About a month or two ago I had the same itch. I ended up with a 7.5 sun (228mm) HG gyuto. When I first received the knife I was a little disappointed. It was all the usual things I knew about Murray's knives, the handle sucked, the spine and choil weren't rounded, the finish wasn't awesome. Then I started using the knife and I was blown away by its performance, it is a cutting machine. It lasers though even the hardest of vegetables i.e. acorn squash, with no wedging. There is almost no resistance when the tip enters an onion for horizontal cuts. Since the F&F aren't perfect, I think psychologically I am more comfortable with giving the knife harder use. I haven't experienced any chipping and the blade seems to have little flex, considering it's the thinnest knife I own, I think it's 1.4mm at the stamp. I've sharpened it once since I've had it and to quote Justin, it's like sharpening with all the cheat codes turned on. It gets scary sharp in no time at all. If you want a knife you can maintain at near 100% with almost no effort, Murray's white no.1 is for you. As far as edge retention goes, I can't tell the difference between my Carter in white no.1 and my Konosuke Fujiyama in white no.1. If you've got the itch, you need to scratch it.