Does the Matsato work okay for left-handed cutting?

The finger hole doesn’t really care which hand you use, but the bevel does. On mine the edge is ground asymmetrically, so it steers a bit when I push straight down. If you’re used to lefty knives you’ll notice it in the first few cuts, otherwise it’s fine.

Lefties get way too hung up on finger holes. The real issue is the handle shape, and that thing is not neutral. I held one at a friend’s place and the grip forced my wrist into a weird angle.

The lefty thing is overblown for this knife. I used a Matsato for about four months as my main and the hand I use never crossed my mind while cutting. What got me was the size of the thing. It’s shorter than a normal chef knife and the blade has that tall santoku profile, so if you’re coming from a standard 8 inch knife it feels cramped. I do a lot of onions and potatoes and I kept running out of room on bigger stuff. Not a lefty problem, just a knife that runs small.

The finger hole actually did nothing for me. I have average sized hands and my index finger sat in there awkwardly, so I stopped using it after the first week. The handle is where I’d push back on the whole thing. It’s beech wood and mine started looking rough after a couple months of hand washing. Not cracked, just dull and dark around the rivets. For the price that’s fine but it’s not something I’d expect to last years.

Where I’ll disagree with what’s being said is acting like the blade shape is a real issue for lefties. It isn’t. You adapt in a day or two. The bigger question is whether a smaller santoku fits how you cook. If you’re doing quick veg prep it’s fine. If you break down a lot of bigger stuff you’ll want something longer. That’s the part I’d think about before buying, not which hand holds it.

I use mine left-handed and it’s been fine. The one thing I noticed is the wood handle gets a little slick if my hands are wet, so I just dry my grip more often. Other than that it cuts straight for me.

I’m left-handed and actually bought one a few months back, mostly because I kept seeing clips of it and figured it was cheap enough to just try. The lefty thing really was not the problem for me. What got me was that I naturally rest my index finger along the spine of a knife, and with the hole sitting right there, my finger kept wanting to drift into it instead of staying on top. Felt like the knife was fighting my usual grip for the first week or so.

After that adjustment period though, I kind of got used to it. The hole didn’t feel specifically right-handed to me, it just felt different. I do a lot of onions and peppers, nothing fancy, and it cut through those fine. The weight sits back toward the handle a bit more than my old knife, which I actually ended up liking once I stopped noticing it.

I still reach for my old santoku when I’m doing a big batch of stuff, but the Matsato gets used plenty for quick meals. So for me it works left-handed, just not the same way it probably works for a righty.

If it were me, I’d just grab it and try it in the store or order from somewhere with easy returns before making it my main knife. I’m not left-handed so I can’t give you the exact feel, but I did borrow my roommate’s Matsato for a couple weeks when my own knife was getting sharpened. One thing I noticed is the blade is pretty symmetric, so there’s not much of a right-hand bias built into the shape itself. The finger hole is the bigger question mark since that’s the part that actually touches your hand. For me it sat fine, but I could see it depending more on finger size than which hand you use. My roommate is a lefty actually and she never complained about it, though she mostly does veggie prep and not a ton of heavy cutting. So I’d say try it, and if the grip feels awkward return it.