Premium Sushi & Sashimi Chef’s Knives – Set of 4 Knives – Ultra High Carbon Steel Blades

Nice knife for the money. Great for the entry level sushi knife. Bolster was loose but all in all a well balanced and cool knife.

I wanted some J knives for my condo and saw this was on sale. PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE NOT TRUE JAPANESE KNIVES…the box states made in China so fit and finish can be very and wildly varying. But lets be real…these are cheaper than a pack of gillet razor blades and for the money quite a bargain.

My hand made j knives typical run me $100 to $400 per knife. As a comparison I have a Masakage 210mm Koishi gyuto, Konosuke GS+ gyuto, Hattori FH gyuto and a number of others. First, the fit and finish is pretty rough, especially the handle. By the way, I don’t mean that wood seems unfinished…that’s actually a good as I like the warmer feel of unpolished/unvarnished wood handles. What I’m referring to is that there gaps between the plastic ferrul and wood handle, the sanding is rough and uneven and the area around the tang and handle doesn’t seem to be well sealed which could allow water to get. The knives are fairly light and the blade thin which will help in cutting. The blade seems to have a decent grind with good thinness behind the edge. nakiri was fairly sharp OOTB but the others had a mediocre edge. I spent some time sharpening them on my whetstones and they all took a pretty good edge. In sharpening them I noticed that the steel was harder than most German steel but not as high Rockwell hardness compared to my other J knives. I got edge sharp enough to easily push cut through phone pages. The balance is spot on for a J knife and is blade forward right in front of my pinch grip.

For those who are used to thick, heavy soft stainless steel German knives these knives will be different experience. These will feel much lighter and more nimble. A good way to start learning your pinch grip and better knife skills.

Overall, seems like a good deal given the price but I have concern on the durability as it seems cheaply made, especially the handle. If these last they will be great value and I’ll bump up my star rating.

One note on rusting mentioned by others…I suspect they didn’t treat their knives well. You should never leave knives in the sink or in water…and never ever put them in the dishwasher. This a great way to ruin any knife. Hand wash knives and wipe dry after use…if run them through the dish washer you’ll kill the steel and possibly ruin the wooden handle, especially a Japanese wa handle. If the advertising is true and these are high carbon knives…I suspect that they may only be semi-stainless. Which is fine…some of my most expensive knives are highly reactive carbon knives that take more care. However, high carbon knives are usually have a higher Rockwell rating and more easily take a finer, sharper edge and sharpen well on whetstones.

I’ll report back in a few months on durability.

I find the handles are a little rough, other than that they are good.

I did not receive compensation for writing this review. That said, I am a fairly competent home cook, and I enjoy trying new things in the kitchen. I own a number of mid-priced blades, and found myself wanting a basic Japanese type set of knives. At less than $20, I figured I’d give these a shot. First impression: These are not full tang knives (but they weren’t advertised as such). They are lightweight and don’t offer much “heft” in your hand. They arrived very sharp though, and reducing potatoes to half in. cubes was a breeze, as was dicing beef for a curry dish. I’ve watched a lot of Asian chefs use the cleaver as their main knife of choice, and this scaled down version made learning to use it a breeze. They required honing not too long after purchase, but again, I expected as much. In closing, this set is probably best suited to a college dorm or your designated camping blades.I can’t imagine them holding up too well during daily use. I am happy with my purchase, but they are not premium blades that will give you years of error free service. They are what they are for less than twenty bucks…

Make no mistake – these are Chinese manufactured – NOT Japanese as some reviewers believe (unless the earlier foam packaged ones were).

Mine arrived today – box says Made in China. Knives were in a plastic tray – not foam. Markings on the blades are on one side in English. No Japanese markings anywhere.

Blades do seem like they are laminated and not a monosteel – the main reason I got them. But I can’t be sure. The outer lamination are
quite thin, But looking down the handle at the back edge, there does seem to be a core of grayer steel – a good indicator that it really is harder high carbon – not the 420/420J/420J2 monosteel typical of most of low end Japanese-style knives, like the Sekiryu. (Which I have and like, but wish they were a bit harder).

I am hoping that if the core really is hard carbon, I can sharpen to perhaps 12-degrees or so, and still have an edge that will not fold over
plus reasonable durability. We shall see. As of now, I haven’t determined the factory bevel angle(s).

Anyway, at $5 a knife, they should at least be good sharpening practice knives. And possibly they will prove to be a worthwhile knife.

Anyone already tried sharpening in the traditional waterstone manner to see if these things will take a really sharp, low-angle edge and hold it?

I paid the full $20 set price. No discounts. No promise to review.

UPDATE 3/11/2016
I wanted to confirm that this was indeed a laminated knife with a relatively harder core inside softer cladding. I took the Santoku and ground a bevel on the blade heel until I could definitely see a lamination line between the core and skin. I then used a set of HRC testing files (the Grizzy T10277 set here on Amazon) to test both the skin and the core. Using the back end of the spine for the skin test, the 55 HRC file was the first (starting from HRC 45) to slightly score the skin edge. The HRC 60 file cut it easily. The lower HRC files skipped right over. This test, if correct, shows the skin to be around HRC 55 – which is what you might expect from an inexpensive SS – perhaps 420 or similar.

Next, I tried the files on the heel bevel – for testing the core. The 55 HRC skipped right over, Not a scratch. The 60 HRC did scratch it just very, very slightly (less than the 55 did on the skin). The 65 gave a good scratch, but not as deep as the 60 did on the skin. Call the core HRC 60.

I then decided to resharpen the entire edge – which to me looked pretty ratty under a 40x scope. (In fact – in places I don’t think it reached the core – the edge was formed on the skins) I used my Apex Edge clone ((RUIXIN) and its cheap supplied 320, 600 and 1500 stones. I definitely ground off enough so that the core provided the entire edge (at 15-degrees each side). It easily sliced newspaper without shredding, shaved a bit of my arm, and I can’t see the edge – the simple sharpness tests.

How will edge retention be? I’ll need to use it a bit – in alteration with my Sekiryu 420J2 Santoku to hopefully see a difference.

My conclusion – if you can get over the marketing hype for these things, and resharpen them – I think you can end up with a decent knife for $5.