Tsunehisa ZA18 Damascus Sujihiki 240 mm Brown Western Handle

The Tsunehisa’s VG10 Damascus line is an excellent beginner choice for those who are switching from western style knives, it offers the features that people long for from a Japanese blade while keeping familiar elements that they have become accustomed to. This line warps these features in a polished and elegant package, offered to you at a competitive price.

The steel used by this line offers a solid foundation to build on, VG10 as a steel that is tested and proven over time, offers balanced edge retention, toughness and full stainlessness. The knife itself shall be categorised as a “Machine Made”, with blades made with pre-laminated steel stamped in batch. This doesn’t seem to match its slightly higher cost than other knives of similar specifications but I would say the level of finish justifies it. Damascus cladding is polished to a near-mirror finish, with sandblasting revealing the contrasting pattern that dances as you move it against a light source. The bolster’s polish is rather refined, and the fitting between it, the tang and handle scales are consistently met together. The maker even has a special sizing for the slimmer sujihiki, which unlike Tojiro and many other makers, is slim, light and elegant. When you pick the red handle version from this line, you might even mistake it as the famous Takamura Uchigumo at a glance. At the same time, Tsunehisa also offers through-tang variant, which allows more freedom for exchanging different handles and adjusting feeling and balance for it.

These blades are constructed rather thin, with a sub-2mm thickness across the spine for most models. This certainly makes them excellent cutters especially on hard and dense foods: carrot, onions, sweet potatoes, you name it, the only criticism I may raise would just be the sticking of thin slices on the blade, but this is hardly a viable solution for a knife this thin and finished in this way. The thin blade is paired with a western handle, and leads to a generally handle-heavy balance across the entire line, this is a balance that long term western knife users are familiar with and able to get used to quickly, but now it is paired with a Japanese edge that cuts much more smoothly.

This is a line designed and built with beauty in mind, although not outstanding in the value compartment, I still think this is something to consider if you are looking for the first Japanese knife to get when switching over from a European one.