Sakon damascus?

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James

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Does anyone have any experience with these knives? I keep seeing them on EE's cyber monday sale and haha at first glance, they look a bit tempting. The damascus looks absolutely stunning, but some reviews say that it's a bit thick/oddly balanced/geometry sucks. JWW and **** claim that the steel is skd11 so it should be up there with yoshikane in edge retention.

Knife in question:
http://www.epicedge.com/shopexd.asp?id=83786
 
been wondering the same thing, havent seen one in person.
 
hmm google yields some pictures of it. The pattern is a bit more subtle in natural light. It's the leftmost one in this picture (Credits to sevenrd from FF)
0357c034.jpg


Can't find any choil shots unfortunately.
 
I used one for about a year, It is thick and not a laser, it is a work horse. Once it has been thin it glides through food no problem. The core goes all the way through from spine to edge. I had Dave thin, sharpen and reetch it for one of my cooks and he did an amazing job. He said it is one of the only knives that actually scared him when he sharpened it and it took part of his finger. (Dave that is) I was going to pick up one so, I could get in on Dave' reetch deal but, missed out. Then they went on sale at over $100 off. I couldn't pass up on it. I'm starting to realize I like weight to my knives. This one is heavy but, it's a cutter. I blew my budget and got the 10 1/4 and the 8 1/2 for about the same price as the 10 1/2 before the sale. essentially, I got a free knife. Go for it.
 
I cant give my thumbs up to this one. i have it and it still sits as an "early purchase" reminder of my knife days. Its not a Yoshikane. the yoshi is thicker than most, its clad but there is something to a Yoshi that redeemes it from these minor downfalls. maybee its the taper, maybee its the edge retention, IDK. The Sakon cladded damascus is not worth owning. The steel WILL get very sharp. however it has a very poor taper, there is nothing resembling a distal taper, i would put the spine at 2.5mm over the heel, maybee 3mm max. and then it just gradually goes down to the tip. it will wedge, split and poorly dice an onion. i dont mean to be agressive in my opinions its just a poor knife over all. i would recomend a Shun over a Sakon damascus. At least the Shun would dice an onion. it has to be the one knife in all my time that i just cant tell people to even spend the money on. and it does have a price tag to it. I'll start the list of other knives for the money you should buy before this one. Start with the Yoshikane, its wonderfull. the list goes from there. but NOT the sakon
 
when did you buy the Sakon? Before they made changes to the core and a few minor geometry adjustments?. Perhaps, you just got a bad one or an early version before the improvements, It happens sometimes. I know the early days the knife had a lot of issues with bad geometry, wedging and no distal taper. The one I gave my cook was definitely not like that. The one I had was by no means a magnificent knife but, once Dave thinned it and tuned it for me it became a regular beast in the kitchen. No wedging issues and great edge retention. I got about a week in the kitchen, before needing to hit the stones and only a few passes were needed. That skd11 works great. I agree it isn't a Yoshikane but, for a $140 it's not a bad deal.
 
^^^ I did purchase mine almost .... 8 years ago. ? certainly more than 6 years. im trying to pin point the exact time but thats about when i got mine. it was litterally my first upgrade from german knives, then i went to yoshikane. and back then i paid WELL over 150$ for the 240 gyuto. but my 210 Yoshi was under 150$! so yeah. if they have made improvements its possible its a great knife. mine is prolly one of the Originals and my POV a little jadded.
 
Well I skipped out on the knife for this year, but I may consider picking one up next year! I'm stilling dealing with my Takagi and I don't think I could handle two knives that need a decent amount of work to improve their performance.
 
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