Damascus Chef Knife 8" with Sheath & Case - Japanese VG10 Steel - 67 Layer Handcrafted Hammered Finish - DAIYAMONDO Series

I absolutely love this knife. It fits incredibly comfortable in my hand. I like the weight and feel of it, but I also love the look and style of it. All components of the knife feel very high quality. The handle and tang are clean, smooth and solid. The blade has a faint Damascus pattern which may not be as pronounced as other might like, but looks great to me and it comes perfectly sharp. I'm also very appreciative of the hard plastic sheeth with a velveteen interior. The sheeth makes the knife easy to store without damaging the blade or risking someone cutting themselves reaching into the drawer. While packaging is nowhere near as important to me as the product, I must also mention that the knife comes very carefully and beautifully packaged. It's the kind of packaging that you almost feel like you need to keep it. For reference; I'm a home chef not a professional, but I am a bit discerning when it comes to my kitchen tools. I really like to use quality kitchen tools and gadgets, but I don't have the budget to just throw money at the really top end stuff. My goal is to find those secretly high quality items that don't break the bank. This knife has quickly become my favorite, even over a more expensive Wusthoff knife I have. I give this knife my 100% recommendation and will be buying 1 or 2 others to replace some others of my set.

Very sharp and exceeds my expectation.

I bought a set of seven of these and I am enjoying the heck out of them; most luxurious kitchen knives I’ve ever owned. Coming from Spanish Henkels that were just meh. The Kyoku Shoguns are weighty, quite stout in the hand. The weight is a common complaint I am reading about these, however I love the heft of these. It screams quality construction. I suppose one possible downside is the handles get very slick when they are wet and dropping it could damage your floors (mine are made of wood), or worse yet your foot. But I nitpick…The Damascus in the steel is very light in appearance and subtle, but quite beautiful and tasteful. The handle design is superb in my opinion and fit my largish hands perfectly. These babies are ultra sharp out of the box. I suggest spending a few more bucks on a higher end cutting board and the VG10 blades should last quite a while without the need to resharpen. My touch up system is an oval diamond rod, but I haven’t needed to use it as of yet. When on sale, these knives are a sensational value. I don’t think you can go wrong with the Shoguns unless you enjoy lightweight cutting tools. These don’t fit that bill.

Metal is kind of soft. I used it for vegetables and although still sharp, this particular knife has like a dent on the edge the pairing knife is perfect. I’m still going to buy the boning and 10 inch meat cutter thingamajig once the price goes down because I started it and the price jumped like 50 bucks I would get alerts for price drops because their prices are up-and-down not steady.

Beautiful knife. Came way sharp. We'll see if it stays that way. I have high expectations. The only draw back is that it doesn't fit in the 2 inch slot in my wood block. It does come in a very nice protective cover/sheath and lives in the drawer nearby.