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