Received the Wakui 270 (actually 276mm straight line from heel to tip) yesterday and used it on dinner last night. What a diamond in the rough! This blade is really impressive, and stunning for the price. Threw carrots, peppers, avocado, tomato...bunch of veg at it, and it cut soooo well. No wedging. (I had Bernal sharpen before shipping...it was tomato-ready when it arrived!)
The edge profile is interesting - not much of a flat spot at all...sweeping gentle curve from the heel to the very thin and sharp tip. I guess that would make it a real nice rocker, but I was mostly push cutting last night with great results. Came out of the box with a shiny edge and within an hour of chopping had already acquired significant patina on the edge...very reactive (white #2)!
At $228 USD this is an outright steal.
But the handle...lol. What can I say? I wanted the stock octagonal handle because (a) I'm a lefty, and (b) I did not want to pay the upcharge for the right-handed D-shaped handle offered by the retailer. So the stock handle is a very large (bigger than any other handle on any knife I own) octagonal ho (magnolia) handle with a nice horn ferrule. The wood is kind of bad from an aesthetic perspective (my opinion...yours may differ). The size I like (I have big hands). But that wood looked ash grey right out of the box. I strongly suspect, based on the superb quality of this blade, that this one will be getting a handle upgrade soon. The ferrule is quite nice. But the join between the wood and the horn is not as smooth as one might like...you can feel the "lip" the whole way around...not that much, but it is there.
I want to thank everyone on KKF who recommended this knife. I never would have known about it otherwise. I think it is a real gem!
Cheers,
Blair