GRANDSHARP Kiritsuke Chef Knife 8.5 Inch - VG10 Damascus Steel 67-Layer High Carbon Stainless Steel Kitchen Knife - Ultra Sharp Professional Japanese Knife for Slicing, Dicing Vegetables & Meat - Ergonomic G10 Handle with Gift Box - Perfect for Home Chefs & Professional Kitchens

It is very beautiful to look at and very sharp to use. What more would you want.This is about my 40th kitchen knife owned, and I bought it largely on a lark to see if this new breed of Chinese-made VG10/AUS-8 knives all over Amazon for low prices were worth it.Look, it's not awful and it's inexpensive and it's a nice kiritsuke shape. Two immediately obvious marks of low quality really bugged me: (1) the "damascus" is the worst most obviously screened-on faux damascus I've seen. It's very weak in person -- on a knife bar you see light reflected back at you and don't see the damascus pattern at all. The photos here are misleading. You can even see a vertical line on the face of the blade just in front of the bolster where the screening process stopped -- the damascus just artificially stops at a perfect vertical line. And, (2), equally as present to the eye as the screened-on damascus is a large number of horizontal hairline scratches or finishing marks all along the blade. When you look at the knife from a certain angle, you see this pattern of fine scratches in the reflection/finish rather than the damascus. Both of these give the knife a very cheap and chintzy overall appearance. Another issue I had (3) was that on close inspection, it's thicker than you would typically expect on a VG-10 Japanese (-style, it's made in China) knife. If you're at all familiar with the world of made-in-Japan kitchen knives, this is a bit of a wedge and is not very sharp. It sharpens up just fine if you know how to sharpen yourself, but it remains rather thick behind the edge. It will be durable but won't cut especially well.What if you're not familiar with the world of high-quality kitchen knives? Well, I do think this is better than the Cuisinart, Kitchenaid, Chicago Cutlery kind of knives you might buy for $10-$20 at Target or Walmart or the cheaper stuff from a department store. If that's what you've been using, this is a clear step up and only $49.The trouble with that is that for about $70-80, you can buy a Misono Molybdenum, a Fujiwara FKM, or a Tojiro DP, and I know from experience that those are all much better performers made to a higher quality. Those aren't flashy, but they are still the entry-point to quality kitchen knives. If you want quality + great appearance at the best available price, look for something from Miyabi, Shun, or Yaxell and you can get something in the $100-$150 range that will meet both of those criteria.So ultimately these Chinese-made VG10 blades are an admirable step in the right direction and generally a good thing for starting to bring quality steels and interesting designs down in price. Unfortunately, the quality just isn't there yet. Even at $50 I would really strongly encourage someone to spend $70 on something better. Some of these new knives on Amazon sit in the $100-$120 range, and that is just taking advantage of people/nowhere near what they are worth. I hope the quality continues to move in the right direction and maybe in 5-10 years you'll be able to buy a real quality knife for $50. But not yet.I have quite a few knives many of which are high priced brands like Shun, Wustoff, etc. Lately, I have been finding that the lesser known brands are often every bit as good as the higher priced ones. What I look for now is the attributes of the knife rather than the brand. This is what tells me the quality of the blade - the Rockwell hardness rating, the angle of the blade, VG-10 steel, and sometimes a Damascus layering. Most of these determine the how long the blade will hold the edge, and the Asian blade angle of 15 degrees, tends to be a sharper edge.I was looking for an all-purpose utility knife that would be less cumbersome for some jobs than a Chef's knife, and found this one. Since this knife has all of the qualities and attributes that I look for, I decided to try it. Unfortunately, the first knife I received was very dull, and I couldn't sharpen it enough for it to be usable.Since some products can slip by quality control, I decided to contact the seller. I received a response the next day, and they offered to send me a replacement without having to return the original knife. They shipped the replacement that day, and I received it a couple of days later. This is a big plus for this seller since they back up their products.The replacement knife is super sharp, and I like it very much. The handle is easy to hold and is textured with a nice pattern that makes it easy to hold even with wet hands. The blade has a nice Damascus pattern that should add to the sharpness holding qualities of the blade.Although the blade shield that came with the replacement knife is too short to cover the entire blade the shield on the original knife fits perfectly. So, I am a happy camper, and I am completely happy with this knife. I have used it every day for cutting tomatoes, onions, radishes, and various fruits. It has worked flawlessly without squashing the softer items like tomatoes and cuts through harder veggies with little effort.Considering my experience so far, I would highly recommend this knife. It has held the sharpness, and the customer service is superb.I hope you found this review helpful, and I will update this review if my opinion changes.Importante, no es acero damasco como lo menciona el vendedor y se puede observar porque las capas del metal golpeado desaparecen en el lomo y orillas del cuchillo, solo se pueden observar en sus caras y con un leve pixeleado;Muy caro para lo que es/vale, lo recomendaría comprar si valiera menos de 50 dls.Es bueno a secas, llevo usándolo un par de meses para cortezas y cáscaras duras, si sabes afilar y sabes usar un cuchillo la retención de su filo es bueno así que la dureza de su metal en ±2 de 60 puede sea verdad.It's scary sharp. Cuts like a shark with a laser beam on its headThe handle feels slippery for me to use.