Thanks for the heads up!
I'd been interested in the Meiji line, but not at the normal price. I've been wanting to pickup a stainless petty, the Meiji utility on sale was tempting enough to get me into the store.
On a whim I tried the 10" chef knife. What a beast of a knife! I like tall blades being a cleaver guy, but even this seemed a bit much, especially at the heel.
The santoku looked interesting. In my eyes its sort of a cross between a honsuki and santoku. Picking up a Meiji, you notice the handle. The d side of the handle is more like v shaped. People are going to either love it or hate it. I found it to be comfortable. The handle is heavy pulling the balance point back towards the heel. The spine and choil are rounded. Overall the blade is on thin side. The blade is tall even for a santoku, which I appreciate. There is a little bit of curve going up to the tip. The k style tip is a nice touch.
There was too much to like about the knife, including the price, so I picked one up. I wasn't expecting much out of the edge. The demo knife was on the dull side. It was a pleasant surprise to find a decent edge on an out of the box knife. My go to test is dicing up tomatoes, the Meiji passed with flying colors. There was some talk on the Sur la Table site about the raised edges of the damascus creating space. It seems like that would help more with dense foods such as cheese.
The first thing I noticed about the utility was the handle. I like bigger handles on smaller knifes. The blade is tall for a utility. It's almost as tall as my 270mm sujihiki. The Meiji is a half inch longer then the utilities in the Euroline and Essential. The blade appears wider and has a more gentle sweep up to the tip. The tip is very thin.
Too bad the sale didn't last longer. At these prices the knifes were worthwhile.
Jay