I bought mine elsewhere, but was interested to find more information about it here. Mine is the Shiny Bladed version, but otherwise it is the same.I have found the blade to be too hard and when used only for vegetables on an end grain bamboo board it gets badly damaged simply by normal use. By normal use I mean including cutting a harder vegetable such as Sweet Potato.
I have been adjusting the sharpening angle. It certainly cannot take even the 'normal' 15 degrees of most Japanese Blades. I have it currently at 17 degrees, but still getting damaged too easily! Will it have to go as high as 20 degrees to become stable?
From what I have read about knife steels, VG10 is normally hardened to around 60 61 rockwell. It is very apparent that 63 is just too hard and has become fragile!
In addition to this even when it was at a lower angle it did not feel as sharp as other Oriental Knives I have. This is because the blade is still quite thick just before the bevel.
With regard to using the knife. I frankly prefer my I.O. Shen Oriental Slicer, which is more nimble, you can put your left hand round the blade to support things that need it, it feels super sharp (although it didn't come that way!). It supports a sharpening angle of 13 degrees! This Zhen Chinese Slicer is just a little too big and feels clumsy and certainly not sharp!
To be fair to Zhen. They can make very good knives. This just isn't one of them. I also have a Zhen Damascus Nakiri knife which is simply excellent! It came at a sharpening angle of 11 degrees! I have moved that up to 13 for fear of damage after my experience with this Chinese Slicer. However at 13 degrees the Damascus Nakiri is fine and doesn't tend to get damaged. I suppose this is because it's VG10 central core is only hardened to 60 -61. As it should be!
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