Masamoto VG

The VG series is Masamoto Sohonten's stainless line for western-style kitchens, monosteel blades in their Hyper Molybdenum Vanadium steel, a stainless with around 1% carbon that the maker lists among the rust-resistant family. The bevel is set up as a 7:3 grind, and the handle is anti-bacterial POM, the sort a commercial kitchen prefers because it shrugs at water and sanitiser.

The range covers the whole prep board: gyuto from 180 to 270 mm, a santoku, petties in 120 and 150 mm, and a honesuki for breaking down protein. Because the whole blade is stainless, there is no rust drama at the end of a long shift, just a rinse and a dry. In price terms this is a working-knife line, the kind a professional or a serious home cook picks up and uses for years.