Yoshihiro Aogami Super Gyuto with Magnolia Buffalo Horn Handle

My Favorite Kitchen Tool

Two and a half years ago, I made one of the best culinary investments of my life by purchasing this beautifully crafted Japanese knife. It has since become an essential part of my kitchen. Using this knife has significantly improved my cooking experience. Its sharpness and balance allow for precise cuts, making food preparation faster and more enjoyable. The comfort and efficiency it brings to my kitchen have elevated my cooking to a new level. The knife feels like an extension of my hand, making every cut precise and effortless. I rely on it for everything: portioning chickens, cutting vegetables, slicing fruits, and preparing meats and fish. Despite frequent use, it has required almost no sharpening. A particularly enchanting aspect of this knife is the colorful patina that has formed on the carbon steel part of the blade over time. It’s a stunning, ever-changing canvas that enhances the knife’s uniqueness. (I tried to photograph the patina on a knife, but it's difficult to capture it in focus because the camera perceives it differently than the eye does.) I can only recommend this knife to everyone.

Sharp as hell, handsome as a Hollywood star. I just hope to improve my skills in the kitchen so I can use it on its full potential.

Dull out of the box -- struggles with cherry tomatoes. 210mm review

This knife is three firsts for me -- first Japanese knife, first partial tang knife, and first carbon steel knife. I'm pretty disappointed because my knife came dull out of the box, even worse than most department store knives. I'm not exaggerating. The first time I took the knife out of the box, I checked the sharpness by lightly resting the weight of the knife on my fingernail and seeing if it would slide off when I pushed it laterally away from me. It did, in multiple areas along the blade. I was immediately disappointed, but hoped that this was due to how light the knife is versus my usual full tang 10" blades, so I decided to reserve my judgement until I used it in action. Last night I used it to make dinner, it struggled like hell with cherry tomatoes (I had to rock it just to bite the skin), and fresh not frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs, the chicken needing multiple cuts to get through -- extremely frustrating, we've all been there. I was really looking forward to seeing what kind of edge the makers would put on a knife with HRC 64, but it arrived duller than my daily driver knife, which is kind of absurd. Make no mistake, I'm an absolute amateur with stones. I have maybe 10 or 12 hours using them. I can make something paper-cutting sharp if I use my #400 stone, but with #1000 I'm still struggling to reach that because my technique is lacking. The fact that a $190 knife came duller than my lame skills is kinda... lame. I've bought $90 knives from Amazon that came paper-cutting sharp, so I'm really disappointed about this. My plan was to use this knife until it went dull (using it only on a Hasegawa board) and then hopefully by that time I'd be more confident in my sharpening skills to start touching my expensive knives. I suppose that the silver lining is now I have better motivation to improve? But, I'm still really disappointed in the sharpness out of the box and I'm knocking a star for that. From reading other reviews, it seems like I'm the outlier here and the other knives came sharp. Maybe I got unlucky and some apprentice sharpened my knife or something. Other than the dullness out of the box, I absolutely love this knife. It feels so good in your hand, it's *SO* light, the balance and fulcrum are great, the choil feels so nice against your fingers, this knife really encourages your pinch grip and all around feels fantastic to use. I have big hands, but I think this knife would be comfortable in almost all hand sizes. Despite my unluckiness, I still wholeheartedly recommend this knife, I love everything about it. I should also mention that shipping was extremely fast from Hong Kong, I think 5 business days after my order was processed, and the knife was also packaged well. The box had a very strong acrylic band holding it closed, there was a sliver of styrofoam padding on top the knife, and the blade was wrapped and taped in a Japanese newspaper. I don't think it moved or jostled at all during shipping, which is very good.