SAMCOOK Kiritsuke Chef Knife - 8 Inch Professional Sharp Damascus Knife - Japanese VG-10 High Carbon Stainless Steel Kitchen Gyuto knife - Ergonomic Octagonal Ebony Handle with Gift Box

I'll be honest, I had real doubts about this one. But it won me over completely. This isn't just "better than expected" territory, it is genuinely a great knife, period. Edge retention has been impressive, seems very durable too and sharpening it is surprisingly easy even for a beginner like me. The handle is comfortable to use and the whole thing looks beautiful. Damascus steel never gets old. One minor note: it doesn't come with a full edge guard, only the tip is protected, not the heel. Would have been a nice touch to include, but it's a small gripe on an otherwise excellent knife. The size is perfect for me, but it depends on your taste and needs so make sure you consider that. Highly recommend.

Pros: 1. Great blade shape, length, and height 2. Authentic eastern style handle with authentic blade weight balance (Black Sandalwood handle) 3. Great value for the price Cons: 1. It came somewhat dull, which required some after market sharpening (easy to fix) 2. I'm not a huge fan of the mirror finish (cosmetic) 3. The damascus etching seems a bit fake (cosmetic) With a tiny bit of sharpening this knife performs extremely well. Even though it's made in China, I would recommend this knife to anyone looking to get into using Japanese style knives and learning how to sharpen their own knives. It's insane (good) value for the price you pay. It's a good knife for anyone to learn on or use for everyday cooking and it's very affordable to replace if it was ever somehow stolen or broken beyond repair. --- I don't know if it's actually VG-10, it doesn't have the same feel as my other VG-10 knives exactly but this knife does perform very well. This knife is extremely good at this price point. I bought one with an octagonal handle (Black Sandalwood) since it's the only one that seemed like a half-tang knife. The knife is balanced very well. The one I bought is blade-weighted meaning that the fulcrum is slightly more to the blade end. This is very good for when you use a pinch-grip with your thumb and finger on the sides of the blade and this is exactly the type of balance I would expect from a blade of this design. In comparison, most of the "Japanese" budget knives I've seen on amazon that look nice don't have the same balance as this one. The profile and shape of the knife is great. It's got a good height to it which I like a lot since my fingers are a bit long and have trouble fitting comfortably on more shallow knives. Sharpness The blade was not very sharp out of the box, to my standards. To be clear I like my knives to be hair shaving razor sharp. Out of the box this knife bounced off of tomato skin, meaning that it wasn't able to cut through tomatoes super easily. To fix this I gave it a few passes on my 1,000 and 5,000 grit whetstones and a leather strop. It's now hair shaving razor sharp and performs extremely well, even when compared to my higher end knives in the $100-300 price range.

So I was browsing Amazon to look for a back-up knife for other people in my house to use and not mess up my high end knives. Then I came across this knife by Sam Cook. It looked way too good to be true since the blade material is well known, the shape of the blade is desired, the handle style is on higher end knives, and the price being under $40. Who else wouldn't be skeptical of a product like this? I decided to take the risk and buy it. If I don't like it, it's only $35. All I can say is that this is a damn good knife for the money. It looks amazing and came pretty sharp. With a closer look, I notice that there are small imperfections like you can feel the metal decoration stuck out ever so slightly on the handle and that it looks like the Damascus is etched on but I'm not sure on that. It's a burner knife for $35 so it doesn't bother me. I don't believe the blade material is vg10. I like to re-sharpen new knives I get to make them wicked sharp. The ease of sharpening let's me know the material is softer than my other vg10 knives, but oh boy it took a nice edge. In summary, if you are looking for a good knife to explore your culinary talents without breaking the budget, any knife from these samcook guys will do it for you. I literally ordered another 2, the big bob kramer clone and this one, to keep for myself. Definitely a good buy in my opinion.

I kinda love this knife! The kiritsuke style blade is a great all around knife. I’m using this as my main tool in a commercial kitchen. This knife has stayed pretty sharp throughout a lot of use. I give it a light sharpening once a week and have a ceramic rod handy during the week.

Best knife we have. Comes sharp and has stayed sharp.

Descent balance at 190g, sharp out of box, hit a couple passes on a leather strap and it's scary sharp. Was looking for a beater knife with some good specs that could replace using my nicer knives. Lazer etched but seems to be actual vg10. Chef with over 20 years experience with a knife bag filled with Shuns and mayabi. Pretty impressive knife and the kiritsuke is a very versatile blade shape. Today alone I cut hamachi, tuna tartare, corn off the cob, bunch of herbs and even used to slice steak during service. Pretty sweet cheap knife. Haven't used enough to speack on edge retention.

It’s ok… but not what I initially thought. The looks and shape are fine and yes you can sharpen it and it cuts. But it’s not worth the 66 dollars I paid, and here is why I have had it for a few years and when I reach in for a knife I reach for a 8 dollar one I got At Smiths this Sam cook blade is so herd I have to be careful how I use it and wash it and everything the sharpened edge chips so easily every other time I use it it has another chip in the blare it’s way to hard and fragile. I love and collect knives I know what a good knife is and the heat treat on this is way off. The tip has broken and I had to reprofile it and constantly sharpen it to get new chips out I was careful sharpening it the first couple times and used my lanskey to get a great edge and profile but it chips so easily I gave up and just use a cheap pull through sharpener just to get it useful again. I wouldn’t buy it again there are much better knives out there for the same or less money. I wouldn’t buy this again even if it was only 10 dollars. It looks good but the functionality and durability is worse than a super cheap Walmart knife with stainless steel. Like I said i would not buy this again and recommend you don’t buy one either.

Received the black wooden handle sontoku today. Very good looking knife, cuts through paper with ease, very sharp. I find it hard to believe that it's really VG-10 Damascus steel for $35 but at this price point I don't care. I got this as a cheap knife to practicing sharpening and for daily use and it's great for that purpose. Unfortunately the knife I got, the blade is slightly bent and not straight, so when I lat the blade down on a flat surface I can see a small gap in the middle of the blade where you can slide a sheet of paper under. This will cause problems down the road when it comes to sharpening so I have to send it back. Im tempted to try ordering one more time because if the blade was completely straight I would have kept this

Très beau couteau ! Surprenant la coupe est wow la finition superbe !

Súper filoso, fue un regalo para mi esposo y le encantó

Wow so sharp very good

It's original Damascus..no worries..go ahead

Excelente calidad, super afilado desde el inicio y muy estable.