward, with knuckles flush against the side of the blade). For more detailed step-by-step instructions, check out our guide to proper knife handling.

With the Honesuki specifically, we highly recommend against trying to cut through bone or anything extremely dense or hard, such as a whole kabocha squash. While high-carbon Japanese steel is strong, itโ€™s also fairly brittle, which means that it chips more easily than many Western-style knives.

Ready to Cook?

Padauk Wood
  • Limited Edition Damascus Honesuki
  • Padauk Wood
  • $229

Even if youโ€™re not often deboning poultry, this uniquely strong yet agile blade is a wonderfully versatile addition to your knife block. Thatโ€™s why weโ€™re excited to add the Honesuki to our Japanese Damascus Steel Knife Collection for a limited time, made from durable, high-carbon VG10 stainless steel for a reliable, long-lasting blade.