Meant to add this tip to my last post that I picked it up from a Japanese knife shop, which is to regularly use Jif to clean off any minor oxidisation. The knife is placed flat on a chopping board, the handle butted up against the edge of the board, add a dab of Jif (as in Unilever's kitchen paste cleaner) and then brush repeatedly and firmly off the edge. I wouldn't use Jif on any knife where I wanted to keep the 'forged skin' intact... it will eventually abrade through it... but that is not an issue on knives that came with a ground surface to the cladding.
My preference is to use Cerapol (ceramic cooktop cleaner), which has no abrasive in the paste, so obviously chemicals do the business. It works quickly at removing any tarnish and then I thoroughly remove the Cerapol to ensure that none of the chemicals remain on the blade. As the chemical composition is not disclosed (but the the safety directions warn against contact with skin or eyes, so likely to be alkalis), you will need to decide on the risk of using it on an implement that comes in contact with food.
Back on knife kits, my BIL & wife gave me the book 'Cool Tools: Cooking Utensils from the Japanese Kitchen', Klippensteen, K. & Konishi, Y., Kodansha Int., Yokyo, 2006. She (Noriko) is Japanese and knows of my knife passion from her visits with us. As can be expected, the book is full of eye candy with pared down accompanying information. Knives take pride of place in the first section. It contains the following advice from Aritsugu (who have made Japanese knives for 400 years) on their recommended quintet for the "five basic knives that every [Japanese] household should stock":
- Petty (double bevel)
- Yanagi-ba (single bevel)
- Heavy Deba-bocho (single bevel)
- Santoko-bocho (double bevel)
- Nakiri-bocho (double bevel) or Nakiri-bocho (single bevel)
I have never had or felt the need for a Yanagi, as I rarely prepare fish or sushi, but regularly use the other four. And. if you prepare a lot of red meat a Gyuto is a good substitute for the Santoku.