Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef Japanese Gyuto/Chef's Knife 300mm (11.8")

Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef Japanese Gyuto/Chef's Knife 300mm (11.8") Wooden Handle, Water Buffalo Horn Ferrule

This is a great knife! It uses an excellent Swedish stainless steel so the blade is hard for superb edge retention and sharpness, durable, rust-resistant and easy to maintain, and you get the very useful and standard gyuto/chef's knife shape. But the handle is traditional wooden Japanese-style, and you even get a beautiful water buffalo horn ferrule (bolster). Note that the exact bolster colour will vary... there is normally some variation and marbling which only adds to the natural beauty of the material.

This is a very lightweight knife -- the blade is thin, and the handle material (natural wood) is light, so the overall weight is remarkably low for a knife of this length. This means that even though the blade length is long by normal "home use" standards, it does NOT feel ridiculously large since it's still pretty light and easy to handle. But still, this is a very long blade, and honestly much too long for home use unless you a REALLY sure you want a very long blade for some particular reason and you have the space to store and use it!

The blade and edge are expertly finished and VERY sharp. This is a great looking and high performance knife. Highly recommended!

Note: The edge is ground 50/50, so it's fine for left or right hand use.

All Grand Chef series knives are made from high quality Bohler N685 stainless steel. This is a martensitic chromium stainless steel with added molybdenum and vanadium, which results in high hardness and good wear resistance, with excellent corrosion resistance -- an ideal steel for durable and sharp kitchen knives! Grand Chef blades are hard and tough with long lasting edges. HRC approx. 59-60 for sharpness and ease of maintenance and sharpening.

I would recommend the fine ceramic hone for everyday maintenance.