Medium Gyuto

It's very difficult to capture my reaction to this knife with a star rating, so hopefully you'll read on. For me personally, it's about 3/5 stars. But for you it may very well be a 5/5 star product. So I'll rate it for 4/5.The TL;DR is that it is generally excellent, however, one star comes off for its current $160 price (I paid a lot less somehow...) and one star comes off for me because the handle is a bit too small for me (though I do have larger than average hands, so). If you have more like average hands and the price is $100 or less, it's an excellent 5-star product.FIT/FINISH/MANUFACTURING QUALITYThe fit and finish and manufacturing quality is excellent. The damascus looks good, and is somewhat subtle but not cheap or fake looking. A lot like Shun's Classic series. The wood handle scales, bolster, rivets, and tang are all flush and well-finished. The kanji is screened-on rather than etched, obviously, but it looks well done for screened kanji. The spine and choil are eased so as not to be sharp, but they are not fully rounded, which is what you would expect in this class of knives.SHARPNESSI have bought dozens of specialty kitchen knives, and this is as sharp right out of the manufacturer's box as nearly any I have ever received (okay, my $250 Konosuke laser was a little sharper out of the box). It is *substantially* sharper out of the box than European-style knives like Wusthof, Henckels, Victorinox. It is definitely sharper OOTB than various Chinese-made knives popular on Amazon have been, including Dalstrong knives. It is a bit sharper OOTB than Shuns have been for me. Yaxell and Miyabi have a similar OOTB sharpness. So I would guess the OOTB edge angle is something like ~24 degrees inclusive, because that would fit all these experiences (Shuns are 32 degrees inclusive, Yaxells and Miyabis more like 24 degrees inclusive).GRINDS/EDGEThe spine is nice and thin. I don't have digital calipers but my eye measures about 1.7-1.8mm on the spine at the heel. There is also some distal taper to the blade especially in the front half, which is a good sign/good thing. The grind appears thin but not craaaazy thin. The actual edge/bevels on mine are/is clearly quite asymmetrical. I would describe it as something like a 90/10 or 80/20 edge. The left side is extremely steep, though not quite completely flat like a traditional single-bevel Japanese knife. The right side carries almost all of the "shoulder" of the edge. It looks like it may stand-up pretty well because of that asymmetrical design for sharpness with almost all of the angle in a sturdy shoulder on one side. In any case, these are clearly manufactured with care and intent in thinking about performance.ISSUE 1: HANDLEThe handle is what you find on a lot of truly Japanese knives -- it can be a bit small if you have large-for-"Westerners"-hands. I have somewhat larger than average hands, even among adult men. For me, my pinky finger doesn't sit nicely in the hook of the handle, it kinda sits up on that ridge/bump of the hook. This feels a little bit uncomfortable. So if you have big hands, the handle is smaller than it should be. But if you have average or smaller hands, you'll be fine.ISSUE 2: PRICESo, this knife is sold in several places around the internet, and the price generally seems to be about $150-$190. And I understand that, because this thing is very well made and designed with care. It is a quality product. However, Japanese kitchen knives have become a lot more competitive in price lately. And at that price range, it is hard to recommend it. You can find VG-10 Japanese gyutos that are a lot like this in performance for less than $100. A bit over a $100 and you can even find damascus Japanese gyutos that are going to be a lot like this. For some reason, when I bought this, it was listed at $58. I don't know if that's a wonky result of an Amazon pricing algorithm and no one had bought one in a long time, or a seller mistake/issue... but I paid $58. As soon as I went back to the listing to write this review, it was $160. At $60, this is a steal. At $160, it is hard to recommend. I think comparing this to the competition, somewhere right in the middle at $100-$120 is a good market price for this item. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this even compared to the competition at $100. At $120 I'd have to check current prices on the competition. And at $160 I'd feel fairly confident I could get the same experience and a very comparable product for less.It's a very high-quality, well-made, and excellently-performing knife. I jumped on it when for some reason it was $58. I wouldn't pay the current $159 because you can spend less and get very similar products. A good/fair price is $100-$120, anything less is a steal. If you have big hands the handle is small, otherwise you'll be alright.

The best knife I ever owned.