Just got my knife and it’s excellent! Takes a fantastic edge and has a really nice handle. Can’t wait to take this to work tomorrow.

This is a beautiful design and highly effective kitchen knife. I bought two.



The first knife helped solve a family problem. My 240mm wa-gyuto was "too big" for my wife and her favorite knife became a 170mm Masahiro santoku. I stropped the factory edge of the Artifex on balsa loaded with 0.5 micron CBN and now I can not get it out of her hands. Score: Artifex 1 and santoku 0.



The second knife got the spa treatment and created a family problem. I reprofiled the blade to 12 degrees per side using a sequence of Trizact belts beginning at 180 grit and ending at 2500 grit. I then polished the bevels on 6,000 and 10,000 grit Japanese waterstones with a final stropping on balsa loaded with 0.5 micron CBN. My test Artifex was the sharpest knife in the house,but didn’t stay in the house long. Score: Middle son - 1 crazy sharp Artifex and me 0.



Thanks Mark for designing and bringing a beautiful American knife to the world market. Keep them coming!

I like this knife it’s not heavy holds a edge and for the money a great buy looking forward to buying more knives from your company

I contacted JMBullman on foodieforums about this knife since he did a review. I found out he lives near me and had a couple for sale with his edge on it. I snagged this knife from him and all I can say is WOW. This knife for the money cannot be beat and the edge that JMBullman put on this thing is scary sharp. As a chef there is nothing negative I can say about this knife. And once again thanks to Mark for making this knife available and JMBUllman for making this thing cut like nothing else I have owned.

Great knife for the price although not very sharp out of the box,with a little work on some stones this thing was extremly sharp. I have noticed two cracks on the handle to the left of the tang both on top and below the handle. I have emailed mark and he will be sending me a new one. This place really has phenomenal customer service and despite this mishap will always be using chefknivestogo for every knife product i buy.

i bought this knife a couple of weeks ago and didnt get much use out of it.someone had broken into my house and stolen a number of things including this knife.i guess i will just have to get another.but from what little i used it for it was amazing,light,sharp,and a great buy for the price.

Richmond Artifex is a great knife. Light and quick. I added the $15 sharpening option just out of curiousity. Wow,super sharp. Love it.

A fine knife and so sharp OOTB. It holds and edge with the powder steels.

I wanted a beginner chef knife to give someone for Christmas and got a CKTG 210 mm Tojiro. To me the AEB-L steel is better for a chef knife than the VG-10 in the Tojiro.

The Artifex is $10.00 less too. I wish I had gotten two when I placed my order. This is probably the only knife an amateur like me would ever need and truly the best buy I’ve run across anywhere.

I picked up an Artifex recently and have been using it over the past few weeks. I gotta say up front that I greatly prefer Carbon blades in terms of sharpening and the edge they can take,but the AEB-L is growing on me! Out of the box,I got the factory edge. The factory edge was very bitey and aggressive and fairly coarse,but it cut great! Tomatoes were no problem and there was no wire edge felt. I used it for a while with the factory edge and then took it to the stones. Beston 1200 grit,Rika 5K,then a 8K stone and stropped on a laminate strop between each stone to remove the wire edge/burr. It took an edge very close to my carbon blades at this point! Sharp and smooth,yet still a bit toothy. I used it some more on onions,mushrooms,steak,chicken,peppers,etc and it performed well. Not much wedging on the onions and I could push straight down to cut through the thawed chicken breast. The 210mm length was pretty handy for smaller cutting jobs where I didn’t need one of my 240mm gyuto’s. The factory handle is very comfortable and smooth. Handle to tang fitting was awesome,nicely rounded and blended with the tang and handles nice and flush. The spine was very nicely rounded out as well. For $70,it’s a great blade!!

Just arrived via USPS went straight from the box through the soapy water onto the cutting board. My wife is thrilled with the knife. Beautiful fit and finish on both the blade and the handle. Great handle shape which should allow for a lot of work with no hot spots on the fingers. Already found its way through a half a bag of onions a mess of tomatoes some garlic and even diced up a few Apples. Fantastic blade shape for general usage should be a great go to knife for many years to come. Oh yeah did I mention the steel WOW. Great stuff thanks Mark!

I got the finish sharpened version. It is now the sharpest knife we own. My only criticism (though I don’t think it warrants dropping a star) is that the spine is not nicely rounded like the Fanatic cleaver that I also have. But that’s something that can be fixed on the first re-sharpening. This is absolutely the best deal I have ever seen on a chef’s knife with high-end steel. Seven months on,my Fanatic is just as sharp as when I got it,and I expect this one to perform equally well. All of my knives will be Richmond knives going forward,and I always tell people to go with Richmond.

A great workhorse of a knife that holds a nice edge.

Great knife,had the additional sharpening added on and was not disappointed. Found the balancing point of the knife to be in an awkward spot just before the handle meets the heel of the knife,only a minor drawback though.

Absolutely beautiful knife. Very sharp,and easy to use. My girlfiend thought her old Henkels were the "bomb" until she used the Richmond Artifex I gave her as a gift!

This knife is an exceptional performer,especially in regard to its modest cost. It is well balanced,well made and has held its edge very well with only light honing. Difficult to surpass for the price.

Really solid for the money! Easy to maintain an edge with minimal work. Holds a candle if not surpasses knives and double the price especially vg10 blades.

My first introduction to a quality knife. So far I love it. Ootb it was not sharp but with a little work on the stones I was able to get it über sharp,and that’s saying a lot since I’m a novice sharpener. The fit and finish is great and nicely balanced. It’s been a few weeks and the edge retention is holding great. I highly recommend this knife. Service from cktg is top notch.

This is a very good knife despite its inexpensive cost. It is well made with an attractive pakka wood handle. I got the finished sharpened version and used it immediately for dinner. Loved the way it cut but it was a bit toothy for my liking. That aside,I loved the feel of the knife. It is very comfortable even for large hands like mine. I would recommend this knife for anyone who has an interest in testing out Japanese blades.