I'm guessing the set you got was one of the Henckels Internationals? More or less the steel on those is as cheap as it gets for Henckels, it works for the most part but you just won't be getting a laser edge on it, nor will the edge hold for as long. It's fine if you keep up with the honing and sharpening. I've a set at home, it's worked for years.

The Fibrox knives suggested above are a good step up, and won't break the bank. The one thing to watch out for on Japanese knives with hard steels (ie. VG-10 on the Tojiro DP) is they're more brittle; a bent edge on a German knife would be a chip instead, drop the knife onto something hard and the tip snaps off (probably applies to most knives I guess). As long as you're careful and not cleaving bones with it, the crazy sharp edges are nice to have.

I'm using a Hiromoto AS at home, gets insanely sharp with little effort, it just might rust if you're not careful. Tradeoffs with carbon steels.

so i've narrowed the knife i'm going to get from ebay down to either a Tojiro Pro or a Aritsugu (both santokus)

the Tojiro looks cooler, to me, with a metal handle and damascus finish, but i read from a knife blog that anything from Aritsugu is better, regardless of model/price :suspicious:

any suggestions? am i safe either way?

or could i just go down to a Tojiro DP, with the 'wooden' handle and get just as/almost as good quality? that way i could get two knives :)

Link the Aritsugu?
Is Ebay your criteria right now?

yep, i want to get it off of ebay since i have a $100 voucher

here's the aritsugu Aritsugu Japan Top Chef Santoku Knife 18cm Established in 1560 Awesome Quality | eBay

FYI, Aogami super, aka blue steel is a type of carbon steel.
Meaning it'll rust.

You see where that line between the 90% of the blade transitions to that final 10%?
That main part is still blue steel, just covered in a thin stainless jacket.

awww :okay: if it were just me using it than id be fine with caring for it, but i just know i'll be the only one caring for it properly and my cousin etc will just dump it in the sink etc

thanks for the heads up :thumbs:

30% off Shun Knives at House of Knives.

Just use the coupon code Shunres30. Lasts until Remembrance day, orders have to be over $100

Courtesy of the Bandedge membership.

Keep your new knife away from him haha. Super blue is an amazing steel though, apart from the part where it can rust.

^^^ lol fat chance of doing that :/ ah well i decided not even to get the Tojiro Pro 63 layer Damascus, as the more i thought about it, i fear they'll get mistreated :/

Just ordered the tojiro 37 layer ended up costing me $43 after using the ebay voucher



was going to go cheaper, but the handle of the other one wasn't as appealing

ah well, thanks guys :D

oh and i ordered these tojiro kitchen shears



tried using the code with the Shun knives that are already on sale didn't work :(

Let me know how you like the shears.
And what you use them for.

will just be using it to split chicken or to cut open raw food packaging

watched a video where some guy was prepping soft shell crab with them and he seemed to cut through parts of the shell with ease... crabs were alive though :heckno:

the knife is @ Richmond already :D

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/NEW-2...228419166.html

VG10 supposedly... whatcha guys think?

That's cheap.

I have one Tojiro gyuto for 4 years now and it stays sharp fairly long, hardly needs to use the honing rod.They are cheap too.

Tojiro White #2 Series

Cheap, but I've never heard anything super positive about AliExpress for knives.
Nothing negative either.
Just, nothing.
Nobody on the knife forum even mentions them,
and there are crazy people that try everything there.


So if you want to be a guinea pig, be my guest.
If you do get it, I would like to see it first-hand.

I was hoping one of you guys would be the guinea pigs :)

I already have some VG10 hattori's so the next purchase is gonna be high carbon. I saw some tojiro dp's in person and they looked decent so I imagine the carbon to have similar quality.

What are you pros using for paring knives?
I have a sheep's foot Wusthof and had it for years.
But I never liked using it for some reason. I think it's the knuckle clearance to the board when I'm cutting small things?

I've had my Victorinox paring knife (traditional shape) for about 6 months now,
and notice I grab for that every time over the Wusthof.
It's 1/10 the cost and only moderately sharp.

Will likely need an upgrade this year.

I have the hattori HD paring knife and I don't recommend it. Not for its current price.

I only use my 130mm petty knife. I never need a paring knife since I rarely cut anything in my hand. I also sharpen my small offset spatula for if I do happen to cut something in my hand LOL.

disclaimer: I love Anthony Bourdain.



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The whole series is amazing!

I'm just learning how to whetstone sharpen. I'm wondering if there are different tests I can do to verify I successfully sharpened at a particular grit?

For example:
400 Grit should ?
1000 Grit should slide cut through paper but not push cut?
4000 Grit should push cut through rolled up glossy magazine page?
Leather strop should make a horizontal slice through a tomato without anything holding it down?

I'm trying to sharpen an old knife and at 400 grit it doesn't do anything to paper and I have no idea to keep going or move up to 1000

400 is a coarse stone. move up to 1000, you won't harm the knife by doing so anyhow.

Sharpness will come from your coarse stone (Sub 600 I think?)
If sharp, a 400 should shave arm hair.
You could move up to a 100 like unit mentioned, except if it's still not sharp at 400 then you still need to work on technique.

Did you form a burr? Then remove it?
That's where I went wrong with my first year of sharpening.
I skipped that.


I think higher grit = less "tug" on the blade when slicing.
It'll be a smoother cut.

I think going "through" stuff has to do with blade thickness "behind the edge",
as in the thickness of that first 0.5 cm.
And the horizontal tomato thing... Unsure if that's a proper metric for it.

what do you guys think of keramikos knife sets for everyday use? i saw some at the home and garden show and bought one lol

they chip easy, they replaced the first one that chipped but then we noticed it happened to a couple of other ones. got a full refund.

Recommend me a good fillet knife.