Japanese Kitchen Chef Knife 8 Inch Sharp Cutting Knife High Carbon Steel AUS10 with Ebony Wood Handle, Professional Chefs Knifes for Meat Vegetable

I recently purchased a Shun for my wonderful brother's BIG birthday and later felt pangs of envy. I graduated from culinary school decades ago, have cooked fervently for most of my life and have accumulated a large collection of knives - fancy German and Swiss down to sturdy professional kitchen type blades. I like this knife for several reasons: 1. Packaging is minimalist, attractive and tasteful. The gift box - that I'm going to keep for safe storage - is nicely designed and well fitted to the knife. Careful attention to safe-keeping of the blade and handle are obvious and the overall impression is very positive IMHO. I'd be confident in getting a great first impression if I gifted this to an appropriate cook. 2. Sharpness, balance and weight:. No kidding, this is screaming sharp! The paper test, soft tomato test and self-poking test (not intended but yikes!) Yielded scalpel-like edge. I now and then use veterinary scalpels in animal first aide, so know how sharp that standard is. Do not get it if you are new to veggie and meat prep, and do not give as a gift to a novice. Emergency room visit might be necessary. Careful! I have arthritis all over and of course my hands are easily tired and I drop things all the time. I will worry about dropping this blade, be sure. But the light weight is a real advantage for me and since I was trained with french style food prep, the slight arc across the cutting surface is extremely helpful for light rocking movement. Versus a Santoku blade. Also can cut straight down very well. Pointy tip however is crazy sharp so I may have blunt it a smidge. 3. Aesthetic of the blade is very good. Does not quite rise to the level of a prestige shun but it is a very pretty tool. Handle is shaped so Ambi dexterous and it seems well put together. Time will be a test for durability of all components. It's a looker and a very efficient tool. After a weekend of kitchen prep at home I may have additional comments Hopefully not including further self damage! LOL. I purchased this for myself at a good Prime deal. My opinions are only given as a help to others looking to head into the v10 japanese style blades at a low risk price. Thanks.

Good value. Better than expected for the price. Decent fit and finish. Blade could be thinner, but, was very sharp. Balance was good compromise for variety of tasks.

Great kitchen knife..I have purchased 3 as gifts...made very well..and great price!

Great knife I'm a line cook and it's been a real help. So lightweight and sturdy been using it for the last year no problems just keep making sure it's sharp

Handle is a little large , but manageable. Good value , nice weight. Very sharp out of the box.

It’s a good one ☝️

Ok , the first thing is this . I received the knife yesterday and it appeared to have a mfg. defect of a bent tip. About 1/8 of an inch from the end of the knife. I wrote Amazon but decided to keep it since sending ot back from Brazil didn't seem like a good use of my time. Anyway . I put the knife on a small vice to see if giving it a tap would move the tip. I tapped it once and the tip broke off. So , you decide if that was correct for this knife supposedly being made from vg-10 or the Chineese equivalent. To me that doesn't say much about what the steel realy is. I fixed it as best as I could with a small bench grinder. For the money paid I don't complain much but you should know about this . It should have never been shipped. Now , on to the good. The knife came/is sharp. Unless you are looking for a razor , anyone should be happy. I cook at home and prep. Meats and veggies . It does this very nicely. The Damascus appears to be very nice and i have not tested to see if it is real . I think it is.,going by what I saw during my repair. I do my own sharpening and have knives just ad sharp.I hav some skill but am no pro or chef. I can get my knive razor shap, but not hair poping sharp. For the money i think this knife is a good buy ,but it might fail to meet some expectations. For $45.00 I did not expect the best in the world. It cuts well and that is the important thing. If you are looking at these , for the money it seems to be a knife you can use everyday without worries. Imo , thats a pretty good deal.

Quality craftsmanship, but unsure how to sharpen correctly. Definitely worth it. Way sharper than anything from the store 100%