Bang for buck this is a superb starter knife if your new to Japanese steel.

The western handle offers familiarity whilst the blade can easily be honed to high octane performance.

I bought one of these for my mother-in-law (who I like!). Good knife and a great value. About 3mm thick at the bolster,substantial,thicker handles,and sharp OOTB. Fit and finish are more than adequate,particularly for the price.

This is the perfect knife for anybody looking to get into Japanese knives,or just looking for a step up from his or her everyday chef’s knife.



The fit and finish on this knife is good,and the sharpness is excellent. The knife sharpens fairly easily too!



Highly highly recommended.



For additional details,please see my full review here (just scroll down a little bit) - http://goodgrape.typepad.com/celebrate/2009/07/index.html

Excellent starter knife for the foray into Japanese cutlery. I recommend and have purchased them for my cooks.

This is knife is just unbelievable. I have not used many other knives other than Chicago cutlery,which plains sucks imo. All that I can say is that this knife lives up to its reputation,plus there’s a reason that this knife finished second only to the Misono ux 10 - it’s that good. I am planning on purchasing the accompanying pairing knife to go with this,as well a sharping stone and a magnetic block to store it in. Definitely a big bang for the buck here!

I love this knife. Sharp and quiet in the hand,almost delicate. Lovely to look at,too. Be very careful when you sharpen it. I put scratches on the knife’s side when doing so. I don’t know of a sharpener that absolutely has no way of scratching the sides,though.

After doing much research,I decided to make this my first Japanese knife purchase. I couldn’t be happier. The blade was sharper out of the box than any of my Wusthof knives have been even after professional sharpening. No fit and finish issues whatsoever,just a well made knife at a FANTASTIC price. I would’ve paid at least 150% of the price for this great knife.