FINDKING 8 Inch Japanese Chef's Knife, Premium Damascus Steel Construction Kitchen Knife, Multifunctional Gyuto Knife, Exceptional Cutting Performance (Samurai Series)

Excellent knife

Gave as a gift to my niece. I fell in love with it before I gave it to her. She also loved it. Absolutely beautiful. Display worthy 100%

Hermoso

My husband wanted this Japanese knife. I had to learn more about a kiritsuke knife as it has a different blade shape and a longer blade (9") than most other knives I've seen. It's great for precise cutting, such as fish or sashimi. It's also excellent for cutting bigger vegetables. It's best used in a forward pushing motion rather than a chopping motion. Most of this knife's blade is one sided; professionals may have a two-sided blade. I tested the knife on day old submarine sandwich bread saved to feed our wild yard birds, to see how it handled a challenging texture. Oh yes, it's razor sharp, alright. It made impressive exacting cuts. It also did well with vegetables. It's well made and features a gorgeous rosewood and ebony wooden handle. I don't think the tang goes through the entire handle. The knife is perfectly balanced if you balance it where the blade meets the handle. We've added it to our arsenal of cooking knives used for different purposes. This could be a great gift for an avid cook, especially one who makes sushi. I hope this information helped you.

Blade - extremely sharp straight out of the box. You can shave thin slices of tomato, peel a grape, etc - just a very nice edge. With an AUS-10 core, I'm pretty confident it will remain sharp for quite a while too. VG-10 would be my preference, but would also cost more than this. There is a very pronounced clip point, bordering on something like a spey point. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. I'm cooking at home, so I think I would prefer a more traditional drop point just for greater strength. But I bet this is better for fine work. I feel like I should go try to segment an orange or something.Handle - The brass arrived on mine unevenly tarnished. If I had to guess, the small runs and imperfections in the tight plastic wrapping on the handle maybe got some slight condensation in shipping, and ended up with uneven tarnish on the metal. No real damage, and the wood is unmarred. I could polish it out pretty easily, but it doesn't bother me enough to put in the effort.Construction - here I have some doubts. It's too light; I don't think there's a full tang in this. Looks like an adhesive join too. So it's maybe not going to be super durable, but for the 5" paring knife I got, that's not a huge problem. It would make me a little wary of getting any of the full-size chef knives though.Price - This has a $35 list price (for the 5" paring knife) at time of review. You can get a full tang 5" VG-10 or AUS-10 paring knife at a similar price point though, so it's probably worth shopping around a bit. I don't think this is a bad choice though. This is about the minimum you'll pay for something this size with a decent quality blade, and it's infinitely better than the paring knife I've been using.

I've been using a Shun Santuko almost exclusively, but wanted to try a Nakiri. It is very sharp and can cut vegetables very thinly (I keep my santuko sharp and it can too). They advantage of the nakiri is with the high blade, it is easier to have your fingers higher and out of the way of the blade. The larger blade also makes scooping up from cutting board easier. There is a different cutting style using the nakiri since it is a flat blade from front to back it cuts best by lift and cut while a santuko can be rocked since the blade is curved at the front.The handle is both attractive and comfortable. I had my doubts about the octagonal handle, but it is as comfortable as my normal handled knives. I enjoy using both and will definitely continue using this for fruits and vegetables, but will also keep using my santuko.

Knife came in a nice box and cover to protect from accidental cutting. The wood handle does feel a little light which could be a plus for some, but coming from a solid German knife this was off putting for me. Regarding sharpness it came sharpened and for the money seems to stay that way. The Damascus could be better, but for this price you can't find much better.

Because of its design, the Nakiri knife is ambidextrous. As a left handed person, you get used to using right handed tools. However, using a knife with a double-edge blade is a game changer. I am no longer on the 'wrong' side of the blade. The push-cutting techniques are easy to learn by watching some YouTube videos (ATK has a great one.)The Nakiri knife is lightweight and built for non-root veggies only. Along with its looks, the precision will astound you. The only concerns is proper storage and sharpening. I bought a knife board for display and storage.The knife arrives beautifully boxed, it would make a superb gift. Highly recommend.