Premier 8" Kiritsuke Knife, Handcrafted Japanese Kitchen Knife for Professional and Home Chefs, VG-MAX Core with Damascus Stainless Steel Cladding, Pakkawood Handle

First off, it's beautiful. The knife I received is flawless. Perfect fit and finish. The edge is one of the sharpest I've ever experienced and I collect knives. From Spyderco, Benchmade, Cold Steel, Custom pieces etc. It's really lightweight and feels great in the hand and cuts extremely well. Always hone before and after every use, and you'll hardly ever have to sharpen it, and if you're bad at it just send it in for a free sharpening. From one knife person to another you won't be disappointed.

This knife arrived faster than I thought it would (3 days, free standard shipping) and is a very beautiful, well made knife. I really like the brightness of the hand hammered blade finish and the dark wood grain of the handle. The weight and balance of this knife is excellent for me and I really like the way the belly of the handle makes this knife feel like an extension of your hand. This is my new favorite kitchen knife.This knife has got to be the sharpest knife I have ever had the pleasure of using. It is unreal how easily it glides thru just about everything I have used it on so far. It does not crush anything when you use a back and forth locomotive style of cutting (as recommended by Shun). I even cut a watermelon with it and it just glided along as I turned the melon, just as easy as you please. You can shave raw chicken for fajitas paper thin with ease (the meat sticks to the knife some when cutting this thin, but what did you expect?) also, it has cut my veggie prep time down considerably and is an absolute joy to use. I use this knife for just about everything now and I find it's no bother at all to hand wash this knife.Cooking is much easier and so much more enjoyable when you have high quality tools.You need this knife, as you can tell I am very happy with mine.

OK, so I was waiting for this knife to become available for a couple of months. I had been obsessing over Shun blades for a while (pronounced like "moon" I'm told by the way). I was considering the Reserve line as the steel appears even harder and is likely to keep an edge better, but honestly since I am not a professional chef nor highly skilled with high end steel, I opted for the Premier. I believe it does have a somewhat higher grade of steel than the previous Premier pieces - VG-Max instead of VG-10. This knife is beautiful and shockingly sharp. Not only can you cut paper with ease, you can cut curves in paper. I was chopping (cutting) some green onions earlier today and when I was down to the thin, soft green shoot I stood it up on its end on the cutting board and laid the blade on the top to see if I could cut it without simply collapsing it as it was so delicate. Surprisingly, it sliced it in two and both halves remained standing. This is by far the sharpest and nicest knife I have ever owned. It is like a piece of art and I am looking forward to using it again right now to prepare dinner.

I have to completely revoke my initial review. I gave this a one star review, saying it did not live up to the hype. I eat my thinly sliced words. Every problem I had I now realize was do to pilot error and was no fault of the knife.Let me say two words: Ceramic Honing. A knife like this with very hard steel needs to be honed with something more than that old steel rolling around in your knife drawer. Once I started properly honing my knife it was like new again. On the other hand, if you do not, you will face the same impression I did. Which was that it goes dull quickly and doesn’t live up to the hype. This knife must be honed regularly with the proper material.All things considered, it is beautifully sharp and a pleasure to use.A word of advice too, don’t bother buying a ceramic honing rod. The unglazed bottom of a porcelain cup or plate is all you need.I searched for a long time and read a lot of reviews before finally purchasing a Shun knife. I’m glad I did.

With several high end knives to choose from, this is the one I almost always reach for. I have used it almost daily for 6 years. The thin blade effortlessly slices everything. Easy to maintain a razor edge (with a touch up on an ultrafine diamond stone every 3-4 weeks). The hammer dents help break up surface tension so slices of wet clingy veg (like cucumber) don’t stick as much. The spine is flat which works great for sweeping off the cutting board. I prefer a more stout blade when splitting squash in half, but this would do the job. If I could only have one knife for all of my cooking, this would be the one.

Amazing knife! Very sharp! Thin blade but beautiful craftsmanship

This is a weird knife, it's basically a gyuto meets santoku, and somehow made a perfect offspring. I really can't call it a Kiritsuke with the double edge, but everything about this knife is right in the way it comes. It's basically like the finally correct mashup between asian and european knives.I know shun gets a bad rap for making good but overly priced knives. I have no regrets on purchasing this at all, it literally is worth it in every way and I would say so at full price. And this is coming from someone who will use this at a minimum of 700 meals per year, as I have for the past 22 years. The only thing I can't comment on at this point is longevity.The blade curve is perfect, it's not like some of the shun chef knives that look like some miniature scimitar in how curved they are, nor is it like a flat vegetable cleaver which have their uses but are not as great as your youtube videos would like to make you think they are.It is light as hell, literally, blows me away how light this is. I weighed this compared to the most similar knives I have and it's like a feather even compared to a victorinox santoku of a close length, which I prefer to all Wustof and Henkels and other heavy german knives. And more importantly, if you use a proper pinch grip, the balance is absolutely perfect, but it's so light I don't know if it matters. They created a hybrid knife that is better than the original components.Out of the box, it's acceptably sharp, not quite a razor blade, but I doubt most people who don't hone their own knives have used something this sharp, that's pretty rare for a production knife.I don't like the polished finish at all, I'm not deducting for it though but it feels totally unnecessary, the hammered top is really cool, still for show I assume, but I'd still prefer to leave the finish alone, otherwise everything else in function makes that irrelevant. I do know many people like the mirror finish and it is fairly unique among most knives you will find, so to each their own on that, but this thing could be pink and it wouldn't change my opinion of it.

I bought this for my son's birthday. It was a big hit. My son was impressed with the knifes looks and how well it slices.

¿Alguna vez has cortado un jitomate y sentido que cortabas mantequilla? Bueno este cuchillo es aún mejor que eso. Corta increíblemente bien, para los amantes de cocina como yo, esto es lo que espero de un cuchillo y más. Como plus, el acabado del cuchillo hace que los vegetales no se peguen al cuchillo.

Was a gift for my mom.She loved it! It's really sharp and it has a very nice precentation,

Love its look and feel while cutting. Very sharp!

Uma obra de arte para a cozinha. Balanceamento perfeito, detalhes que impressionam, um corte absoluto. Eu não sabia o que era uma faca cortante até utilizar esta Shun kiritsuke. Estou usando a mais de 30 dias e a faca corta como no primeiro (eu apenas usei o strop de couro uma vez para alinhar o fio - e acredito que nem havia necessidade). A lâmina central VG-MAX tem uma dureza impressionante, garantindo o fio por muito mais tempo que uma faca "normal", digamos assim. Porém, não é para qualquer um: se utilizar a faca de forma errada, irá danificar a lâmina. Se tentar cortar alimento congelado, osso, irá quebrar a lâmina. Ela exige delicadeza para o manuseio, limpeza e guarda. Porém, após utilizar uma faca deste nível, as demais parecerão de brinquedo.

Do not be overly concerned about the usage of the knife. Buy it and find out. Amazon do not support my photo format otherwise u can see it's beauty. Sharp knife 8" is not clumsy as bigger knives. Cuts thru veg, meat easily. Dices easily doesn't rock like a gyuto but it still can rock and cut.