This is a large knife! It works great for smashing garlic with the flat of it.
This knife is pretty light, but feels very solid when you're holding it. Be extremely careful! It is very, very sharp. If you touch your hand with it, you will slice the skin!
Slices vegetables like a dream! Even good for slicing bread!
Not so good for fresh mozzarella because of the width of the blade, which sticks to the soft cheese somewhat.
Don't scrape with the sharp side use the back or head of the knife for that unless you want cutting board shavings in your food.
I'm very pleased with this knife. Great value for the price and worth the shipping costs!
I really enjoy these Thai style cooking knives. What makes them unique is the thin lightweight blade which is very sharp. The large flat blade face is useful, as another reviewer pointed out, for smashing garlic, as well as for scooping chopped things to transfer to the stove. The knife is large but surprisingly light and accurate. I find this general blade shape to be the most overall useful kitchen knife you can have. It performs most jobs adequately and many jobs exceptionally. I particularly like it for slicing and carefully cutting vegetables. It's also good for slicing fish, decent at cutting raw meat, and the thin but tall blade makes it surprisingly good at slicing fresh baked bread (does not crush the bread and holds a straight line).
For those who use and abuse the venerable 8" Kiwi Chef knife of the same style I'd like to compare the two below:
I got this to accompany my Kiwi 8" knifes. Like this knife, they are extremely affordable yet sharp. This has a full tang (kiwi uses half tang) and appears to be incrementally better in quality. The Kiwi knives do NOT hold an edge for long and you should be prepared to sharpen once a week if regularly used. I don't mind that, but would prefer a more durable edge. So far, the Kom Kom appears to hold it's edge longer though I've only been using it for a couple weeks now. The Kom Kom, while light, is significantly heavier than the Kiwi. I find this, paradoxically, to reduce hand fatigue. The reason being is that the Kiwi is so light that you must push it through your food which can really wear your hand out after a while. The shape and weight of the Kom Kom knife allows a more relaxed cleaving type of cut. Another difference is in the angle of the blade from top to bottom. The Kiwi has a more concave shape meaning that food at the top of the blade can escape completely being cut completely through in exchange for very good cutting performance from the back half of the blade. The Kom Kom knife is still rounded in this manner but less so and tends to cut better along the entire length of the blade. The Kiwi knife is better for some items like soft cheeses, or times when you need maneuverability more than cutting power..it's piercing point is thinner as well and easier for stabbing and splitting pumpkins and squashes.
If all you've tried so far is European or Japanese style chef knives, you should give these a shot. For the price you really can't go wrong.
Buy 8" Thai Chefs Knife, #21 (Kom Kom) Now
I got this for my wife after reading about some reviews in foodie mags about Chefs loving to but Kom-Kom products because of the great price, and stellar sharpness. They weren't kidding, I can give testament to that sharpness. We are big fans of butternut squash, but for anyone that has cut it before, you know the skin and flesh making cutting it a chore. We constantly sharpened our knives, and not junkers mind you, to make sure they were sharp enough to not slip during cutting. They still struggled with Mr Butternut Squash. Not anymore, this thing went through it like butter. I love this knife, there is absolutely nothing it won't cut through. I typically use this for veggies, but we have used it for meats as well when we are trying to cut through chicken, steak, pork and other stuff for stir fry or similar setups. I'd highly recommend this knife, it is inexpensive and handles great.
Read Best Reviews of 8" Thai Chefs Knife, #21 (Kom Kom) Here
A very nice knife indeed. It's sharper by far than any other that we have. The handle is rather cheaply made I believe but perhaps that is part of the design. Well pleased with handling, delivery and everything in general.
Want 8" Thai Chefs Knife, #21 (Kom Kom) Discount?
Lets say, I have worked enough in kitchens ( 15 years) to know what tools are convenient, easy and affordable to make job pleasant. If you ever wonder how in the hell this Asian Duds can chop so fast something, well try one of those and you will find the answer. The steel is soft so I would not recommended to be used on bones. The knife is best for chopping, slicing and dicing vegetables and fruits. It is very easy to maintain, I mean sharpness. Bottom line if it really gets dull buy two more they are so cheap. Hope this help.
It was dislike at first sight when I saw that the packaging is that sharp plastic kind of shell that has to be cut away with scissors and the product has to be pried out. Then I saw the stickers on the front and back. These weren't the simple kind you can just pull off cleanly with one try. No. They're the kind of stickers that pull off, paper first, then there's a gob of adhesive that you have to peel off in pieces until you finally get down to the last smear of adhesive that has to be held under steaming hot water and soaked in detergent -and even then, it was a struggle to get the goo off. It probably doesn't help matters that the good is on a textured surface that holds the goo at varying depth. This removal process took at least twenty minutes and I was not a happy camper. I don't know what kind sadist designs those adhesive systems but I wish s/he would get fired fast.
