Chef Knife - 8 inch Blade - AUS-10V Japanese Steel - Full Tang - Black G10 Handle - Chef's Knife - Shogun Series ELITE - Razor Sharp Kitchen - Professional Premium Sheath

This chef knife is solid! Super sharp out the box! Has a nice weight to it, I was skeptical about the handle but it feels good in my hand. And is extremely sharp. Expensive, yes, but worth it. It’s my first Dalstrong knife. It has an elegance about it. Even with the hammered Damascus which isn’t laser etched so each knife in this series is different. It cuts and slices like a dream. This isn’t for cutting bone, even tho I’m sure it can, a cleaver would be better suited for that. Plus I like it has a full tang. Unlike some of their other knives that have a partial tang. If you are going to pay a decent amount of money for a knife it should have a full tang. IMO. And be sharp out the box. Honestly it needs to be seen in person to appreciate the craftsmanship.

I've been using this as my "daily driver" in the kitchen for a couple months now and I must say it is excellent. It is very sharp out of the box (not beard shaving razor sharp but more than sharp enough for the average kitchen chef like me). It is as sharp out of the box as the previous knife that I've sharpened with a whetstone by hand, which is impressive. It can chop any regular meats, vegetables, and fruits with ease and passes my "magazine paper" test with flying colors. 10/10 appearance - Don't have to elaborate on this too much, the appearance is great. It comes with a cool looking box and a sheath which is great for displaying, but that's not too important to me. 10/10 durability - After frequent use (average 10 minutes of chopping, etc. per day for a couple months) of meats, vegetables, fruits, and fish (through bone and everything), there has not been any visible damage to the cutting edge. All I do for maintenance is use a honing rod every couple days to keep the fine edge alignment good. With proper honing with a steel rod, I have not noticed any dulling of the blade after couple months of use. I don't plan on actually sharpening this blade for a very long time with a whetstone due to how good it performs and how well it retains its edge. 10/10 functionality - It is sharpened all the way to the base and has a sharp tip and slightly rounded cutting edge. For "push" cutting style (which is how I chop 90% of the time) it feels amazing especially ending the cut in the middle to base of the knife. For "draw" cutting or slicing (meats and tomatoes mostly) it feels great as well both at the tip and towards the base. For the "rocking" chop I don't have too much information on since I don't often chop using that style, but I reason it would work quite well. If price is not an issue, then based upon my experiences I would recommend this product to any home kitchen enthusiast or anyone who cooks at home frequently. It makes chopping food way more enjoyable than with a dull knife that's for sure!

Excellent quality for the price. I am not an outright expert, but I own a-lot of higher end knives (benchmade balisongs, Sog etc.) and only buy good quality tools. Most people do not usually buy higher end kitchen knives without trying them out in my hand first, but the reviews of these knives and my need for a new Santoku led me to taking the leap. I was highly impressed right out of the box with every aspect of these knives. I bought 3 (8" chef, 7" santoku and 5" santoku). I am writing this generic review for all 3 because I'm lazy and I type slow. These knives feel great in the hand, they promote a natural pinch grip, are weighted very well, are extremely sharp, were a great value for the steel quality and overall build quality and are truly beautiful. They are heavy enough to provide plenty of chopping power, but not so heavy to fatigue your hand or wrist after a long prep. They zipped through everything I wanted to cut and provide clean small cuts with ease. The first time I used the 7" santoku I was cleaning it with a sponge and was applying almost no pressure but I moved the sponge across the blade accidentally and the end of the sponge fell off. Eventually I got overconfident with the 7" santoku and inevitably cut myself, I didn't even notice the cut until I was a couple inches down the vegetable I was cutting, it is that sharp out of the box. Great product and I intend to stay with this company in the future as I upgrade the rest of my knife block.

I own a fair amount of knives. I started with some pretty cheap ones and as the time goes by, I am moving towards the upper scale. So now I own a few good kitchen knives: J.A. Henkels (some made in Germany and others made in China), some French made knives : Sabatier and Laguilole and also a wonderful MAC Japanese knife (my favorite). All of that to explain that I will be comparing the Dalstrong chef knife to them. Here is what I love about it: + Beautiful. I love this wonderful mix of hammered pattern and Damascus waves. The picture does not show well enough how beautiful it is. + Extremely sharp out of the box. That would be fairly close to razor sharp. It went through everything as butter. + Quality of construction. Nothing rattles, no weakness visible. Full tang blade. Very nice handle. + Grip. It is excellent. It is designed to be well handed. + Weight. As compared to my MAC, for a Japanese kitchen knife, it is pretty heavy. + Customer support. Dalstrong wants the experience to be as good as possible for their knives. So they offer a lifetime guarantee. They also make the opening of the box a very pleasant experience. What I do not like about it: - I do not know really if I should put it as a minus but the knowledge of the knife is made in China could diminish the impression of quality. I am sure that Dalstrong will disagree 100% with me on this as they have established the production line in a city famous for its metal work since 1500 years. Overall observations: The German made blades are usually on the heavy side while the Japanese blades are on the very light side. It can be unsettling for some to go from one to the next. Dalstrong knives are kind of a mix of both. It is using Japanese steel (VG10) and German type of manufacturing. This knife should be used for cutting/slicing vegetables and meats but not to cut bones or frozen products. It always has to be hand washed and should be kept in its sheath if you want to put it in a drawer. If you take a good care of it, it should last you a lifetime. Now, I a considering buying the same shogun serie steak knives...

extremely sharp. Scary sharp. The weight of the blade is perfectly balanced. The handle is beautiful quality. The rocking of the blade is a little weird though.

I'll start off by saying the packaging is a nice touch. But let's get to the knife: I was specifically looking for a knife that has a more European profile that I'm accustomed to. Years of using Wusthof has me used rocking my knife in a way Japanese style blades just can't. But I wanted harder steel that I didn't have to touch up weekly. There are not a lot of knives on the market, at affordable prices (sub $200-300). In fact, this was about the only one. Balance is nice, right at the bolster. I prefer it a touch further back for rocking, but as I use a blade pinch grip it handles perfectly for me. If you rock holding the full handle you're better off with a Wusthof. Thus is closer to the balance of a Zwilling. The handle is ergonomic for my grip, and the transition of handle to bolster to blade is fantastic for pinch gripping (unlike most Japanese style knives). The blade came reasonably sharp out of the box, though I can get it sharper myself. However, the factory edge is more than serviceable. The down side is the blade finishing is a little "cheap." The finish between the flats of the steel and the hammering is uneven due what appears to be a quick sandblasting and feric chloride treatment to bring out the damascus folding pattern, however the areas around the hammer strikes are still very polished. So the overall blade finish looks rushed and uneven. I decided to polish this up myself as it was bothering me. Now everything is a near mirror polish and can also confirm that it truly is damascus. There is a slight (what appears to be) lamination line near the bolster that looks a little cheap as well but is simply cosmetic. All in all, this goes to show that Chinese knives still can't quite compete with the fit and finish of Japanese made knives; as despite how nice this knife is, you can still tell it is a Chinese knife trying to look the part. That said, it is still very ergonomic, holds its edge, and meets my request of Blade profile and steels. If priced around $80-90 it would be right in the sweet spot of what I think you get out of the knife. But at its current price I do feel it's over priced and a bit of a rip-off. Don't get me wrong though, it is a decent knife and will cut. But you are definitely paying a premium for the marketing and packaging. If you want a truly Japanese knife with Japanese blade profile, you're better off looking at Yaxell or Tojiro. If you want something with a European blade profile with a harder steel, than this is the knife to get in the price range. Could you buy almost an identical knife off of Aliexpress or half the price? Sure. But from what I've seen, Dalstrong's customer service IS very good, so that's part of what you're paying for and is why I didn't do just that. Ultimately, for other knives, I won't be buying Dalstrong and will stick to Tojiro, Yaxell, and Shun. For my European knives, I'll stick to Zwilling and Mercer. However, this knife does what I wanted and will see every day use as my primary knife. So I don't know how to feel. If they cut the price about $40-50 I'd feel they would have a real winner. Other than that, its all marketing to bring you a well designed product but the implementation slightly misses the mark at the price point. Take that how you will.

I purchased this knife four years ago and will review it based on my experiences with it. Arrival/packaging: The knife arrived in a beautiful white rectangular box inside of a sleeve with the companies insignia printed on the front of it along with the 'Shogun series' logo. Upon opening the box itself on the top the box you're greeted with summary of the knife specs and materials used, and nestled in a fitted felt mould is your new 8" knife inside of an awesome looking sheath, along with a FAQ booklet, a polishing cloth, and a lapel pin which looks really nice, I would definitely present it on my chef coat if I wasn't so concerned with it becoming weathered and dirty, it just looks so great in its packaging that for the time being I prefer to preserve it. Overall, the presentation of opening the box, really gives you the feeling like you purchased a high-end item that you're going to enjoy for a long time. The knife itself: From the stainless steel, engraved end cap, that supplies a perfect counter balance, through the ergonomic full tang G-10 Garolite handle with a unique copper pin that adorns the center rivet, all the way to the tip of the 8-inch Japanese AUS-10V super steel blade, with amazing hammered finish, I can't say enough good things about this knife. When I pick up and use coworkers knives, I scoff at the inferiority of the build quality of these supposed 'high-end' knives. There's just no competition in this category of knife, you get exactly what you pay for, a sharp, precise instrument that wont let you down. Overall: This is a 5 star knife, from the packaging presentation, to the craftsmanship, to the performance, it is just second to none, I have recommended this knife to many people, and actually had a co-worker purchase a Dalstrong knife from their gladiator series, and he loves it. I would buy every knife from the Shogun series if I had the spare funds to do so, but this knife is so versatile that if its the only one I ever own from the series, I'm okay with that, because it does everything I ask it to.

Solid knife at a perfect price. The sharpness lasts so long. It actually dulled when I used a ceramic honer. Don't use ceramic on it. It actually didn't even need sharpening for 7 years surprisingly. I used it moderately for that long.