ZHEN Japanese VG-10 3-Layer Forged Steel Cooking Chef Knife, 8-Inch

I decided one day that I wanted better kitchen "gear" so I did as much reading on the subject as I could. What I found from all the reviews was that VG-10 steel is a good compromise between hardness for staying sharp but still soft enough that it can be sharpened on a stone at home. I searched everywhere for the best value VG-10 knife, this is the one I chose. As I mentioned I'm a knife noob so I can't compare this with $100 knives, but I can say that it is the nicest knife I've ever held (there aren't many places to look at knives where I live, so I've only held my Cuisinart knives and my friends heavy Henckels). The wood handle is really well made, the knife has sweet looking blad with a matte finish on the upper-outside layer of steel and a shiny layer on the cutting area. Being an 8" knife it isn't heavy like my 10" cuisinart, which I really like, I feel like I'm doing the cuttin instead of the weight of the knife. The one thing that a lot of people may not like is that this knife is Made in Taiwan. I realized the knife wasn't japanese made before I bought it, but I assumed the knife would be good base on reviews from other VG-10 Zhen knife's. I'm not certain how people view Taiwan in the knife world, but in the cycling world taiwan is now one of the better countries to get a high quality frame from. First Japan was the crappy country to buy low cost items from, then they started making high quality items (1960-1970's), next it was Taiwan and nowadays it is China and moving into Vietnam. It's the way things work, I bet 100 years ago it was the US that exported "junk" into Europe.

Anyways my point is that this knife is very nice for me and I would suggest it to others that don't want to spend more than $50 on a knife (okay $53). Good luck and I hope this helps.

I don't cook that often, but when I do want to cut vegetables and other basic foods I hate having to deal with dull knifes. I figured I would have to buy a more expensive knife then what I already had in my kitchen so for a little over $50 I expected a knife that would be very sharp and not give me problems.

For the money I feel like this knife should have been a lot sharper out of the box, but other than that it is a nice looking knife and feels good in your hand.

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Feels nice in your hand and seems like excellent quality. Very Very sharp out of the box. I will buy more of the set in the future.

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