Zwilling - Diplôme Santoku 7" / 180 mm
190 / 180 / 49 / 2 / <1 / -20 / 204g
https://www.cookstore.ca/ 135$ CAD (pricematched during BF, usually 170-210$ CAD)
Blade length / Edge length / Height / Thickness (heel) / Thickness (tip) / Balance (Chin = 0) / Weight
In mm; all measures are first hand; balance (also in mm) is either forward the blade (+) or backward to the handle (-) where 0 was arbitrarily positioned to the chin as I find it to be a point anyone can easily relate to from the knives they have experience with - for example when comparing traditional Western handles vs. traditional Japanese handles if one never experienced the former or the latter.
Let's start this with the obvious from specs to anyone, and obvious for me from my own experience: this knife is really on the heavy side, and backward heavy to make it somewhat worse still.
Acquired at the same time as the Diplôme Chef - it was the only way to get the full price match because the Chef wasn't stock with the vendor with the better price, but the Santoku was. I wasn't against getting the Santoku too, I was quite fond of these back then and this one seemed excellent. Bargained for both and got the Chef at the same price. And I cannot say I regret the purchase of the two neither. But...
Ok let's get to it. The Diplôme Santoku has been one of my favorite knives yet - despite my growing carelessness about any Santoku profile, and despite the weight. Also, one of my worst experience buying a knife - it came in with a series of dark spots on the blade that never disappeared despite washing with vinegar, washing with sodium bicarbonate, and a good rub (on one side only) with a rust eraser. This one took a toll on finish, and adding an accident in a drawer (don't ask) it is now badly scarred against the grain too. There's nothing really aggravating there, just irksome. The dark stains, mostly on the Zwilling engraved side, never truly disappeared. The stains are nowhere big enough or dark enough to show in normal pictures, but they're there. The Chef had a mild case of these, which faded mostly upon cutting food, but subjecting the Santoku to the same foods didn't help much with the more ingrained stains. I'm still with Zwilling upon exchanging this, I sent pictures of the problem before the rust eraser and drawer accident episodes. The COVID and other events made me store the claim away for awhile, as well as a more or less defined project to grind the handle of this one unit. The truth is I would try the Miyabi version of this Santoku to see about weight and balance, but exchanging against the very same Diplôme wouldn't take away my desire to grind the handle. We'll see...
Why it's one of my favorite knives? Well, it's a powerful rock chopper on the shorter side, a wonderful tap chopper too, and a fine push cutter. It keeps an edge just like its Chef counterpart, and the drop down tip is highly usable, even more so in some cases than any pointier Chef's tip. I once loved Santokus; then I envisioned them as a utility/veggies knife; now I don't care about them much. But this one is a real helper alongside a Chef I want to treat more respectfully (these just seem to grow in number...); it does all the dirty jobs, can do mighty fine jobs too, is stainless steel (yeah, well...) and already stained with a messed up finish on one side so I really just don't care now to let it sit indefinitely in less desirable circumstances. It has become the #1 answer to all things I don't want to do with most of my other knives, and outstrips the Victorinox Santoku as such a tool in so many ways for twice the price that it makes it worth its price - well, bargained price. It's also the knife that taught me not to care so much about how it looks, making me at peace in advance with buying carbon steel like the Misono and looking at it stain and patina almost on the spot with delight. Only the weight... only the weight.
It's weird that a very similar weight and balance don't bother me so much with the Diplôme Chef, but does with the Santoku. Perhaps that's the one thing the Victorinox gave me that I found the most rewarding: lightness and forward balance. And there's no way in the world the Zwilling will lose half its weight and shift forward 1.5 inches in balance - short of turning it into a letter opener I guess. That just won't happen... However, I did say I like this one Santoku more. The heft isn't all against it. I'm thinking rounding the butt of the handle would remove what... surely, 10-15 grams on the whole, perhaps more if I shorten it a bit more on my way... make the balance shift forwards like what, 5-10 mm more or less. That could just about put it right in the awesome category of how I use it, and how I feel about it.
Here's some food: a fine mince of garlic (still sticking to the blade), a tap chop of garlic (the other pile) and a rock chop of shallot. Could also have smashed, squashed and cross chop that garlic to a pulp - the Santoku excels at that. Did that and many other things a great number of times on cheap bamboo boards just like its Chef counterpart did. This steel has excellent resistance and edge retention. The Santoku has what, 40-50 hours of use at most, but the Chef has done at least twice this amount of prep without dulling - albeit I've been a bit more gentle towards it most of the time. Both will still slice any kind of newspaper and print paper like there's nothing there. What's more, this Santoku can slice fatty proteins (uncooked bacon for example) mighty fine, if perhaps not the best profile I've used to do so. It is also on the taller side of Santokus which is an advantage. Food sticks to it the same way it does with the Chef, but the taller blade allows it not to be overwhelmed with sticking mince so quickly, and to some extent some of it will dislodge by itself in further cuts before it gets annoying.
The box - nothing high quality, but the only knives I've got that were protected with foam, making for a nice package.
Pro: excellent edge resistance and edge retention, short powerhouse with high versatility
Meh: can it be even more heavy than the Chef... yes it can
Con: a lot of good knives - not Santokus - can be bought for its bargain price, and even more so at its normal discount price.
Bottom line: as I said for the Chef, I'm one of those that isn't put off by weight and backward balance all that much: they are not desirable characteristics I would search for now that I've tried lighter/better balanced knives, but not bothering me so much neither. The Santoku, however, should be a good deal lighter than the corresponding Chef in my definition of what makes a Santoku great. Add the price to that, and value gets on the worse side - which is sad considering the great qualities this knife (and the Chef) has.
Performance (OOTB): 4.5/5 (and keeps it right there)
Experience: 3.5/5 (yep, add the excessive weight for a Santoku to the stain problem and it takes a drop compared to the Chef)
F&F: 4.5/5
Value: 1.5/5 (yep... I may love it, but wouldn't advise it to anyone compared to like a hundred better options at least - buying a more versatile chef, or a more dedicated Nakiri, etc...)
Overall: 7/10