Sensational meant to make you feel exceptional. This marketing does a few things. It's layered, but the first part is "it might go away" since it was once banned. Second part is, the ability to get products not meant for general use can be appealing to some. Think advertisements selling "military" or "space grade" products. Third part is, it makes a person feel like they're more capable if they can use it; "other people might not be able to use it, but I would". Stupid, but appealing enough to work. I hate this kind of marketing.
Exactly. So many of these ads for drop-shipped goods, all with that text-to-speech audio, every one making ludicrous claims. Considering how easy it is to spot that they're bs, it annoys me that UA-cam shows so many of them.
@@drengillespie No, and unfortunately some of them are getting harder to spot. These ones are already challenging for older people who don't know any better and are hard of hearing. Doubly so if their native language isn't English.
I see it all the time on videos about firearms. Somehow these AI bot channels get hundreds of thousands of views and the only thing the video does is take the description of a firearm off the manufacturer's website put into text to speech and then steal footage of other content creators that are actually using the firearm for a review.
@@I.b.shifty The best part is, the "Japanese" looking writing on the package uses a form of the second character (话) that isn't used in Japanese, only Chinese. The Japanese text would be 神話.
@@I.b.shiftyThe idea probably being that the vikings are famous for their high quality swords, especially the Ulfberht (actually spelled +VLFBERH+T). Problem with that: Ulfberht swords, while widely used and praised by vikings, were made in the Frankish Empire and traded to the vikings. The vikings at the time weren't able to create the high quality steel the Franks were able to produce.
Any time someone says “It was banned for being too (desirable quality)” in an advertisement, just run. Too sharp, too good at curing every ailment, too good at curing a single ailment, too good at dating.
It's not like it wouldnt be easier for BIG [INDUSTRY] to just copy it and make their own version and use their BIG [INDUSTRY] money to flood the market with their product.
There are some instances where it is legitimate though. For example, many fishing lures are banned from competitive fishing competitions for being too good at attracting fish, and many shoes are banned from sports as well for the same reason.
Knife companies, three options and they are not mutually exclusive: 1. Make better knives. 2. Stop lying in your adverts. 3. Stay out of Will's insta feed.
A friend asked me what I thought of these, I told him it’s a knife with an identity crisis. It has no idea what it wants to be so it’s horrible at everything
It's like it went to community college and got partway through getting credits towards six different degrees but never stuck to the classes long enough to finish. It knows, to some small degree, what kinds of things knives are used for, but it can't with any degree of competence emulate any of those tasks.
Victorinox is the best you'll ever need as a home chef and at a very good price point. Fiskars are also decent cheap knives if they are avalible where you live. And you do not need a huge set, 3-5 knives depending on what you do is all you really need.
@jakobrosenqvist4691 I still think Wüsthof gets a bad rap in that price range... They are decent knives... I like the Wüsthof Ikon Classc range for cheap but decent beater. If you want something just a little nicer, look into Kai Shun or the Myabi lines by Zwilling... They'll cost you about twice of what a Global or a Wüsthof will cost you, but there is a real difference in quality there as well... Also depends on whether you want a beater or something to take care of a bit better... A Kai Shun Santoku is nice, but not so horribly expensive it's unaffordable, and it really makes for a great allround knife in the kitchen for pretty much all prep work, unless you're talking filleting fish or deboning a piece of meat or some other really specialised task. I'm not sure this will pass on UA-cam, but a great website I can recommend, which ships pretty much locally world-wide is: www.knivesandtools.com/en/ct/kitchen-knives.htm Great detailed descriptions and a lot of knowhow and honest reviews... It's my go-to place for anything that isn't something Japanese and fancy...
@@That1NissanGuy Dunno , i cheap out on them , even though i a knife guy , most of them i made it myself, and use , the other knifes are for somebody else , that would just cut on porcelan stuff like this , so i don't care about them
@@foxyfoxington2651 So many companies are "successful" just because they manage to find ways to scam the public, but their products are garbage and the world would be better off with them not existing.
I got an early kamikotu and it’s still fantastic and one of my most used knives. I bought a second, different model a year later and it was utter utter garbage. It’s literally in the garage as a paint can opener.
The edge profile would be good for a skinner, but it's much to large and chunky for that. To me it feels like someone mixed a heavu duty outdoor knive and a skinner, and then made a cheap edgy replica version of that.
@@einundsiebenziger5488 If you want something really heavy duty that can baton firewood and be used to pry and poke, then something this size is ok. But it's definitley on the larger end.
I think someone contracted a Chinese foundry to crank out thousands of these blanks and then a marketing + drop shipper company tried to make it into a "premium chef's knife"
I had a skinning knife that was larger than this thing, but it was made by a reputable company. I have a smaller version of a knife that's sorta like this one. It was advertised as a "bush craft utility knife". Basically they said "it's good for cutting sticks". :D
From the way that it looks, it looks like the knife was originally meant to be a survival knife of some kind. Especially since the ads show them using it to strike flint. But I think it failed at that and they realized they could more easily market it as a kitchen knife than an outdoors knife.
My "survival" knife feels a lot more sturdy and safe than this one, tbh. And it's a years-old pretty cheap one. And most I'd need that type of knife for is cutting rope, whittling and maybe chopping food/meat in a pinch. I can't see whittling work too well with this and you can cut rope with pretty much any knife. Then add in the "ez stab" spike near the handle and the safety I'd want from a knife I need to grab blindly from my belt goes out the window, too. Couldn't even hand that knife safely to someone who needs it, because of that stupid spike.
I do wanna point out, that my aunt owns a very, very similar (but not the same) knife from a place called "The Caveman Style". Cheep handles, nonforged blade with black painted upper section with the same pressed dimples, the hole, the only difference I can see being the grip and tang are shaped differently, and the finger cutter (rear overhang) is gone. Blade profile looks very similar otherwise
lol My cousin brought up one of those cringy Instagram knife ads and I immediately made fun of it without realizing he was about to tell me he had just bought one xD It was one of those big cleavers you see people doing like.. "survival" outdoor cooking videos with.
For when a chef has to survive because his sous chef has lost the plot and is threatening the waiting staff with a hot frying pan and you have to put them down with it? xD
Hi Will There is another channel on UA-cam called Project farm, he has some pretty neat setups to show things like cutting force required etc.. Anyways just a suggestion to maybe try to make some of these cuts on a kitchen scale or something to show how much force is required to cut certain inedible vegetables (like pumpkin or aubergines) in comparison to actual kitchen knives? Just a thought. Love the videos thank you for all the effort you put into them.
I really appreciate you going through the knives that are pushed so hard. It shows how bad they are. My personal feeling is that if you need this much advertisement to sell it it's probably not worth buying.
Keep in mind: Design is used to make a good, quality, functional product. Marketing gets whatever product you *do* have to sell to people. There isn't necessarily a lot of overlap between them. Careful on the internet guys, and Will, thanks for reviewing the bunk for all of us.
I'd love to see you recreate one of these production knives with good quality steel and a proper edge on them. Just to show the difference that even with a bad design, what a proper edge and steel makes to a knife and why its worth the money.
Imagine claiming to pay respect to ancient Japanese weaponsmiths, and calling one of the most well-known blade styles. . . a samurai sword. Were they afraid "katana" was too niche? I see the levels or respect match the products quality.
I was gifted one of these by a relative who fell for the false advertising of "Japanese Knife" "Japanese Steel" Will got lucky with the handle scales being flat on his, mine have chips out of them and daylight between the scales and tang. I have never even tried to cut anything with it, other than paper (which is simply couldn't do out of the box) I use it to practice sharpening since I'm not worried about messing it up. Also notice in the ad they demonstrate cutting with several completely different knives to the one they actually sell, it would be funny if so many people weren't actually paying money to such a blatantly fraudulent business.
I could really stand to see more of this type of video... Not just because it's entertaining ripping into horrible knives, but it's actually rather instructional as to what you should be looking for as well. 👍👍 [edit] From a blacksmith/knifesmith standpoint, I could also stand to hear a bit more about certain steel types. Especially some of the more modern powdered carbide knife steels in contrast to the more traditional white/blue carbon steels, Aogami super steel, the VG variations, etc... Advantages, disadvantages, etc... -- Also, people really underestimate just how important a good knife or two in the kitchen really is... I hardly know anybody, not matter how great a cook they are, that actually have a decently sharp knife in the kitchen... It's crazy! It's come to a point where I hardly even let people loose on my better knives in the kitchen, because they'll invariably be maltreated, so they'll just have to deal with the Wüsthoff's... That said, it's also become pretty automatic to warn people that my knives are sharp, and half the time they'll still cut themselves... What's up with all that?!
I learned how to sharpen almost immediately after my favorite knife (A Dalstrong, nothing fancy really, probably about as good as a Wustoff) began to dull on me. I was not about to lose gliding through food, truly, more sharp is more fun.
Not 100% a bladesmith's perspective but for someone who's definitely an authority and passionate about steel and their use in knives, Larrin Thomas of KnifeSteelNerds has a huge repository of his personal independent testing and metallurgy knowledge of many many different steels from your classic 1095 to his personally developed Magnacut that's the new big hotness of knife steels being a high carbide stainless steel that's more stainless and tough than M390, sacrificing just a little bit in edge retention Magnacut is nearly what most say is the most well balanced steel by far in terms of the triple seesaw of stainlessness, toughness, and Wear Resistance/*Edge retention where in any steel it's always going to be a at most "pick two" situation. Want a knife that doesn't chip and you can abuse it to high hell but able to bring back the edge using a river rock? 1095 is a great option, but it's gonna rust like nobodies business. Want a knife that stays sharp dang near forever? Maxamet is right up your alley, but it's not exactly stainless and chipping is a real danger with abuse, also sharpening it with normal whetstones is a huge pain(even with diamonds) but if you're sharpening once a year then it ain't so bad. Need a knife that'll mostly survive the ocean salt on a busy boat or while diving? LC200N is your best bet, very tough and can be abused, just expect to maintain that edge a lot more often than other popular steels Of course there's no such thing "perfect" knife steel, only what's best for your environment and needed application. *Edge Retention has a lot of factors, not just the steel. Assuming identical heat treatments(method(oil, water, aluminum plate, cryo), temperature, time, HrC) it's knife geometry and bevel angle that's a bigger factor when it comes to edge retention and cutting performance a 15 Degrees Per Side vs a 20DPS edge on two identical geometry knives the 15DPS will be sharp for much longer compared to the 20DPS. Though of course the edge will be a bit more prone to folding over and even chipping compared to the more robust 20DPS. Again it's always that seesaw for your particular application
The ideograms on the box looked familiar (the 2nd is "hua" which denotes a language or dialect). So... I looked them up. It's "shen hua". I assume they're marketing on the "legendary" translation. But... it also translates to "fairy tale". :D
I have one of these knives, and yeah, I would agree with most of this. My aunt got one each for me and my mom, and my mom hated it right off the bat because of how HEAVY it is. For me, as you said, the pinch grip is surprisingly comfortable, but because of the blade's weird shape, it makes it really awkward for both slicing and chopping. What I find it useful for, weirdly enough since it doesn't look like it, is carving. I use it for cutting meat, especially partially-frozen meat that's hard to cut. I also use the tip to carve things like peppers off the stem or really thick vegetables like carrots or leeks (my local grocery store only sells giant flakkees). Turns out that weight is actually surprisingly good for just brute-forcing some tougher ingredients. Honestly if you're strong enough you could probably use the tip for chopping things finely like garlic, but again, it's really heavy compared to any other knife. Also it looks cool so my guests like to gawk at it, and that distracts them long enough for me to use the $15 nakiri I got from the local grocery store. ALSO it's really fun for mushrooms. I like my mushroom slices thick so I can just haphazardly chop chop chop which is fun with this knife. Basically, this knife is better treated as a miniature woodcutting axe than a knife. All that said it's just incredibly overpriced. The weird shape isn't doing it any favours. It's easily the most expensive knife in my drawer and not nearly the most useful. I definitely don't hate using it, but I completely understand why it's getting so much scrutiny, since it's basically trying to sell on being a gimmick. Which sucks, because the handle is really nice and the weight might be something that other people like me might like. God knows the fucking 1cm blade won't bend ever. But instead of making just, you know, a good knife, they had to try to trick people.
I was a chef for 6 years and still use my 8" Henckles for pretty much everything. I got one of these instagram knives as a gift one year for christmas. It was a really tall and thick blade with a decently sharp edge. The only thing I use it for, and will admit that it works quite well for, is cutting chicken wings. When I am breaking down whole wings into the drum and flat and removing the tip it really does well. Not good for much else.
Interesting how in most of the footage these shady companies use in their ads, nobody seen cutting food uses the knife they advertise (1:00). And fascinating how they do not feel ashamed to sell the same shitty thing under names that change on a weekly basis.
In my country they are trying the sell it as "the absolute japanese chef knife sward"... "made in China" (if you notice the superfine print on the label). I'd say it's a wonderful blade (if you use it daily, all the way from the edge) - for developing carpal tunnel joint problems...
I love the concept of this series. It's so fun seeing an absloute dumpster fire of a kitchen knife being talked up about. It's almost as if every design choice of this knife was to make it bad at its supposed job in the kitchen.
Something to help us the viewer understand how hard you have to push to cut through things would be to put a scale beneath the cutting board. Probably weird to film but would be cool to see.
@@WillStelterbladesmith I thought that might be the case. Very cool to see how blade geometry alone makes such a big difference in the cut. Thanks for the video!
When I started working as a chef, my Grandpa got me one. Handle was uncomfortable, point and edge were brittle, and its a pain to sharpen. I eventually gave the knife away. Much prefer to use Whusthof or Dexter Russels in a professional setting. The Japanese knives are wonderful, but too brittle to stand up in all but the calmest situations. Most professional kitchens are not "calm" settings.
If they are still an MLM (door to door scam jobs), I would never buy from them, regardless if their knives are good. They are overpriced as fuck on top of that.
I would love to get like a basics video on knives. What the typical marketing with different steel types actually means for the knife, what the different shapes mean for cutting/how to cut and all that. Plus some recommendations for different budgets and maybe even a summary of brands (how good is a normal wüsthoff against a zwilling or hexclad, are the cheap ikea knives acutally okay)
I have this exact knife (given as a gift) and it is utterly hideous. The handle material has no protection and is rough. And the blade isn't even good enough as a cleaver and is downright dangerous with how unstable it is if you don't know how to handle a knife properly. Thank you for bringing this to peoples attention Will. Keep up the great work!
I'd love to see Wil re-grind and try to make this knife... anything but awful. I mean the shape is awful, but at least a correct sharpening would be good
As soon as I heard 420j2 steel being used for this, I already knew how much of a scam this was. 420j2 steel, for those unaware, is a really good steel. For surgical utensils. That's an insanely bad thing for a blade that is going to be used often, like a kitchen knife. 420j2 steel can hold an edge, but it doesn't hold an edge for very long. It's easy to manufacture, and it's cheap, which is why they're used for surgical utensils; because surgeons dispose of their utensils after surgery, for both sanitary and efficiency purposes. If you ever see any blade that is made with 420j2 steel, do not buy it even if you like dedicating your life to resharpening it after almost every single use.
I LOVE this series of testing knives that were recommended from instagram. You should make a video for all the people that took the bait and bought one a way to “fix” the knife by modifying it with a regrind so they don’t have to just throw it away, right away.
I always love watching experts talk about things they’re knowledgable about, and since cooking is one of my passions, it was relatively easy for me to understand some of the points I otherwise might not have. I didn’t understand everything, but it was an interesting video on balance, and I’m interested to watch some more.
This looks like a fighting knife. "If you intend to duel your food to the death first, this is the way to go!" also sounds like something they would use as marketing.
I saw an ad for this "knife" claiming it was some ancient long lost viking knife. Then vikings dropped from mainstream and they're a banned samurai knife.
Quality review of a highly marketed knife. I learned some things that I just never thought about before. I am not a chef, I'm not much of a cook at all but I do help in the kitchen when asked and trying to sharpen knives is my responsibility. The more ya know... Thanks Will.
I wonder which Okinawan hermit this guy approached to learn from but was turned away but then waited outside his house for 3 months until he begrudgingly accepted him as an apprentice to learn all this stuff
These are great videos! You should try cutting things on a scale to see if you can actually quantify how much harder it is to push these knives through the veggies than it is the more well designed knives
This product leverage that their customers probably have an old kitchen knife at home, probably cheap and horrible to use, and that they have no knowledge of how a proper knife should be. So what ends up happening is that once they get the knife to compare, the Matsato will conform to their notions of an "exotic and super sharp knife" in it's design and functionally it will definitively cut better than their old knife. Also, with claims of thinner slices and so on, the user be inclined to try making thin slices and such and then believe them to be special because they TRIED IT WITH THE MATSATO KNIFE. They would otherwise would never cut thin slices because they are probably terrible chefs in the first place. It's a cartoon knife - it's designed to appeal not to cut.
I'm very impressed by your presentation, super natural and informative, subscribed! As a culinary school grad I appreciate your knowledge of the craft and would love to have one of your knives
I love how they say the hole is for control, yet none of the footage from ads you shown was anyone actually using the hole, 😂 It's almost like they made the blade then had people who actually knew how to use a blade use for footage. Lol
it reminds me of a mall knife or a gas station knife. but at least when you buy a mall knife or a gas station knife you *know* you're not buying a *real* knife.
11:40 "How many ounces is that? Because I'm a normal person." Classic American that doesn't realise that almost every other country in the world uses metric making you anything but a "normal person".
One of my life goals is to buy one of your knives. I love your reviews and I hate my current knife set. You do amazing work! I’ll save up for this for sure.
Love these videos! It's funny though because the main thing I always take away is how dull my kitchen knives are and that I need to sharpen them again.
I bought a Santoku off aliexpress for about $7.00... Was NOT expecting anything but when it go to me I was really impressed with sharpness and the way it cut. Very similar to my $125 20+ year-old Shun. Comfortable as well. No idea how the edge is going to last but at $7.00 and having a decent whetstone set, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.
I love how even having no real experience/knowledge in proper kitchen technique, or use in good/bad knife comparison, anyone can HEAR the difference in the cuts between the knives!
Great job of comparing the differences and describing the specifics of what makes cutting with it tough! The angled part that causes it to wedge is never even something I considered with knives, great to keep in mind!
Is Isaiah also doing the secondary camera? Because the closeups are really high quality! Those carrot slices are so nicely lit and in focus! A+ work, gents!
I love this little series! Cant stand seeing these flashy "content creator" knives as i call them lol. I have an idea, maybe you could take these knives and "fix" what you don't like about them and re-test to see if it's any better! Like refinishing the edge geometry from hollow grind to convex edge, maybe smooth out the choil/heel or remove the jimping on the spiine. Love the videos, thanks!
Thanks Will! Love to see all the finer tidbits of perfecting blade geometry revealed in your videos. Helps me to make a better product when I can see direct comparison in action.
No clue why this came across my feed, I know nothing about knives. Grateful it did, I feel like I learned a lot watching this, both about knives and how to use them. Fantastic.
I've been using the Victorinox for close to 20 years as my best knife, but I recently upgraded to a nice japanese damascus steel. First cut with it I couldn't believe the difference. I've been using it for about a month now and am still astonished I waited this long.
In the advertising, none of the people cutting used the hole, even while talking about how great the hole is. Worth pointing out, almost nothing advertised by UA-cam/social media people is actually good quality. A majority is just drop-shipped or OEM garbage made for as cheap as possible. I guess that's not fair, some of it is decent quality, but just for the price you get if you go straight to the original manufacturer on their only stores rather than the massively marked up versions. A 20 dollar item that's built like it's maybe a 30 dollar item is nice; a 20 dollar item built like it's a 30 dollar item but then sold for 65-100 is not so nice.
Victorinox Fibrox line is popular in commercial kitchens because they are decent, reasonably priced, easy to clean and the handles can stand up to repeated immersion in sanitizer.
I like knives, but I lack the knowledge to appreciate them. Thank you for this video ! I realize I have been cutting most of my food of the last 5 years with a 12$ santoku than doesn't have an edge :'D Will watch more videos so I improve my knives understanding. Fun trivia : "lame" is the french word for "blade" !
Really enjoying these knife reviews! If you cut to close-up footage when you describe things like the hollow grind or distal taper, rather than using hand gestures, it would help to illustrate those concepts better. I've never thought much about kitchen knife blade geometry, and seeing how it's done wrong is great for understanding how to do it right.
Even zooming in probably won't help most people understand it, because the way light and shadow fall will make some people see something other than the correct thing or focus on the wrong part. The best way is drawing a big picture of whatever you're describing in macro.
Thank you for the video Will. Please add the company name to the title, so when people look for a review, they see your video instead of the scammer account videos. I just did a round of reporting on those videos, but having you come up in a search will do much more to spread awareness. My father fell for Huusk. I don't want more people to fall for these scams.
Excellent video. Pattern-weld pattern idea that I haven't seen anywhere else: a subtle lighting bolt that "rides" along the hamon. I say subtle because many of the pattern-welded blades I see are too "extra" for me. Maybe you could try to make that happen in a video.
I'm not sure why this was in my recommended... I haven't even thought about buying any knives (nor have I watched similar content). That being said, this sounds like just the channel to watch IF I ever want to get any info on the topic, so... well done, good sir!
Thanks Will, I somehow knew what a good chef's knife needed to be, but, you gave definition to my intuition in that regard. I've got a set of stainless Oxford Hall knives that have been working well for me for over forty years. I could probably really enjoy a set of your knives, but I'm not sure I could afford them. Love your vids, and the work you've done with Alec.You two inspired me to set up a smithing area at my shop. Just to putter... First project has been a Chestnut knife from a circular saw blade that lost some teeth... Ugly, but hey, it works for scoring Chestnuts for roasting. Yeah, on an open fire!
"Versatility is the enemy of efficiency" I both totally understand your point, and feel personally attacked as I feel good/decent at a lot of things... 😬😭 Gotta do some introspection on that... 😂
I love that you clearly see in all of their marketing with chefs using the blade, NONE of them are using that stupid hole to put their finger into. Pointless design choice just made to be flashy. XD
Hey Will, it would be really cool if you could put out some information on what a proper maintenance routine is for kitchen knives. I bought my wife a fairly nice chef knife for christmas with the impression that it would just kind of stay sharp since it was a good knife... but watching your channel that seems like it was a bad assumption. How often do knives generally need to be resharpened? How do you know when it's time to do that? Should a knife be honed on the steel every time it's used? Are all of the gimick-y "automatic" knife sharpeners as terrible as I assume they are? I love your channel, have been watching you since you first came on with Alec! Good luck on your Master blade smith test!
Get a Shapton 1000 grid stone (pretty much the standard for a reasonably priced, not garbage stone) and a strop with stropping compound. Don't use a steel, strop frequently with the compound and sharpen maybe once a year or whenever the stopping doesn't seem to get it back to scary sharp.
Knives only stay sharp when not used. How long a knife stays sharp depends on the type and frequency of cutting tasks, the properties of the steel, the geometry of the primary and secondary edge bevels, and how well the knife is maintained. True re-sharpening of kitchen knives should be a relatively infrequent occurrence, provided you maintain the edge using a ceramic honing rod, a knife steel, or a leather strop. With general kitchen cutting tasks, knives will feel dull due to edge rolling. This can be corrected by honing the knife before each use, effectively un-rolling the bent edge so that the apex is again perpendicular to the cutting surface. After some time, honing will no longer return the knife to a suitable sharpness (can be due to chipping, abrasive wear, corrosion, etc), at which point re-sharpening becomes needed. Most automatic knife sharpeners will do more damage than good. Pull-through sharpeners are the worst because they remove a lot of metal while leaving a rough jagged apex with a severe burr, and the edge they do form doesn’t last long. Freehand stone sharpening is the gold standard, though it takes time to gain the needed skill and experience, so best not to practice using your good knives. There are also fixed angle sharpening systems (Lansky, Worksharp, TS Prof, etc) which reduce the amount of skill needed to put fresh edges on knives. A main downside for them is that they generally don’t provide acute enough angles for Japanese-style knife edges, and they can be many times the cost of a quality freehand sharpening stone. Many quality knife makers will also offer sharpening services to their customers, if you’d rather have a professional work on your knives.
@@thorwaldjohanson2526 Thank you, I did exactly what you recommended and it is night and day between the cheap stones and knife steel I was using before.
This ad also shows in Australia and it's done in the AI Black Guy™ voice that says "you never need to sharpen this knife again" like it's made of material they found at the Roswell crash site. I'm amazed they don't say "the government doesn't want you to know about this knife" or "thousands of years of advanced ancient technology passed down through the ages went in to this knife"
Great vid. When you test the push cut efficiency maybe cut them on a scale to show the difference of how much force you need to use. Don't know if it will work, just an idea...
“Banned from public use for being too sharp” is an incomprehensibly stupid marketing phrase. I am astounded.
It probably works though. Most people's kitchen knives are annoyingly dull so when they hear that they go "oh heck yea".
Sensational meant to make you feel exceptional. This marketing does a few things.
It's layered, but the first part is "it might go away" since it was once banned. Second part is, the ability to get products not meant for general use can be appealing to some. Think advertisements selling "military" or "space grade" products. Third part is, it makes a person feel like they're more capable if they can use it; "other people might not be able to use it, but I would".
Stupid, but appealing enough to work. I hate this kind of marketing.
@@kai.05 That's what marketing is: lies and manipulation. It's pretty much a different word for propaganda.
@@mrkikyNot if done properly for a good product. An increasingly rare thing unfortunately.
@@mrkikyAnd learning how to use a knife steel is really easy.
The AI voicing those ads is a dead giveaway, honestly. Maximum distrust, activated.
Exactly. So many of these ads for drop-shipped goods, all with that text-to-speech audio, every one making ludicrous claims. Considering how easy it is to spot that they're bs, it annoys me that UA-cam shows so many of them.
@@jamesdennett196 UA-cam policy: Disregard bs, acquire currency.
Is there just one AI voice?
@@drengillespie No, and unfortunately some of them are getting harder to spot. These ones are already challenging for older people who don't know any better and are hard of hearing. Doubly so if their native language isn't English.
That whole AI video was showing other knives...
you know its gonna be quality when the advertisements feature of heavy use of AI images/voiceover and footage of a completely different knife
Like boy, that dollar store looking knife is outperforming this dimensional cutter they claim to be selling
I see it all the time on videos about firearms. Somehow these AI bot channels get hundreds of thousands of views and the only thing the video does is take the description of a firearm off the manufacturer's website put into text to speech and then steal footage of other content creators that are actually using the firearm for a review.
If that knife had feelings it would need intense psychological therapy and a designated safe space after Wills evaluation.
“Our truck stop novelty knives aren’t selling!”
Just rebrand it as a japanese chef knife and put some basic wood scales on it.
Before it was a Japanese knife, it was marketed as a Viking forged knife
@@I.b.shifty The best part is, the "Japanese" looking writing on the package uses a form of the second character (话) that isn't used in Japanese, only Chinese. The Japanese text would be 神話.
@@Aederexnah they didn't convert to traditional😭
@@I.b.shiftyThe idea probably being that the vikings are famous for their high quality swords, especially the Ulfberht (actually spelled +VLFBERH+T). Problem with that: Ulfberht swords, while widely used and praised by vikings, were made in the Frankish Empire and traded to the vikings. The vikings at the time weren't able to create the high quality steel the Franks were able to produce.
@@SiqueScarface cool fact!. But more than likely it was because Vikings the show was popular!
Any time someone says “It was banned for being too (desirable quality)” in an advertisement, just run. Too sharp, too good at curing every ailment, too good at curing a single ailment, too good at dating.
It's not like it wouldnt be easier for BIG [INDUSTRY] to just copy it and make their own version and use their BIG [INDUSTRY] money to flood the market with their product.
There are some instances where it is legitimate though. For example, many fishing lures are banned from competitive fishing competitions for being too good at attracting fish, and many shoes are banned from sports as well for the same reason.
@@sanhakim1335yeah but that’s not general use
"I'm just too much of a hard worker"😂
@@sanhakim1335banned from fishing competitions is NOT the same thing as banned from the public
Knife companies, three options and they are not mutually exclusive:
1. Make better knives.
2. Stop lying in your adverts.
3. Stay out of Will's insta feed.
But how will they make a lot of money while having a crap product?
@@mrkiky By putting it in Walmart.
In fact, I think I have bought better knives in Walmart for 5 bucks.
@@Benjamin1986980 My point illustrated. Selling it for 5 bucks makes less money than selling it for whatever they're selling it.
@@Benjamin1986980 Literally the $25 Gerber pocket knife I bought on Amazon last week would cut food better than this hunk of junk.
A friend asked me what I thought of these, I told him it’s a knife with an identity crisis. It has no idea what it wants to be so it’s horrible at everything
It's like it went to community college and got partway through getting credits towards six different degrees but never stuck to the classes long enough to finish. It knows, to some small degree, what kinds of things knives are used for, but it can't with any degree of competence emulate any of those tasks.
It's a kitchen knife who wants to be a fighting knife.
But it's also a meth addict and spends most of it's days tweaking behind the trailer park.
I love how in their ads whenever they actually show their knife, you can see the person using it struggling to cut things lmao.
some of the clips were different knives too
The irony of UA-cam forcing me to watch an ad for this very knife before watching this.
Same
Would love to see some recommendations on decent affordable kitchen knives
I love Global knives. The chef's knife is about $80 and is wonderful.
Kitchen knives are not something to cheap out on. You will hate yourself. Unfortunately, with price comes quality in the knife world.
Victorinox is the best you'll ever need as a home chef and at a very good price point. Fiskars are also decent cheap knives if they are avalible where you live. And you do not need a huge set, 3-5 knives depending on what you do is all you really need.
@jakobrosenqvist4691 I still think Wüsthof gets a bad rap in that price range... They are decent knives... I like the Wüsthof Ikon Classc range for cheap but decent beater.
If you want something just a little nicer, look into Kai Shun or the Myabi lines by Zwilling... They'll cost you about twice of what a Global or a Wüsthof will cost you, but there is a real difference in quality there as well...
Also depends on whether you want a beater or something to take care of a bit better...
A Kai Shun Santoku is nice, but not so horribly expensive it's unaffordable, and it really makes for a great allround knife in the kitchen for pretty much all prep work, unless you're talking filleting fish or deboning a piece of meat or some other really specialised task.
I'm not sure this will pass on UA-cam, but a great website I can recommend, which ships pretty much locally world-wide is:
www.knivesandtools.com/en/ct/kitchen-knives.htm
Great detailed descriptions and a lot of knowhow and honest reviews...
It's my go-to place for anything that isn't something Japanese and fancy...
@@That1NissanGuy Dunno , i cheap out on them , even though i a knife guy , most of them i made it myself, and use , the other knifes are for somebody else , that would just cut on porcelan stuff like this , so i don't care about them
I am reminded of those Kamikoto scam knives that were all over the sponsorships a bit ago.
Fun fact: The parent company of Kamikoto was also the parent company of Established Titles.
@@foxyfoxington2651 So many companies are "successful" just because they manage to find ways to scam the public, but their products are garbage and the world would be better off with them not existing.
ngl my rule of thumb for knive buying, is if it does Sponsorships on youtube, i wont buy it
I got an early kamikotu and it’s still fantastic and one of my most used knives. I bought a second, different model a year later and it was utter utter garbage.
It’s literally in the garage as a paint can opener.
@@imbored667rule of thumb for general buying, if it does sponsorship on youtube, don't buy it
Got an ad for this knife when I clicked on the video. Hilarious.
The edge profile would be good for a skinner, but it's much to large and chunky for that. To me it feels like someone mixed a heavu duty outdoor knive and a skinner, and then made a cheap edgy replica version of that.
... too* large / outdoor knife* . Otherwise completely agreed.
@@einundsiebenziger5488 If you want something really heavy duty that can baton firewood and be used to pry and poke, then something this size is ok. But it's definitley on the larger end.
I think someone contracted a Chinese foundry to crank out thousands of these blanks and then a marketing + drop shipper company tried to make it into a "premium chef's knife"
@@jakobrosenqvist4691 I was just hinting on your typos, but thanks for the fast response anyway.
I had a skinning knife that was larger than this thing, but it was made by a reputable company. I have a smaller version of a knife that's sorta like this one. It was advertised as a "bush craft utility knife". Basically they said "it's good for cutting sticks". :D
Will should do a video about the best knives at certain price points. Like something along the lines of
From the way that it looks, it looks like the knife was originally meant to be a survival knife of some kind. Especially since the ads show them using it to strike flint. But I think it failed at that and they realized they could more easily market it as a kitchen knife than an outdoors knife.
These businesses literally recycle the same knife models as japanese, viking survival, etc.
My "survival" knife feels a lot more sturdy and safe than this one, tbh. And it's a years-old pretty cheap one.
And most I'd need that type of knife for is cutting rope, whittling and maybe chopping food/meat in a pinch. I can't see whittling work too well with this and you can cut rope with pretty much any knife. Then add in the "ez stab" spike near the handle and the safety I'd want from a knife I need to grab blindly from my belt goes out the window, too.
Couldn't even hand that knife safely to someone who needs it, because of that stupid spike.
Its probably advertised as both, on different sites with different ads and maybe a sheath in one case.
It's supposed to resemble those outdoor "rugged" cooking videos with their ridiculous knives
I do wanna point out, that my aunt owns a very, very similar (but not the same) knife from a place called "The Caveman Style". Cheep handles, nonforged blade with black painted upper section with the same pressed dimples, the hole, the only difference I can see being the grip and tang are shaped differently, and the finger cutter (rear overhang) is gone. Blade profile looks very similar otherwise
lol My cousin brought up one of those cringy Instagram knife ads and I immediately made fun of it without realizing he was about to tell me he had just bought one xD It was one of those big cleavers you see people doing like.. "survival" outdoor cooking videos with.
"My wife got me this new knife, at first i thought it looked like a viking sword"
@@Louzahsol”My wife got me this weird knife for [my birthday / Christmas / Valentine’s Day]. God I love her…”
@@ivanheffner2587 lol those ads are so bad. The dialog legit feels like AI
Com'on Will. That's obviously a "Survival" Chef Knife. 😁
For when a chef has to survive because his sous chef has lost the plot and is threatening the waiting staff with a hot frying pan and you have to put them down with it? xD
ah, you mean use it as a club I presume
😄@@DaftFader
@@andyc750 After you've shaved with it, maybe 🤔😏
also very good for cosplay..
Hi Will
There is another channel on UA-cam called Project farm, he has some pretty neat setups to show things like cutting force required etc..
Anyways just a suggestion to maybe try to make some of these cuts on a kitchen scale or something to show how much force is required to cut certain inedible vegetables (like pumpkin or aubergines) in comparison to actual kitchen knives? Just a thought.
Love the videos thank you for all the effort you put into them.
I really appreciate you going through the knives that are pushed so hard. It shows how bad they are.
My personal feeling is that if you need this much advertisement to sell it it's probably not worth buying.
And like Will said, if you can give me a 60% discount and still make a profit, you're not pricing your product in a reasonable way
A friend bought me one of those 'Viking' blades. I left it on the table in the break room at work with a post-it that said "free knife shaped object".
Any picture of what you mean by a "viking" blade?
@@shadehealerthe one in the video, this is a pretty well known knife scam at this point
"gawd I love that woman" should ring a bell 😢
@@Alsry1 Thanks for the reply :)
That's a bit rude
Keep in mind: Design is used to make a good, quality, functional product.
Marketing gets whatever product you *do* have to sell to people.
There isn't necessarily a lot of overlap between them. Careful on the internet guys, and Will, thanks for reviewing the bunk for all of us.
I'd love to see you recreate one of these production knives with good quality steel and a proper edge on them. Just to show the difference that even with a bad design, what a proper edge and steel makes to a knife and why its worth the money.
It's like they saw a spyderco and didn't realize the hole for opening the knife.
Imagine claiming to pay respect to ancient Japanese weaponsmiths, and calling one of the most well-known blade styles. . . a samurai sword. Were they afraid "katana" was too niche? I see the levels or respect match the products quality.
I was gifted one of these by a relative who fell for the false advertising of "Japanese Knife" "Japanese Steel" Will got lucky with the handle scales being flat on his, mine have chips out of them and daylight between the scales and tang. I have never even tried to cut anything with it, other than paper (which is simply couldn't do out of the box) I use it to practice sharpening since I'm not worried about messing it up. Also notice in the ad they demonstrate cutting with several completely different knives to the one they actually sell, it would be funny if so many people weren't actually paying money to such a blatantly fraudulent business.
The Ginsu and its advertising has a lot to answer for.
I could really stand to see more of this type of video...
Not just because it's entertaining ripping into horrible knives, but it's actually rather instructional as to what you should be looking for as well.
👍👍
[edit] From a blacksmith/knifesmith standpoint, I could also stand to hear a bit more about certain steel types.
Especially some of the more modern powdered carbide knife steels in contrast to the more traditional white/blue carbon steels, Aogami super steel, the VG variations, etc...
Advantages, disadvantages, etc...
--
Also, people really underestimate just how important a good knife or two in the kitchen really is...
I hardly know anybody, not matter how great a cook they are, that actually have a decently sharp knife in the kitchen... It's crazy!
It's come to a point where I hardly even let people loose on my better knives in the kitchen, because they'll invariably be maltreated, so they'll just have to deal with the Wüsthoff's...
That said, it's also become pretty automatic to warn people that my knives are sharp, and half the time they'll still cut themselves...
What's up with all that?!
They don't understand what sharp means. And they don't know how much hacking they've been doing in their own kitchens
I learned how to sharpen almost immediately after my favorite knife (A Dalstrong, nothing fancy really, probably about as good as a Wustoff) began to dull on me. I was not about to lose gliding through food, truly, more sharp is more fun.
Not 100% a bladesmith's perspective but for someone who's definitely an authority and passionate about steel and their use in knives, Larrin Thomas of KnifeSteelNerds has a huge repository of his personal independent testing and metallurgy knowledge of many many different steels from your classic 1095 to his personally developed Magnacut that's the new big hotness of knife steels being a high carbide stainless steel that's more stainless and tough than M390, sacrificing just a little bit in edge retention
Magnacut is nearly what most say is the most well balanced steel by far in terms of the triple seesaw of stainlessness, toughness, and Wear Resistance/*Edge retention where in any steel it's always going to be a at most "pick two" situation. Want a knife that doesn't chip and you can abuse it to high hell but able to bring back the edge using a river rock? 1095 is a great option, but it's gonna rust like nobodies business. Want a knife that stays sharp dang near forever? Maxamet is right up your alley, but it's not exactly stainless and chipping is a real danger with abuse, also sharpening it with normal whetstones is a huge pain(even with diamonds) but if you're sharpening once a year then it ain't so bad. Need a knife that'll mostly survive the ocean salt on a busy boat or while diving? LC200N is your best bet, very tough and can be abused, just expect to maintain that edge a lot more often than other popular steels
Of course there's no such thing "perfect" knife steel, only what's best for your environment and needed application.
*Edge Retention has a lot of factors, not just the steel. Assuming identical heat treatments(method(oil, water, aluminum plate, cryo), temperature, time, HrC) it's knife geometry and bevel angle that's a bigger factor when it comes to edge retention and cutting performance a 15 Degrees Per Side vs a 20DPS edge on two identical geometry knives the 15DPS will be sharp for much longer compared to the 20DPS. Though of course the edge will be a bit more prone to folding over and even chipping compared to the more robust 20DPS. Again it's always that seesaw for your particular application
I love these videos so much. the vindictive glee at watching these knives fail to live up to marketing lies is so enjoyable.
The ideograms on the box looked familiar (the 2nd is "hua" which denotes a language or dialect). So... I looked them up. It's "shen hua". I assume they're marketing on the "legendary" translation. But... it also translates to "fairy tale". :D
神话 "kamifua" meaning "myth".
Literally: "God-Story"
Going with the Japanese pronunciation since it's marketed as "Japanese".
So it’s either mythically fake, or legendarily fake, depending which way we choose to lean!
I have one of these knives, and yeah, I would agree with most of this. My aunt got one each for me and my mom, and my mom hated it right off the bat because of how HEAVY it is. For me, as you said, the pinch grip is surprisingly comfortable, but because of the blade's weird shape, it makes it really awkward for both slicing and chopping.
What I find it useful for, weirdly enough since it doesn't look like it, is carving. I use it for cutting meat, especially partially-frozen meat that's hard to cut. I also use the tip to carve things like peppers off the stem or really thick vegetables like carrots or leeks (my local grocery store only sells giant flakkees). Turns out that weight is actually surprisingly good for just brute-forcing some tougher ingredients. Honestly if you're strong enough you could probably use the tip for chopping things finely like garlic, but again, it's really heavy compared to any other knife.
Also it looks cool so my guests like to gawk at it, and that distracts them long enough for me to use the $15 nakiri I got from the local grocery store. ALSO it's really fun for mushrooms. I like my mushroom slices thick so I can just haphazardly chop chop chop which is fun with this knife. Basically, this knife is better treated as a miniature woodcutting axe than a knife.
All that said it's just incredibly overpriced. The weird shape isn't doing it any favours. It's easily the most expensive knife in my drawer and not nearly the most useful. I definitely don't hate using it, but I completely understand why it's getting so much scrutiny, since it's basically trying to sell on being a gimmick. Which sucks, because the handle is really nice and the weight might be something that other people like me might like. God knows the fucking 1cm blade won't bend ever. But instead of making just, you know, a good knife, they had to try to trick people.
I was a chef for 6 years and still use my 8" Henckles for pretty much everything. I got one of these instagram knives as a gift one year for christmas. It was a really tall and thick blade with a decently sharp edge. The only thing I use it for, and will admit that it works quite well for, is cutting chicken wings. When I am breaking down whole wings into the drum and flat and removing the tip it really does well. Not good for much else.
More of these please! You are built for this! Fun and informative!
Interesting how in most of the footage these shady companies use in their ads, nobody seen cutting food uses the knife they advertise (1:00). And fascinating how they do not feel ashamed to sell the same shitty thing under names that change on a weekly basis.
19:17 literally chills and goosebumps seeing a cut that clean after seeing the mall ninja knife struggle to knife
In my country they are trying the sell it as "the absolute japanese chef knife sward"... "made in China" (if you notice the superfine print on the label).
I'd say it's a wonderful blade (if you use it daily, all the way from the edge) - for developing carpal tunnel joint problems...
I love the concept of this series. It's so fun seeing an absloute dumpster fire of a kitchen knife being talked up about.
It's almost as if every design choice of this knife was to make it bad at its supposed job in the kitchen.
Something to help us the viewer understand how hard you have to push to cut through things would be to put a scale beneath the cutting board. Probably weird to film but would be cool to see.
We tried it for this video, but it’s too challenging to make it read consistently
@@WillStelterbladesmith I thought that might be the case. Very cool to see how blade geometry alone makes such a big difference in the cut. Thanks for the video!
That AI art in the advertisement told me all I needed to know...
(Still watched the video though.)
My mom swears by Cutco knives. Love to see you evaluate one of theirs. I like the ones I have.
ooo this is a great idea, we have a Cutco near us, would be interesting to see what he thinks.
When I started working as a chef, my Grandpa got me one. Handle was uncomfortable, point and edge were brittle, and its a pain to sharpen. I eventually gave the knife away. Much prefer to use Whusthof or Dexter Russels in a professional setting. The Japanese knives are wonderful, but too brittle to stand up in all but the calmest situations. Most professional kitchens are not "calm" settings.
They're good but not their price good. They're probably overcharged by at least 50% but the marketing is scummy as heck.
If they are still an MLM (door to door scam jobs), I would never buy from them, regardless if their knives are good. They are overpriced as fuck on top of that.
@@rdizzy1Their price runs under the kind of price you find JA Henckels 4 Star charging.
What you buy with Cutco is stubborn durability.
I would love to get like a basics video on knives. What the typical marketing with different steel types actually means for the knife, what the different shapes mean for cutting/how to cut and all that. Plus some recommendations for different budgets and maybe even a summary of brands (how good is a normal wüsthoff against a zwilling or hexclad, are the cheap ikea knives acutally okay)
I have this exact knife (given as a gift) and it is utterly hideous. The handle material has no protection and is rough. And the blade isn't even good enough as a cleaver and is downright dangerous with how unstable it is if you don't know how to handle a knife properly.
Thank you for bringing this to peoples attention Will. Keep up the great work!
I'd love to see Wil re-grind and try to make this knife... anything but awful. I mean the shape is awful, but at least a correct sharpening would be good
As soon as I heard 420j2 steel being used for this, I already knew how much of a scam this was.
420j2 steel, for those unaware, is a really good steel. For surgical utensils. That's an insanely bad thing for a blade that is going to be used often, like a kitchen knife. 420j2 steel can hold an edge, but it doesn't hold an edge for very long. It's easy to manufacture, and it's cheap, which is why they're used for surgical utensils; because surgeons dispose of their utensils after surgery, for both sanitary and efficiency purposes.
If you ever see any blade that is made with 420j2 steel, do not buy it even if you like dedicating your life to resharpening it after almost every single use.
I LOVE this series of testing knives that were recommended from instagram. You should make a video for all the people that took the bait and bought one a way to “fix” the knife by modifying it with a regrind so they don’t have to just throw it away, right away.
“Fix my knife” series!
I always love watching experts talk about things they’re knowledgable about, and since cooking is one of my passions, it was relatively easy for me to understand some of the points I otherwise might not have. I didn’t understand everything, but it was an interesting video on balance, and I’m interested to watch some more.
The first red flag is that Matsato isn't a real Japanese name you'd use ever. Kind of like Thomdas or Grevgory or something
This looks like a fighting knife. "If you intend to duel your food to the death first, this is the way to go!" also sounds like something they would use as marketing.
"I need ounces because i am a normal person" said no one ever that is normal 😂
I saw an ad for this "knife" claiming it was some ancient long lost viking knife. Then vikings dropped from mainstream and they're a banned samurai knife.
Quality review of a highly marketed knife. I learned some things that I just never thought about before. I am not a chef, I'm not much of a cook at all but I do help in the kitchen when asked and trying to sharpen knives is my responsibility.
The more ya know...
Thanks Will.
I wonder which Okinawan hermit this guy approached to learn from but was turned away but then waited outside his house for 3 months until he begrudgingly accepted him as an apprentice to learn all this stuff
These are great videos! You should try cutting things on a scale to see if you can actually quantify how much harder it is to push these knives through the veggies than it is the more well designed knives
This product leverage that their customers probably have an old kitchen knife at home, probably cheap and horrible to use, and that they have no knowledge of how a proper knife should be. So what ends up happening is that once they get the knife to compare, the Matsato will conform to their notions of an "exotic and super sharp knife" in it's design and functionally it will definitively cut better than their old knife.
Also, with claims of thinner slices and so on, the user be inclined to try making thin slices and such and then believe them to be special because they TRIED IT WITH THE MATSATO KNIFE. They would otherwise would never cut thin slices because they are probably terrible chefs in the first place.
It's a cartoon knife - it's designed to appeal not to cut.
Hang on I know that knife as the Huusk as it goes via one of its other names, its a compete joke the steel used in it isnt even tool steel!
It's steel for tools. The buyer being the tool.
I'm very impressed by your presentation, super natural and informative, subscribed!
As a culinary school grad I appreciate your knowledge of the craft and would love to have one of your knives
I love how they say the hole is for control, yet none of the footage from ads you shown was anyone actually using the hole, 😂
It's almost like they made the blade then had people who actually knew how to use a blade use for footage. Lol
it reminds me of a mall knife or a gas station knife. but at least when you buy a mall knife or a gas station knife you *know* you're not buying a *real* knife.
11:40
"How many ounces is that? Because I'm a normal person."
Classic American that doesn't realise that almost every other country in the world uses metric making you anything but a "normal person".
My dad bought one of those. He was all happy about it, and couldn’t wait to show me. I had the hardest time not throwing up haha
One of my life goals is to buy one of your knives. I love your reviews and I hate my current knife set. You do amazing work! I’ll save up for this for sure.
Love these videos! It's funny though because the main thing I always take away is how dull my kitchen knives are and that I need to sharpen them again.
I bought a Santoku off aliexpress for about $7.00... Was NOT expecting anything but when it go to me I was really impressed with sharpness and the way it cut. Very similar to my $125 20+ year-old Shun. Comfortable as well. No idea how the edge is going to last but at $7.00 and having a decent whetstone set, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.
I love how even having no real experience/knowledge in proper kitchen technique, or use in good/bad knife comparison, anyone can HEAR the difference in the cuts between the knives!
Thanks for covering these things. I'd love to see you cover a good inexpensive knife like the Victornox you mentioned.
Great job of comparing the differences and describing the specifics of what makes cutting with it tough!
The angled part that causes it to wedge is never even something I considered with knives, great to keep in mind!
Is Isaiah also doing the secondary camera? Because the closeups are really high quality! Those carrot slices are so nicely lit and in focus! A+ work, gents!
I think you SHOULD use a Victorinox fibrox as a comparator for future knives. If just to demonstrate how much better you can get for way less.
I love this little series! Cant stand seeing these flashy "content creator" knives as i call them lol. I have an idea, maybe you could take these knives and "fix" what you don't like about them and re-test to see if it's any better! Like refinishing the edge geometry from hollow grind to convex edge, maybe smooth out the choil/heel or remove the jimping on the spiine. Love the videos, thanks!
Thanks Will! Love to see all the finer tidbits of perfecting blade geometry revealed in your videos. Helps me to make a better product when I can see direct comparison in action.
No clue why this came across my feed, I know nothing about knives. Grateful it did, I feel like I learned a lot watching this, both about knives and how to use them. Fantastic.
6:47 - As SOON as you said 420, I had a bit of a chuckle.
Darn, That knife has a harder time being straight than i do.
A Family member got one of these a few days ago and im praying for them as we speak
Didnt expect to learn why stropping is so important in this video, but im glad i did!
“I can’t go through because MY FINGER IS IN THE WAY” is a solid comedy moment. I understand now why my cheap farberware knives are so frustrating!!
Thank you for also giving us the metric values. Onces used for weight, thousands of an inch and other imperial measures are so confusing.
A useful comparison might be a kitchen knife most people would have in their house. just to help me understand the difference a little
Go to your local asian grocery store. Buy the cheapest nakiri or santoku they have, and it will likely be more useful for way less.
I know it’s not a great knife but I almost feel bad for the poor thing
It doesn't look like it'd be a bad skinner. If they gave it a nice taper or a more efficient grind then it might be more functional
I've been using the Victorinox for close to 20 years as my best knife, but I recently upgraded to a nice japanese damascus steel. First cut with it I couldn't believe the difference. I've been using it for about a month now and am still astonished I waited this long.
I'd love to see a video on someone taking one of these knives and making them useful, like ReSharpen or forge it into a better shape etc
In the advertising, none of the people cutting used the hole, even while talking about how great the hole is.
Worth pointing out, almost nothing advertised by UA-cam/social media people is actually good quality. A majority is just drop-shipped or OEM garbage made for as cheap as possible. I guess that's not fair, some of it is decent quality, but just for the price you get if you go straight to the original manufacturer on their only stores rather than the massively marked up versions. A 20 dollar item that's built like it's maybe a 30 dollar item is nice; a 20 dollar item built like it's a 30 dollar item but then sold for 65-100 is not so nice.
Victorinox Fibrox line is popular in commercial kitchens because they are decent, reasonably priced, easy to clean and the handles can stand up to repeated immersion in sanitizer.
I like knives, but I lack the knowledge to appreciate them. Thank you for this video !
I realize I have been cutting most of my food of the last 5 years with a 12$ santoku than doesn't have an edge :'D
Will watch more videos so I improve my knives understanding.
Fun trivia : "lame" is the french word for "blade" !
Really enjoying these knife reviews! If you cut to close-up footage when you describe things like the hollow grind or distal taper, rather than using hand gestures, it would help to illustrate those concepts better. I've never thought much about kitchen knife blade geometry, and seeing how it's done wrong is great for understanding how to do it right.
Even zooming in probably won't help most people understand it, because the way light and shadow fall will make some people see something other than the correct thing or focus on the wrong part. The best way is drawing a big picture of whatever you're describing in macro.
Thank you for the video Will. Please add the company name to the title, so when people look for a review, they see your video instead of the scammer account videos. I just did a round of reporting on those videos, but having you come up in a search will do much more to spread awareness. My father fell for Huusk. I don't want more people to fall for these scams.
there is a lot of companies selling this exact same knife.
Excellent video. Pattern-weld pattern idea that I haven't seen anywhere else: a subtle lighting bolt that "rides" along the hamon. I say subtle because many of the pattern-welded blades I see are too "extra" for me. Maybe you could try to make that happen in a video.
I'm not sure why this was in my recommended... I haven't even thought about buying any knives (nor have I watched similar content).
That being said, this sounds like just the channel to watch IF I ever want to get any info on the topic, so... well done, good sir!
Thanks Will, I somehow knew what a good chef's knife needed to be, but, you gave definition to my intuition in that regard. I've got a set of stainless Oxford Hall knives that have been working well for me for over forty years. I could probably really enjoy a set of your knives, but I'm not sure I could afford them. Love your vids, and the work you've done with Alec.You two inspired me to set up a smithing area at my shop. Just to putter... First project has been a Chestnut knife from a circular saw blade that lost some teeth... Ugly, but hey, it works for scoring Chestnuts for roasting. Yeah, on an open fire!
What is that cutting board made of? I missed it if you have said before. Thanks
Thanks for making this Will!! Ive been trying to post educational stuff on "handmade" items on Amazon for less than what my material cost is lol
Just got a add for the matsato knige whilst watching your video!!
"Versatility is the enemy of efficiency"
I both totally understand your point, and feel personally attacked as I feel good/decent at a lot of things... 😬😭
Gotta do some introspection on that... 😂
Every ADHD person out there: "I feel attacked. But nevertheless he is right..."
I'm ADHD and it got me good 😅😂
Versatility is also a good trait in many things so don't feel bad ❤
I love that you clearly see in all of their marketing with chefs using the blade, NONE of them are using that stupid hole to put their finger into. Pointless design choice just made to be flashy. XD
What's funny is these are the improved ones, originally it wasn't 420j2, it was literally a stainless potmetal with 0% carbon.
I got one of these as an Xmas gift last year. I use it as a general purpose hiking knife
On the test cuts you should put the cutting board on top of a scale to see how hard you have to push to cut the stuff…
Hey Will, it would be really cool if you could put out some information on what a proper maintenance routine is for kitchen knives. I bought my wife a fairly nice chef knife for christmas with the impression that it would just kind of stay sharp since it was a good knife... but watching your channel that seems like it was a bad assumption. How often do knives generally need to be resharpened? How do you know when it's time to do that? Should a knife be honed on the steel every time it's used? Are all of the gimick-y "automatic" knife sharpeners as terrible as I assume they are?
I love your channel, have been watching you since you first came on with Alec! Good luck on your Master blade smith test!
Get a Shapton 1000 grid stone (pretty much the standard for a reasonably priced, not garbage stone) and a strop with stropping compound. Don't use a steel, strop frequently with the compound and sharpen maybe once a year or whenever the stopping doesn't seem to get it back to scary sharp.
Knives only stay sharp when not used. How long a knife stays sharp depends on the type and frequency of cutting tasks, the properties of the steel, the geometry of the primary and secondary edge bevels, and how well the knife is maintained. True re-sharpening of kitchen knives should be a relatively infrequent occurrence, provided you maintain the edge using a ceramic honing rod, a knife steel, or a leather strop. With general kitchen cutting tasks, knives will feel dull due to edge rolling. This can be corrected by honing the knife before each use, effectively un-rolling the bent edge so that the apex is again perpendicular to the cutting surface. After some time, honing will no longer return the knife to a suitable sharpness (can be due to chipping, abrasive wear, corrosion, etc), at which point re-sharpening becomes needed.
Most automatic knife sharpeners will do more damage than good. Pull-through sharpeners are the worst because they remove a lot of metal while leaving a rough jagged apex with a severe burr, and the edge they do form doesn’t last long. Freehand stone sharpening is the gold standard, though it takes time to gain the needed skill and experience, so best not to practice using your good knives. There are also fixed angle sharpening systems (Lansky, Worksharp, TS Prof, etc) which reduce the amount of skill needed to put fresh edges on knives. A main downside for them is that they generally don’t provide acute enough angles for Japanese-style knife edges, and they can be many times the cost of a quality freehand sharpening stone. Many quality knife makers will also offer sharpening services to their customers, if you’d rather have a professional work on your knives.
@@thorwaldjohanson2526 Thank you, I did exactly what you recommended and it is night and day between the cheap stones and knife steel I was using before.
@@Trainwreck1123 Awesome, so happy to hear that. Enjoy your sharp knives :)
This ad also shows in Australia and it's done in the AI Black Guy™ voice that says "you never need to sharpen this knife again" like it's made of material they found at the Roswell crash site. I'm amazed they don't say "the government doesn't want you to know about this knife" or "thousands of years of advanced ancient technology passed down through the ages went in to this knife"
Educational content.
Like to see it.
I hope to see more Knife debunking .
Great vid. When you test the push cut efficiency maybe cut them on a scale to show the difference of how much force you need to use. Don't know if it will work, just an idea...
Im just gonna state it now that Im only clicking on the video because the blade kinda looks like Guiron's head