Yoshimi Kato VG10 Kurozome Damascus

This VG10 line forged by Yoshimi Kato is one of the most elegant knife I've ever seen, the geometry, profile and finish are all dialed in precisely and combined into a package that offers great cutting performance and appearance.

As a managerial member of the Takefu Knife Village, Yoshimi Kato works closely with Yu Kurosaki, the current representative of this leading association in the industry. As a result, their knives shares many similarities like very thin grind, innovative finishing and high level of finish.

This line is a good representative of those features: the blades takes a slender profile, with a thin neck, the length is measured from the heel, which leads to a long, elegant knife which is good for slicing; the fit and finish is excellent, all the exposed corners are rounded and polished, with the spine being polished all the way to the tip; damascus pattern is uniform, paired with a Kurozome etching, leads to a dazzling look with quite a high contrast.

Besides the look, these thin blades cuts extremely well, due to the bevel that starts half way of the blade, there is nearly no sticking compair with other knife with same finish, the potato slice still automatically peel off naturally with a relatively thin slice. Spliting roots and slicing iup onion is a breeze, as the thin blade offers superb food penetration and minimal resistance throughout the cut.

One downside I can say about this line is the core steel, at its price, you can have a lot more options that use SG2 as core steel, which offers more edge retention and hardness compare to VG10. The etched finish can take a more obvious mark when scratched. However, by going one step down in core steel, you would gain a much higher level of craftsmanship, this knife is definitely ranked at the top for the users seek ultimate level of finish and wouldn't mind a different core steel.