Sakai Takayuki 45 Layer Damascus Wa Gyutou 240mm (9.4")

I use my knifes on a daily basis for home meals. I have been using a set of J.A. Henkels that I have had for several years and I have decided to start building a set of traditional Japanese knives. After doing lots of research I decided to go with this model for the following reasons.- It is left / right handed (50/50 grid). Im a lefty and the wife is right handed.- Under $200- Wanted to go with a real Japanese blacksmith vs the large shops like (Yaxell, Shun, ect....)- It has a relatively (~60 HRC) hard stainless steel core (Not sure if it is VG10, AEB-L, or AUS10 as I have seen this same knife marketed differently.)- It has a traditional Gyotou profile with a flatter profile that is better for push cutting than rocking.- It has a tradition WA handle that is ambidextrous.- I am a sucker for Damascus finished knifes- I was not ready to commit to Aogami / White paper steel maintenance.Fit / Finish (3/5):The blade on this knife was beautiful. It was the hammered damascus finish that is very easy to see. Some damascus knives you really have to look to tell it is damascus, not this one. The spine and choil are not as finished as I would like, the spin is not sharp but it would not be comfortable cutting for hours on a line. The choil is very sharp and needs to be rounded off for a decent pinch grip.The handle bolster is joined to the knife tang nicely. I may put some epoxy around the edge to help keep it more sanitary.The color of the horn bolster is not what is pictured. It is a light color on my copy much more gold in color than black. With this being natural horn this is to be expected. The model of the knife pictured is one of the newer ones with a pakkawood bolster, the one I received was the older model with horn. I prefer the pakkawood personally as it will be less prone to cracking and looks better.The handle wood needs to be sanded down. It seems to have at best a 400 grit finish. Mine is very scaly and almost ashy in places. I am going to sand it down and finish with with board butter. I have seen much worse wa handles and much better. The great thing about wa style handles is that they are easy to replace.Blade (4/5):The edge out of the back was amazingly good. This is the best factory edge I have seen on a knife. I was able to easily cut through folded over magazine paper, push cut tomatoes, ect. I would say this was probably a 3000 / 5000 grit finish. I typically finish my blades with either 5K or 8K stones for kitchen use and this was on par with the 5K finish I typically achieve using Naniwa stones.The blade at the heal of the spine is 2mm thick and continues the length of the blade till you get near the tip where it tapers off. So this has a nice thin profile.Usability (5/5):When I was using the knife I found it to be very nimble even at 240mm. Traditionally I have been using 210mm knives. The knife is very light and is blade heavy as you would expect. This balance is great for a pinch grip. Out of the box I was able to do a very fine dice on a tomato with push cuts. I have never been able to do this with a factory edge before. On harder vegetables like potatoes and carrots. It cuts right through without the wedge effect thanks to the nice thin blade.Overall (4/5)I really like this knife. While I wish the bolster was black and not the light gold color, I can live with it. With a few easy modifications (rounding our the edges and finishing the handle) this knife is a winner. I am already trying to decide which style knife I will buy next.I would recommend this for anyone looking for a 240mm wa handled stainless Gyutou

Really light knife and the blade is incredibly sharp and strong.

ThanksVery good cuality

Amazing!