MITSUMOTO SAKARI Janpanese Chef Knife, 7 inch Hand Forged Vegetable Knives

Brilliant quality item. Very sharp, looks sleek and excellent quality. Would have been brilliant if they provided a more durable sleeve for the blade however overall I am very impressed with the quality for the value.

Really excellent, comfortable to use, wonderfully sharp out of the box, handles well, and once used it becomes the tool you reach for when preparing vegetables. This is heavier than the other nakiri knife I have, and also rather wider. It is part way to a traditional vegetable cleaver, but much easier to handle, and lighter. It came out of the box with a nice factory edge, ready for use, and passes the usual sharpness tests perfectly. The dimpling is presumably intended to reduce sticking of food when slicing. It helps to some extent, the slices seem to slide off more easily than on a completely smooth blade, but they do still stick. It looks and feels like a quality item, and when you use it you realize what a difference a real quality product makes. Finely chopping vegetables for instance is so much quicker and easier than even with a well sharpened good brand German chef's knife. The tip is squared off and not pointed, of course, but if this worries you, don't let it. As soon as you use this you realize that you don't need the traditional chef's knife point at all. It is unlike the other nakiri in having a sharp pointed corner at the tip. This turns out to be quite useful in fine cutting of celery or carrots, where the procedure is first to slice into julienne strips and then to chop finely. Get it, you will be glad you did. On sale its a bargain. At full price its an excellent buy too. This is a lifetime purchase, and one of your children will be using it for their lifetime too. Sharpening (as with all Asian kitchen knives) takes some care. Either get an Arkansas fine or extra fine oil stone, 8 x 2 inches, and be very careful to get the angle right, or get a pull through sharpener SPECIFICALLY MADE FOR ASIAN KNIVES. The angle of these is more acute than European ones, and using a European pull-through will ruin the edge.

what else is there to say this knife is amazing, very nicely balanced and feels good in the hand, well presented in a wooden box. couldnt ask for more!

Brought last year, only had to sharpen on my whetstone once.

DON'T waste your money on this! When I bought at £40 it was overpriced and vastly inferior to the £20 nakiri i bought from Amazon in the same day. The steel is so poor that the edge just breaks away and while it can be sharpened, if you have whetstones and know how to use them, the same thing quickly happens. It is, without doubt, the worst knife I've ever had. Despite the name, this is a very cheaply made Chinese knife brand that should be avoided. To be fair to them though, they did refund instantly and let me keep the knife. At the £70 they're asking, just spend a bit more, the Wusthof Classic Nakiri I bought from Amazon for example was £105. That's not much more for one of the best professional brands on the market. I'll keep the £20 Nakiri but this one is going in the bin.

Avoid these like the plague. Amazon is completely infected with knives like these – cheap, mass produced knives made in China under the guise of being Japanese. Notice how the listings never say "Made in Japan". That's because they aren't. They may be "Japanese" in style, but they are not Japanese. If you have a look on AliExpress you'll find these knives available to buy in bulk to con people on sites like Amazon into thinking they are buying a genuine Japanese forged knife. It takes a couple of mins to do a bit of research. There are loads of reputable places where you can buy genuine Japanese knives that have been forged in Japan. Avoid these!

The item is available elsewhere on Amazon for a third of the price.