Kasumi Chef's Knife VG10 Review 240mm - Made in Seki Japan 

Glad to be back :) Thanks!

I may do a video about it, it is hard to explain what is proper technique since there are multiple ways but one thing stays the same and that is pressure and angle. How you do it does not really matter as long as you have the correct angle and pressure applied. (Got to think about how I want to explain it in a video format, until then it will be sitting on my to-do list). Thank you for the suggestion :)

This knife is in my short list, pending Chef Panko's review 😂

I tried the Miyabi I think it is the same series as the Miyabi Kaizen II (they looked the same) but in Europe it's called the Miyabi 5000FCD, good knife and thin. I prefer that handle over the Miyabi 6000MCT (I think it is called the Artisan but in Europe, we have the weird version number 6000MCT). I'm torn about the Japanese workhorse, knives I'm currently testing the Misono 440C is one of my faves but the Brieto is another contender and lower priced. (I may do a comparison video once I have uploaded the Misono 440C review). Kikuichi Nickel Warikomi looks interesting added it to my watch list :)

I like the knife/brand so far but not my kind of profile. I prefer straighter profiles like the Gyuto's but to be fair it was sold as a Chef knife so something I already knew when I bought it. Wish that I went for the other series since it was cheaper in Asia (also was hesitant since I never heard of Kasumi when I saw it at the store, the other series are higher priced). The out of the box sharpness was acceptable (kinda expected more but seeing the same kind of edge lately with a lot of knives, the more toothy edge). But out-of-the-box sharpness should not really be a point since you will eventually sharpen the knife (so not sure if I should include out-of-the-box sharpness or not since I don't really find that important unless it was really bad or it was very good/ nice then it may be worth mentioning).

Thank you for sharing your insights, yeah I noticed that this knife is more focused on durability. I wonder if the other versions are thinner since they sell it as a Chef's knife so I'm assuming it is more a western-styled one instead of the Gyuto. So thicker, heavier, and curvier profile. Prices in the west are very high I paid $130 USD for it (24cm Chef knife) but bought it in Asia. A lot of the knives there from Japan are at least 25% cheaper (I wish I could take more with me but I was already over the tax-free import limit, they even stopped me at the customs and checked every receipt of every single knife that I took with me).

If you consider the Kasumi expensive. Then you have not really gotten The real expensive ones. So far I only owned a couple of Japanese knives. A Miyabi and Kasumi. The Miyabi was £161, whilst the Kasumi was £119. Both sharp knives and can be sharpen back easily. Cuts throw paper and wet sponge loke they were butter. But such knives can go up to £500 each or even £1000-5000 for one knife. As for the Chinese knives. There are damascus ones made in china it was £69.99 here. But when I dug around, they were actually £24 only. Now at that price. I am 100% sure that they are not real damascus and the folds you see are not layers. But more of like faked ones marked using a laser...

@@T.K.9 I mentionned that this Kasumi knife was my first exposure to the premium knives world almost 20 years ago. Since then I have significantly expanded my reach to premium or ultra-premium (and expensive) knives. I must also admit that in 2005 this knife was significantly more expensive that it is today, thanks to broader competition. At this stage, although their price recently increased, I think this knife is equivalent to a "somewhat cheap" VG10 chinese one. For just a bit more you can get true handmade japanese ones. Those two options seems better choices today.

@@nmkjnmnjm can you recommend a few brands for Japanese made please?

Thank you for your insights :) I never heard of Kasumi so I like to see others opinions. I never touch the coil with my gripping style but definitely a point I should consider mentioning in new knife reviews.

@@chefpanko I found it on sale, did a bit of research on the brand and took a chance and was very pleasantly surprised. Haha didn't think about that, gripping style does make a difference on whether you can feel the choil. If they smoothed it out it would be an even better knife. Looking forward to future videos, keep up the good work.

Noted! I will buy one if I go to Ikea since I also need the Ikea battery :P need to restock them since Ikea was closed for a long time. But now they are open again!

I will look into KAI, not a lot of options available in Europe, but I saw some on Amazon (.com) and there is no import fee for me to ship them to The Netherlands :) only a delivery fee. You also may slowly notice that when it comes to Gyuto's/Chef knives I will be switching to 24cm mainly due to my hand size and the prolonged use at the restaurants that I'm temporarily helping. (The handle is longer/bigger at 24cm which is more comfortable for me to hold vs the 21cm one especially if I use them for hours for 10min prep the 21cm one is fine).

Until ChefPanko’s much awaited review of the Ikea 365+, here’s the review of the Dutch Consumers Union (Consumentenbond) 9/2018: Ikea 365+ knives are made in China of molybdenum/vanadium, nickel-free stainless steel. It is highly resistant to rusting. It can be sharpened at home. The grooves on its steel handle give it a comfortable grip that is not prone to slipping. The Consumentenbond judged its koksmes as best buy with score of 7.3 @ €20. “It gets good results in all tests. Hardness of the steel and hence edge retention could be better. Nevertheless, it’s not a bad bargain, so it gets the label ‘best buy’”.

Hoe good are kai's? Been thinking to buy one, they're pretty cheap

@vilimsimovic2634 You can pay a lot of money for kai. Mine wasn't a crazy money one it was a seki magoroku 5000. Don't make them now, but the closest I can see is called a benufuji.if you are a pro chef, they are brilliant work horse knives but not super hard, so very easy to sharpen good performance better then victoryknox similar performance to global or mac

Thank you for sharing your experience, most retailers with a good warranty policy should be offering a free grinding service when this happens. Wood or Pakkawood is still wood, whereas pakkawood should be less prone to shrinking or expanding. When and where the knives and wood came from matters in this case with the environments affecting the expanding and shrinkage of the handle. While oil may help with natural wood it is less effective with pakkawood or laminated wood (depends on how thick the outer layer is and how porous it is). When you go from a humid and warm environment to a dry and cold environment wood or in this case the handle may expand or shrink to a point where it can't shrink any more. The only solution to that is to switch handle material to plastic (POM, G10, Fiberglass, etc). you can compare it to laminate flooring, you have some with better coating waterproofing the laminate flooring and some in the middle, and some without. No matter what product if there is wood (happens more with natural wood) or composite wood (it expands and contracts but less than natural wood) Since this is a natural problem, the retailer should offer a free grinding service as an extra free service to keep you as a customer within the warranty period. But getting a warranty for a natural defect is probably not covered for money back etc. However I understand the disappointment (some retailers offer a free grinding service within warranty period but that is harder to get if ordered overseas or online without them having a physical location adding to the postal cost from shipping it to and back).

Currently, I'm using an extremely fast method (it does remove a lot of steel so reducing lifespan in return for the fast grind) to resharpen some of my knives. within 3/5 min to razor-sharp. Diamond-coated double-sided plate #400/#1000 (broke it in, when it is brand new it is very rough). And then a Natural Bluestone (approx #5000 grit size and then optional strop on the newspaper when I feel like it but when I'm at work I never strop or only if I grabbed one of the free newspapers). Diamond plate is not new (the natural bluestone is, from Aliexpress but unfortunately due to shipping one side has a side missing) but to my surprise, it is working very well and that for 17 euro (before the new EU import rule) that I paid for. In terms of VG10 vs Chinese VG10. There is some fluctuation between manufacturers in general. When it comes to Japanese-made knives it does not fluctuate a lot and the Rockwell is fairly close if not slightly higher than advertised. When it came to Chinese manufacturers and their Chinese VG10 it highly depended on the heat treatment. I have tested so many Chinese knives that a lot of them were not even worth my time to make a video about them. So 10cr15comov: Experienced some with a Rockwell closer to 56 instead of the advertised 60+ (years back now they are getting more honest? but still overselling). And some heat treatments were so bad that the knife started microchipping on tasks a Japanese VG10 could handle with no problems. Out of the many Chinese brands, only a select few delivered what they promised but even then they have just so many knife versions and series that it even fluctuated with the Rockwell between the series in. The same can be said of German Steel that they use it fluctuated from brand to brand some could deliver a Rockwell of 58 but some even managed to deliver 56 or even lower (where I even doubt that they used the steel and had been misleading people with a different core material than stated). So compared to the Chinese VG10 if done correctly they come extremely close to VG10. Sharpness ranking: #1 - VG10 #2 - 10cr15comov (compared to the 10cr15 that has been done correctly) #3 - AUS10 Durability: #1 AUS10: More Durable than VG10 but less sharp and slightly less edge retention. #2 10cr15comov: sits directly in the middle. (compared to the 10cr15 that has been done correctly) #3 VG10: Slightly sharper than AUS10 but slightly less durable but slightly more edge retention. However, ease of sharpening ranking: #1 - VG10 #2 - AUS10 #3 - 10cr15comov (compared to the 10cr15 that has been done correctly) ^that being said I got some emails from manufacturers/brands that they have improved their 10cr15comov heat treatment (but I did not test that since I wanted to explore the Japanese side again which felt good since the Quality control is more consistent so it is not a gamble in what quality you get). I may get back into the Chinese knives not sure when (since they have added a lot of new versions and brands where some have a questionable design choice to sell to the mass consumers that only look at aesthetics or wants a knife set with a block etc).

@@chefpanko I'm SO happy with you reviewing Japanese knives! My path down the rabbit hole started with your vids. I now own a bunch of them and some really great stones to. I have an old Dovo razor, swedish steel. Put that one on the stone's and compared to my AS, A2, S2 an SG2 that steel developed a bur, excellent edge but still wont cut like my knives... I can shave with my Masakage Koishi 😉 As far as a flat profile Guyto... have you tried the Moritaka Guyto's? It has been shaped after the Masamoto KS, flat profile. Not too expensive for the quality and tou get a nice kurouchi as well...

How the Kasumi is compared to Shun classic?

FC61 is a good steel, I have no idea about the design or shape of the Kramer it looks big and heavy duty on the pictures (comfort for prolonged use is a concern especially if you use it to prep in a restaurant). I'm worried about the weight of the knife since I personally prefer lighter weighted knives especially for prolonged use. No real opinions about it since I never had one in my hands. And another point is that I wish that they put a completely sealed bolster at the blade/handle this prevents moisture to be trapped in the gaps if there are any. (but for the price that they are charging I expect it to be sealed completely, definitely one of the knives that I want to see in the store and hold it in my hands to check for Quality Control before buying). The handle looks comfortable but it looks big and thick so the ergonomics have to carry the comfort levels if the ergonomics are not correct the handle may be too big for a lot of hand sizes. (ergonomic wise what I can see from the picture looks good but the real confirmation can only be done once you have hold/used the knife). Profile looks fine and I like that the heel area is very tall. (I prefer straighter profiles) but I'm very curious about the Kramer profile it looks interesting but I have no good pictures that shows me the profile. (I think that the rocking performance is very smooth with that kind of profile due to the curve at the front but gentle straighter profile at the middle/heel). So those that like rocking motion this knife may be a great fit, as for me and where I work is that I don't rock but mostly slice. (therefore the knife may not be the best option for me because of the weight concern and handle ergonomics for my cutting style since I don't rock with my knife when I do prep work at the restaurant). ^above is just what I could see from the pictures since I already tried a FC61 steel there is no complains about that steel-type. And above concerns are just concerns since I can't confirm if those concerns are reality or not without testing them. I find FC61 easier to sharpen than a VG10 or VG-Max. (easier I mean it is faster to get the edge where I need a little bit extra time with a VG-Max). As for the FC61 it is a good steel easy to sharpen, but I only tried that steel with the Miyabi series.

I have not tried the s35vn steel but I like the 12C28N a lot. So I hope that some of the popular pocket knife steel types will be used in kitchen knives.