Chef Knife 8 inch, Damascus Japanese Kitchen Knife with Sharp 67 Layer Vg10 Damascus Stainless Steel Professional Cutting Meat Vegetable

I didn't expect much from this knife but it outperformed my expectations. I use it to cut cured tuna and salmon for sashimi and I can cut the fish much thinner than I would have been able to with one of my daily use knives. I don't know if that means this knife is great, or if it's just because I only use it for this one purpose. Anyways it looks really cool.

Such a nice well balanced and quality made knife. This knife is a perfect addition to my ever expanding cooking knife collection. This thing is razor sharp which means it's simple and easy to use. For the price point of this one I am impressed with it so far and will update my review as I use it over time.

Sharp

Ive been using this knife for a couple months now and it still is a s sharp as the day i bought it. It cuts through almost anything I have cooked including chicken bones and pineapple husk. The only thing that would make this knife better is if it came in its own personalized Sheath.

Gave this knife to my sister in law as a gift, she loves it! Says it is the sharpest knife she owns. Thanks me often.

This review is for what they call the 1 - 8 inch Chefs/Gyuto style knife. First it is mislabeled as a gyuto and it isn't. It is a Kiritsuke which is good for me because that is the style I wanted and I ordered it because of its kiristuke shape and didn't mind the wrong name they gave it. It came well packaged in a nice box which was better packaging then my 23 piece set of Shun Classics that I own come in. Upon first seeing it the Damascus pattern is nowhere near as visible as the pictures on the product page. I couldn't see it at all while it laid in the box, it just looked silver. It comes wrapped in a clear plastic bag with a plastic tip guard and and a matching plastic heel guard. I immediately noticed the tip guard was loose in the bag not attached to the tip but the heel guard was in place. I pulled it out of the bag and removed the heel guard. First impressions it looks very high quality and expensive to the eye even though I know it's not which surprised me. Then I start to inspect it and it quickly goes down hill. The Damascus pattern is very faint and not much is visible of each layer. It can only be seen if light is shining right on the blade and viewed at a certain angle. Nowhere near as nice as the Shun pattern or as much of each layer showing. I'm not convinced this is even Damascus let alone 67 layers. The only layer you can feel is the transition from the core edge steel to the first layer of cladding. After that it is glass smooth all the way to the spine. My Shun's you can feel the Damascus layers bumpyness and ridges. So this might just be a San Mai with three pieces of steel with fake etching. Next the tip of the blade is snapped off. Not a lot maybe a millimeter or so. Hard to capture on camera but to the naked eye immediately visible. Then in the light I start checking the full length of the blade. On the right side there is the remnants of a stress fracture from the forging about an inch long that runs perpendicular to the blade and runs from the blade edge towards the spine about an inch long. Hard to see the full length in the photos in person it is clear. They ground it down and polished it so there is no visible crack line but you can see the fatal weak point in the steel where the blade will likely snap. Lastly the thin gold ring at the base of the bolster is slightly larger in diameter than the black wood handle it is fitted up against causing it to stick out. The edge of the gold ring that sticks out is very sharp and might cut you during use or handling. That is it for this knife. It will be returned as it is unsafe and likely to break at anytime. To an amateur this knife will look and feel amazing. It is so close to being an amazing knife. It looks the part from a foot away. The size, weight and design are good the execution failed. I also ordered the Nakiri from them which is getting delivered tomorrow we'll see how that turns out. Update: Nakiri arrived today and also returned it. It looked to be a return that was resold. The tip and heel guards were both off one in the bag one out of the bag. Which isn't possible unless someone had opened it previously and repacked it and just tossed the other guard in the box. The blade had multiple pit/dimple marks in the steel on layer transition lines which looks like they might have been the start of de-laminations if this is real Damascus which I'm not convinced it is. The gold ring at the base of the bolster has the same problem on the Nakiri also. It is slightly larger in diameter then the handle so it sticks out and the edge of the ring is very sharp. Next the weight of the Nakiri is very forward heavy. Despite all this I was thinking of keeping it until I checked the sharpness. Near the middle of the blade there was a two inch long dull section. That was the end for me. I returned it with the other one and requested replacements for both. One last chance for this brand if the two new ones have issues they will go back and I will switch to a different brand. Update #2: Both replacements arrived the steel looks to be free of any defects to the naked eye unlike the first two which had multiple. Both of the new ones had the same sharp oversized gold ring next to the bolster. The one on the new Nakiri was sharp enough to cut the surface layer of the skin on my index finger when I rubbed it on the edge that sticks out. It didn't go deep enough to draw blood but it cut my skin. Both of the new ones blades were not very sharp either. Average to dull sharpness on most of the blade length with spots of adequate sharpness at the the last inch and half of the tip and base of the blades. Nearly the whole middle length of the blades are dull which is the most important part of the blade as that is where most cutting is done. So my options were send them back again or sharpen them myself and file down the dangerous bolster ring. I ended up keeping them both. I just finished sharpening them both so they would be adequately sharp. I then taped off above and below the bolster ring and filed the sharp edge of both of them with a small gunsmithing file to blunt the edge so it won't cut me if use them. Doing this cut a very small channel into the black handle material which was unavoidable and I was ok with that. All in all this brand is very inconsistent two of four knives had very bad steel imperfections. 3 of 4 were dull. 4 of 4 had poor parts fitment with bolster rings being bigger than the handle and sharp enough to potentially cut you while holding it. Can't recommend with this record. I only got them to try out the Kiritsuke and Nakiri style of blades to see if I like them over Santoku's which I predominantly use. I didn't want to get the Shun versions which all my other knives are in case I didn't like how they feel it wouldn't be a waste of $300 to $400. So I thought I would give these a try as a cheap test.

Love it!

I use this knife all the time. I use it for meat, veggies, fruits and all things prep. Consistently sharp. Mind the little lip of blade near the handle!! sharp, sharp, sharp so plan your grip accordingly. Great purchase. My husband keeps waiting for it to dull so he can see how well it sharpens. I'll update the post as needed